Senin, 02 Juni 2008

Book review: 'In the Line of fire' a Memoir by Parvez Musharraf

Vainglorious Musharraf puts America first in his quest for power

It is unprecedented for a sitting head of state to divulge their memoirs and considering Musharraf has monopolized Pakistan's highest seat by weakening all possible opposition the motivation for writing his memoirs before retirement raises a number of questions. Heads of state usually hold off publishing memoirs until they have left office behind and are unfettered by diplomatic niceties. As any Pakistani and now every US senator will tell you, his life in the helm since his coup in 1999 has been anything but eventful. This book is his meek, but ultimately feeble, justification for his actions and existence in power.



His choice of title for his book, "In the Line of Fire," demonstrates the audience he is targeting. In American popular media the phrase is tied with the Clint Eastwood Hollywood film about a US secret service agent taking a bullet in the chest to save the President. The American public responded in kind, his book became a best seller. However, in the Urdu translation, the one sold in Pakistan had the title changed to "Sab say pehlay Pakistan" ("Pakistan First"). The change of title sums up his dilemma, how do you serve American foreign policy yet sound like you are doing it in the interests of your people?

Musharraf outlines a complete history prior to his coup of a Pakistan in the grip of insincere and incompetent rulers, who never put Pakistan first but only had their own interests or their family’s interests in mind. He sums up the period from 1985 – 1998 as the dreadful decade; his description lays the justification for when he decided to carry out his coup. He has littered the book with one-liners expressing himself as a great leader and savior of Pakistan. In doing so the book descends to laughable limits with numerous inaccuracies, such as the Kargil conflict.

The Kargil debacle of 1999 is blamed completely upon Nawaz Sharif. In fact Musharraf was closely involved in turning a quick Pakistan victory into an ignominious defeat. The push into the Kargil, which is a strategic location high in the mountains on the Indian side of the LOC, represented a key element of the Kashmir struggle which was being led by a number of liberation forces alongside the Pakistani army. This venture sent shock waves in India resulting in fighter jets being scampered and a backlash against the Indian premier Vajpayee by his BJP supporters. Fearing defeat at the next elections the US intervened straight away to prevent further losses. President Clinton ordered Pakistan to pull their troops back and it was General Musharraf, leader of the forces, who executed the act. Hence pulling Pakistani troops back from the strategic heights of Kargil was a deliberate US attempt and Musharraf the leader of the armed forces who executed it. Consequently all the blame was levelled at Nawaz Sharif and Kargil was used as an emotional pretext to remove him from power. In reality America had set up the stage for Musharraf’s coup.

Musharraf attempts to justify his coup as something he never wished for but that was forced upon him due to the insincere leadership of Nawaz Sharif. He mentions that many people warned Sharif that he was planning a coup and all this culminated in the infamous incident where his plane was refused permission to land in Karachi, during this time a new General of the Army was announced to the People of Pakistan. He explains that his army due to the embarrassment of Kargil refused to carry out orders and undertook to remove Nawaz Sharif from power, ensuring his plane landed safely. The coup, he alleges, was carried out in three hours with him unaware of such actions until he was handed the reigns of power.

By contrast, numerous reports clearly prove such a narrative untrue. Army insiders have explained plans were in place for Musharraf to take over and recently General Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani secret service, exposed the US support for a Musharraf takeover. The Kargil affair simply laid the ground for the Musharraf coup.

The chapter on the War on Terror contains a number of illuminating points. Indeed, Pakistan's unstinting support for America's War on Terror is perhaps the lasting legacy of the Musharraf era. Musharraf outlines the support Pakistan gave to the emergence of the Taliban as they were the lesser of two evils, Musharraf continually describes the Taliban as 'them' rather then 'us' considering the close ties between the Taliban and Islamabad. He proudly boasts of the fact that his army has captured over 672 'terrorists' and handed over half of them to the US. Again there are a number of inconsistencies with his narrative on the War on Terror. It was Musharraf who gave the US unstinting support before even being ordered and he needed no convincing.

The most glaring contradiction in the book is the fact that Musharraf chastises Nawaz Sharif's regime for following American diktat over the Kargil affair, yet in siding with America's attack on Afghanistan after the US administration threatened to "bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age" he does exactly the same thing. Moreover, the strategic and geopolitical position of Pakistan at present due to his policies has never been so perilous. His slavish support of the US has resulted in the loss of billions to the economy through the war in Afghanistan; the unprecedented deployment of Pakistani soldiers to fight fellow Muslims in the tribal areas, the strengthening of Indian influence in Afghanistan and the loss of autonomy with the establishment of US forces and FBI bases within Pakistan territory. His actions in regards to his support to the war on terror do nothing to counteract the common term of 'Busharraf' to describe the two leaders’ common axis. He is certainly not following a Pakistan first policy. His actions are now clear for all to see, hence many sections of the book are presented as his rationale for doing America’s bidding but none of these stand up when scrutinized against the events.

This book needs to be understood within the context it was written. Musharraf has very little support at home and abroad and many people are questioning Pakistan in terms of their commitment to global terror. For this reason many facts and half facts are spiced up. His memoirs are effectively a poor public relations exercise to cover up monumental disasters in blindly following America in the hope that a hostile public will forgive and forget. Even to the end, he continues to live in a fantasy world believing that he will attain his place in history. Perhaps he will but for the very wrong reasons. After reading the book one is left to ask the question, is Musharraf a sincere puppet of America with no dignity of his own or is he a fantasist, fooling himself into believing he really is doing his actions for Pakistan’s supreme interests. This would be too kind to him – history will see him as another traitor to the people of Pakistan and their legitimate struggles. It is time we had leaders in the Muslim world that put Muslims first – not the interests of outside powers.