Posted by Sigismund on February 3, 2008, at 17:15:25
In reply to Electoral Anxieties, posted by Sigismund on January 12, 2008, at 2:23:38
Perhaps this is a subject difficult to talk about within the civilty rules?
None the less it is interesting, if only because it's how wars start.
Let's consider a country at the edge of empire, Pakistan.
Here is how Musharraff talks to his constituents........
"In the evening of that first day, and after several delays, a flustered General Musharraf, his hair badly dyed, appeared on TV, trying to look like the sort of leader who wants it understood that the political crisis is to be discussed with gravity and sangfroid. Instead, he came across as a dumbed down dictator fearful for his own political future. His performance as he broadcast to the nation, first in Urdu and then in English, was incoherent. The gist was simple: he had to act because the Supreme Court had so demoralised our state agencies that we cant fight the war on terror and the TV networks had become totally irresponsible. I have imposed emergency, he said halfway through his diatribe, adding, with a contemptuous gesture: You must have seen it on TV. Was he being sarcastic, given that most channels had been shut down? Who knows? Mohammed Hanif, the sharp-witted head of the BBCs Urdu Service, which monitored the broadcast, confessed himself flummoxed when he wrote up what he heard. He had no doubt that the Urdu version of the speech was the generals own work. Hanifs deconstruction he quoted the general in Urdu and in English deserved a broadcast all of its own:"Here are some random things he said. And trust me, these things were said quite randomly. Yes, he did say: Extremism bahut extreme ho gaya hai [extremism has become too extreme] . . . Nobody is scared of us anymore . . . Islamabad is full of extremists . . . There is a government within government . . . Officials are being asked to the courts . . . Officials are being insulted by the judiciary.
"At one point he appeared wistful when reminiscing about his first three years in power: I had total control. You were almost tempted to ask: What happened then, uncle? But obviously, uncle didnt need any prompting. He launched into his routine about three stages of democracy. He claimed he was about to launch the third and final phase of democracy (the way he said it, he managed to make it sound like the Final Solution). And just when you thought he was about to make his point, he took an abrupt turn and plunged into a deep pool of self-pity. This involved a long-winded anecdote about how the Supreme Court judges would rather attend a colleagues daughters wedding than just get it over with and decide that he is a constitutional president . . . I have heard some dictators speeches in my life, but nobody has gone so far as to mention someones daughters wedding as a reason for imposing martial law on the country.
"When for the last few minutes of his speech he addressed his audience in the West in English, I suddenly felt a deep sense of humiliation. This part of his speech was scripted. Sentences began and ended. I felt humiliated that my president not only thinks that we are not evolved enough for things like democracy and human rights, but that we cant even handle proper syntax and grammar."
poster:Sigismund
thread:805865
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20070708/msgs/810587.html