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Subcontinental Drift: Guest of Dishonor
General Musharraf probably wishes he had stayed home
By APARISIM GHOSH
March 30, 2000
Web posted at 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 1:30 a.m. EST
Poor, poor Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistani dictator has had a very
frustrating fortnight. First, he saw an old ally growing very chummy
with an even older enemy: the PR success of U.S. President Bill Clinton's
tour of India set dentures gnashing in Islamabad. Then, Clinton dropped
in on Pakistan just long enough to scold its generals for stunting
the growth of democracy and for their support of militant Islamic
groups operating in Indian-held Kashmir.
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But the zinger came this week, on the first leg of his four-nation
tour of Southeast Asia: in Kuala Lumpur, General Musharraf had to
endure a sermon on democracy and justice from, of all people, Mahathir
Mohamad! Never wanting in gall, the Malaysian Prime Minister told
his visitor that democracy, for all its flaws, is the best form of
government. (Mahathir, remember, has never found it necessary to preach
that line to his neighbors--the dictatorship in Cambodia, the communist
regimes in Vietnam and Laos or even to Musharraf's soul brothers,
the military junta in Burma.
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Mahathir is also reported to have expressed the "hope" that Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf deposed, would get a fair
trial. It's not known if he offered the services of the government
lawyers prosecuting his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, to advise Islamabad
on the conduct of fair trials.
Then, adding insult to injury, Malaysia's Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid,
let it be known that Musharraf's visit had taken place at Pakistan's
insistence, and that the dictator had not been invited to Kuala Lumpur.
Ouch!
If the general's recent run of poor luck holds through the remaining
legs of his tour, he will be (a) lectured in Singapore on the loving
treatment of opposition parties, (b) advised in Indonesia on preserving
sectarian and religious harmony, and (c) counseled in Brunei on curbing
corruption and the importance of elections.
Poor, poor Pervez Musharraf.
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