And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
William Shakespeare
The way Gen. Musharraf has acted up and spewed venom all over, on his recent visit to the west, is, to say the least, embarrassing.
First, he termed what the Los Angeles Times called “a shameless ploy to sell books” an official visit and used state resources to promote his memoir.
Then, he successfully managed to bad-mouth his countrymen including his “national hero” and annoy, irk and vex every single person or country he ever came across in his professional and unprofessional life – with the notable exceptions of his book’s American publisher, and any military personnel, previous or present, and no doubt Bush.
He lobed the first verbal bomb at Richard Armitage, former US Assistant Secretary of State (who has been writing op-ed columns to urge the West to keep Musharraf on its side in the war of terror). He blamed him for rudely threatening him through former chief of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, General Mahmood Alam, to “bomb Pakistan back to stone age” if he did not join in the US war of terror.
It is interesting to note that he had succumbed, in 2001, without even a whimper. He had made the required volte face and had claimed that there was no pressure on him to change his Qiblah (direction of his face when worshiping). Now he is saying the threat was rude and he felt insulted. (President Bush said he is not aware of his country making such a threat to Pakistan and Armitage has denied the remarks attributed to him.)
That controversial disclosure was though good for his book but it was bad for his own image and for the image of Pakistan. It was also a breach of his oath as president and sitting Chief of Army Staff that he had divulged a state secret he was supposed to safeguard.
But why should he care about these little things as long he is raking in dollars.
He claimed he was/is making money some other ways too: he had become a swashbuckling bounty hunter and was kidnapping his country-men and foreigners in Pakistan and selling them into American captivity for millions of dollars. “We have captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties totaling millions of dollars,” he says in his book.
He also spilled beans on another highly sensitive issue: security. He has said that Pakistan’s nuclear program was not fully operational in 1999 during the Kargil conflict.
He also sowed the seeds of potentially dangerous repercussions for Pakistan regarding nuclear issue. The New York Times has already started linking North Korean, Iranian and Libyan nuclear issues with Pakistan’s nuclear scientists and government. It says that, “he has admitted ‘that he now believes that the equipment sent to North Korea several years ago by Pakistan’s nuclear chief included some of Pakistan’s most technologically advanced nuclear centrifuges’”.
The paper further says: “In it (his book), he says for the first time that his suspicions about the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear engineer who built an illicit nuclear network that also supplied Iran and Libya, dated from 1999".
Then the said newspaper lays the blame saying that: “But Mr. Musharraf, who took over as president in 1999 in a coup, apparently never shared his suspicions with the United States…. Mr. Musharraf denies in the book that any senior Pakistani officials, himself included, knew about Dr. Khan’s illicit activities. He never explains how Dr. Khan was able to fly his goods to North Korea and Iran on Pakistani military aircraft”.
Then the paper quotes an American intelligence official saying: “It’s a significant admission, since the Pakistanis spent years denying that there was any evidence of dealings with North Korea and telling us, ‘No problem here.’”.
His admission is a mea culpa.
Then he taunted the Canadians for “whining” because they had lost some of their men in war in Afghanistan (while he had lost more than 500 cheap lives of Pakistani soldiers without any compunction). Canada has protested.
Then he pounced on the neighbors of Pakistan starting with Afghanistan and said about Karzai that "he doesn't understand Afghanistan". Musharraf also accused him of "concerned more about himself than about Afghanistan". He called Karzai an ostrich who had "his head buried in the sand”.(During Musharraf’s US visit an American official in Kabul also leaked the news that Taliban attacks in southern Afghanistan have increased threefold since Pakistan's deal with the tribes.)
Bharat was next of his targets. He degraded the former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in his book. He made a startling claim about the 1999 Kargil war that it was sparked by the Bharati army which wanted to capture Pakistani territory. He also taunted India for losing Kargil war and lauded Pakistani army for the "landmark" performance in that conflict.
India's former national security advisor, Brajesh Mishra bitterly reacted and called his claims “a pack of lies”. He said about Musharraf that: “he attacked us and then lost. That's the reality”.
It is ironical that he has renewed this controversy over the Kargil conflict at a time when only a week ago the two countries had decided, in Havana, to resume the suspended peace talks and pledged to work together to resolve all their disputes, including Kashmir. They had also decided to set up a joint mechanism to fight terrorism. His antics put in jeopardy the prevailing positive mood for dialogue between the two nations.
From his tantrums you would think he has gone mad and has started flaunting his failures with fanfare. But no, he is just feigning madness. There is method in his madness.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
But why is he doing it?
He says that he is doing all this because: "I thought that because of the world looking at me inquisitively, personally, I thought through me I could project the reality of Pakistan and what Pakistan stands for and clear all the misconceptions."
I believe, the reason he has created all this ugly commotion is that he has lost control. His popularity, by his own admission, has hit the rock bottom and he has been thoroughly discredited. The opposition parties are up in arms. Balochistan is boiling. Corruption, crimes, lawlessness are running roughshod. The country is at the verge of chaos and the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) is supporting terrorists as the official British intelligence report claims. Everyone was losing patience with him including President Bush.
He wanted to generate a sense of relief in the west that he was the only bulwark in Pakistan against the growing forces of terrorism. If he is not there chaos will prevail. So, the West has no choice but him. He is also telling everyone: stay away from me. I am dangerous and will hurt you if you come close. Don’t put pressure on me because I have screwed everything.
He is making it politically difficult for Bush and other western leaders to exert any real pressure on him for his killing of Bugti, not doffing the uniform, kidnapping and torturing his critics in politics or media, embracing JUI, making a deal with Taliban in North Waziristan. Not only that, they will be unable to pressure him for holding fair elections and keeping the leaders of the mainstream political parties out of the upcoming elections and whatever else he has up his sleeve for future.
Bush has taken the bait – for now. Because he knows he has gotten a lot out of him but still can squeeze him for some more. He is spending 70 to 80 million dollars a month to keep his body in one piece so he keeps on producing desired results a la cart.
God save Pakistan from this mad general!
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