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For Musharraf, the irony could not have been starker: he had set out on the European jaunt to “correct” the image of Pakistan but, by the time it ended, it had been further soiled.
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“The temperature is rather warm…or is it just that I am talking.”
— Musharraf, while wiping his face with a handkerchief during a tête-à-tête with reporters in Brussels
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf’s candour and media-savvy skills — as a bevy of Indian newspaper editors and television moguls at Agra or as successive editorial boards of New York Times and Washington Post in the Capitol Hill would testify -- was once a given.
But it has been waning for some time now. The familiar “yes, sir” and “no, sir” address in deference to mediapersons — mostly foreigners — accompanied with a charming smile is now regularly and piquantly replaced with an embarrassing “you people” condescension.
He has also got into raucous verbals — exclusive to media persons from his own country and other inquisitive compatriots, who have dared challenge his wisdom on issues as diverse as women’s rights (remember the rather chauvinistic claim about “women getting raped in order to have Canadian visa”?) to how a most wanted terrorist like Rashid Rauf escapes the clutches of his regime’s gate-keepers.
In short, the recently retired General Musharraf is becoming an embarrassment for Pakistan and his own person, with profound irony at play, given that he never tires of exhorting his compatriots to promote a soft image of the country.
Last week, at London’s Royal United Services Institute for Security and Defence Studies (RUSI), Musharraf lost his temper when a senior Pakistani journalist and a former Dawn editor, Mohammad Ziauddin, asked him a perfectly valid question.
He asked how the president could make the Western people and media believe in his statements about the performance of army and intelligence agencies in tackling terrorism when a most wanted terrorist Rashid Rauf could slip out in a very bizarre manner from the hands of law-enforcement agencies.
In a shocking rejoinder, Musharraf reportedly, asked the Pakistani community to “deal with” such “anti-Pakistani elements” — the implication was physical force.
This is how David Blair, the diplomatic editor of Daily Telegraph, described the exchange but before that, an encapsulation of how Musharraf is viewed largely in the Western media:
“Whatever you might think of President Pervez Musharraf, you have to admit he’s a good performer. Whenever I have seen him deliver a speech or stage a press conference, I have been struck by his self confidence and easy, jocular manner.
“But very occasionally, the mask slips. I have just come from the Royal United Services Institute for Security and Defence Studies (RUSI) on Whitehall, where Musharraf was speaking. For almost the entire occasion, he was his usual charming self”.
“Then a Pakistani journalist, Mohammed Ziauddin, asked a perfectly reasonable question about how a prominent suspected terrorist, Rashid Rauf, had somehow escaped the custody of Musharraf's security forces. As soon as Ziauddin rose to ask his question, Musharraf visibly bristled. Instantly, his demeanour changed from being relaxed and confident to tense and hostile.
“Musharraf promptly accused Ziauddin of “casting aspersions” and “undermining our forces and your own country”. In a brief but furious tirade, he questioned Ziauddin’s patriotism and professionalism.
“This response to an entirely reasonable query spoke volumes about Musharraf. He will question the patriotism of any Pakistani critic — betraying his essential intolerance of dissent”, Blair concluded.
Musharraf also dismissed a question from Sky News about whether the election would be fair by saying: “Show me a certificate and I'll sign it.”
Earlier on a round trip that also saw him drop anchor at Davos for the World Economic Forum, Musharraf’s performance left many dazed about his narrow view of democracy and human rights, when he repeatedly questioned Western perceptions, saying that it (West) was too “obsessed” with democracy and human rights.
His arguments that Europe had taken centuries to arriving at the gates of true democracy and attaining civil rights and therefore, Pakistan, which he argued had feudal and tribal setup of longstanding, should be allowed time to reach where they stood, invited no small ridicule.
The common thread in questioning Musharraf’s lopsided approach was why did Pakistan have to wait for the bare minimum goals that earn a state respectable standing in the comity of nations.
Almost every Pakistani daily of recognition editorially questioned the insistence of the president, which was seen both as contradictory to the much-hyped transition to democracy and being a source of embarrassment to the country, given the reach and impact of the sound bytes globally.
In fact, so untenable was the argument that even a usually sedate (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice bristled: “Should one be obsessive about the right of people to live in freedom? May be so.”
Musharraf’s European tour that concluded with a round trip to London was primarily aimed at shoring up his increasingly sagging image as the right man in the right place to usher in a transition to democracy as well as fight terrorism.
However, the general perception is that despite the well-rehearsed talkathons, Musharraf only ended up betraying his weakening hold on power and as a man, who has almost run out of ideas to stay relevant to Pakistan’s future.
Musharraf’s verbal onslaught at a respected journalist at RUSI is unlikely to go away in a hurry, with both Pakistani and British media up in arms. In fact, local student leaders in Britain have threatened to move the British justice system by accusing the Pakistani president of inciting the Pakistani community to violence when he told the gathering that such anti-Pakistani elements (like Ziauddin) “must be dealt with”.
Musharraf’s trip to the UK drew protests outside Downing Street at the weekend, with a group of demonstrators declaring the visit ‘shameful’. The demonstration, organized by Amnesty International, lawyers and human rights activists, called on Brown to tackle the president over human right abuses.
“Our team has just come back from Pakistan and they have revealed a country heading towards a political crisis,” said Amnesty’s UK director Kate Allen before adding that “political violence is on the rise, detention without trial and enforced disappearances are becoming commonplace.”
For Musharraf, the irony could not have been starker: he had set out on the European jaunt to “correct” the image of Pakistan but, by the time it ended, it had been further soiled.
