Of Dictators and Dissent

Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don’t. Why should we?
- Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles in the film “The Third Man” (1949)

Two enfolding foreign events are happening as I type this. They are seemingly unrelated but equally abhorrent to me. Their seeds had been growing for many years, yet both seem to be germinating within days of each other. Unrelated in perhaps quantitative terms, yet they both elicit the same amount of fury and indignation from I. Dictators, despots, tyrants, call them what you will, but they are one and the same: the worst of beings. Those who were blessed with power, influence and indeed intelligence, but who chose to use their gifts for mass suffering and corruption. Though of all their faults, the sin of Vanity is their ultimate demise, as it is with so many people of political power.

Robert Mugabe and Pervez Musharraf, Presidents of Zimbabwe and Pakistan respectively, have probably never met. I’m not sure quite myself. Yet what a grand conversation they would have if one of them decided to give the other a call today.

Mugabe, improbably 83 years old, has been running Zimbabwe for twenty-seven years now. I say improbably because while he has managed to live to an age even most of us healthy Canadians may not get to, his people won’t. According to the World Health Organization they have a life expectancy of 34. That means most college students would be well over the hill if they happened to be born in Zimbabwe. Just ten years ago, it was 63. Inflation in the country is estimated to be somewhere north of 1000%. A loaf of bread costs the average Zimbabwean $80,000 in their currency. Dysentery and cholera are rampant in the capital of Harare, because their tap water is drawn from a source downstream from their sewer outlets. Unemployment hovers around 70%.

Yet Mr. Mugabe hardly thinks his government, nor God forbid himself, ought to take any responsibility. According to him, it’s the foreigners who are responsible. Blame it on the Brits, or the Americans, whichever, he says.

President-General Musharraf, who rose to power in a coup d’etat back in 1999, has ruled Pakistan since. He’s been courted by all the bosses of the world establishment. In a whirlwind tour at one point, the man met with, in succession: Jacques Chirac of France, Gerhard Schroder of Germany, Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and George W. Bush of the United States. Next time you are planning a visit, see if you can make an appointment with any one of these men’s secretaries.

Musharraf’s great contribution to intellectual debate has been his promotion of the doctrine of “enlightened moderation,” Newspeak meaning some sort of balancing of hardline religious extremists and Western secularism. His country has been going nowhere fast pretty much since its independence in 1947. No Pakistani Prime Minister has managed to complete a term in office without being deposed, shot, hanged or experiencing some other gruesome fate. An old joke about Pakistan says that while most countries rule an army, here is one where an army rules a country. For it is the Pakistan Army that truly pulls the strings in that nation. The rest of the pretend government is not much more than an illusion, and a bad one at that.

Recently though, both dictators have managed to get themselves in a bind. Mugabe, in typically thuggish style, had police first arrest, then beat opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The assault left him with a fractured skull. Mugabe has also made threats against anyone else who objects to his rule. The country has since been plunged into the brink of emergency as opponents have taken the incident as the last straw in the series of Mugabe’s disgraces. Rebellion has begun.

Musharraf, in a drunken state of hubris, decided that he just did not like Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Iftikhar M. Chaudhry and decided to not only oust him from his seat (an unconstitutional act in itself) but also place him and his family under house arrest. His phonelines, both land and mobile, were blocked, as were his television and newspaper services. Reaction was swift from the country’s lawyers, of all people, who united, and despite facing savage opposition from police shock troops, went on strike and took to the streets.

Both countries are now in the midst of upheaval. On its face, revolt and political protest of this nature can be ugly. But underneath the surface, there is something rather beautiful and indeed, sacred. In even the dark corners of the Earth where the dawn of justice and popular will has not broken, there are those who would risk life, limb and property, without guarantee of success, to do what is right. To fight the best fight human beings can fight; that is, against tyranny and oppression.

Islam, to take an example of the major religions, forbids violent action against even an unjust government. Yet when that government begins to oppress, it has a crossed a line that unfortunately only action can restore. These two men have crossed that line.

=//Turnquest