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Subcontinental Drift: Year of the General, Part Two
In which I offer (faint) praise of Pakistan's dictator
By APARISIM GHOSH
October
18, 2000
Web posted at 3:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 3:00 a.m. EDT
Last week, I promised to dedicate this column to a listing of the good deeds of
Pervez Musharraf in the 12 months since he grabbed power. Since then I've done
extensive reading of political commentary from Pakistan, I've spoken with
Pakistani friends, inside and outside the country, and I've done some long, hard
thinking of my own -- and still my list remains stuck on a single entry. And
it's not something's he's done, but something he hasn't: he hasn't gagged the
Pakistani press.
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ASIA BUZZ
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Subcontinental Drift: Year of the General, Part One
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ASIAWEEK
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This is no small concession. It is customary for military despots everywhere to
begin their reign by clamping down on the media -- booting (or shooting)
inconvenient journalists and installing puppets in their place. That Musharraf
has allowed the Pakistani press to go about business as usual is very unusual
indeed.
INTERACTIVE
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Now for the caveats. The Pakistani press has always been reluctant to train its
guns at the military. Quick to criticize former Prime Ministers Mohammed Nawaz
Sharif and Benazir Bhutto for the venality of their regimes, the country's
mainstream newspapers have shied away from investigating corruption in the
barracks. Most Pakistanis will tell you that the military brass is tarnished,
but few journalists dare to look too closely at the greased palms in uniform.
Like much of the country, the press was also generally welcoming of the coup
that brought Musharraf to power. Few commentators shed any tears for the passing
of democracy; in general, they agreed that the military might be able to clean
up the mess that is Pakistani politics. You can understand, then, why the
dictator could afford toward be magnanimous to the media.
But the general's mood may be changing. Just as many Pakistanis are losing their
patience with Musharraf, the press is losing its inhibitions about attacking his
regime. The major newspapers are beginning to hold the dictator to his promises
of quick reform and are joining the international media in pointing out that he
has failed to deliver. As commentators grow increasingly sharper in their
criticisms, will the general remain genial -- or will he, like so many before
him, decide that a free press is too much of a nuisance?
Perhaps the journalists at Dawn know the answer to that question. Recently, the
venerable Karachi daily -- easily Pakistan's best -- reported that the
government was planning to curb press freedom. In the time-honored traditions of
junta rule, the regime dispatched a team of army inspectors to the offices of
the newspaper. Nobody was arrested or roughed up, but the message from Musharraf
could not have been clearer.
Hmmm. Maybe that "Good Deeds" list should have only half an entry. Unless, that
is, the dictator has been helping little old ladies to cross the street...
The Subcontinental Drift message board -- sound-off about the news
in South Asia to TIME
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