In Pakistan, the floodwaters continue to advance, and in their wake they are leaving behind angry calls for political revolution. Pakistanis are furious with their political leaders, and Altaf Hussain is the voice of their anger. Pakistan, he proclaimed a few days ago, is heading for a "French Revolution-like change in the country."

Hussain leads the Muttahida Quami Movement political party, known as the MQM. His is Pakistan's third-largest party, and his remarks started a political storm that has not abated. The government's lackluster response to the catastrophic floods left some of the 17 million surviving victims bewildered and the rest angry and resentful, fueling continued debate over Hussain's call to arms.

President Asif Ali Zardari's untimely European visit last month, just as the flooding reached a crisis point, still hangs heavy in people's minds -- even more so now that the Pakistani newspapers are carrying stories reportedly revealing the true reason for Zardari's refusal to postpone or cancel that trip: He wanted to bid at an auction that week for a six-bedroom, luxury penthouse on Hyde Park in London. He bought it, the newspapers said, for $216 million.

I can't verify the accuracy of those reports, but it's interesting that Zardari has not chosen to deny them. Now his political opponents are excoriating him for spending all that money on himself while thousands of his people were, quite literally, drowning. (Imagine if former President George W. Bush, just after Sept. 11, had taken off for a few days to buy his Texas ranch.)

Saeed Elahi, a member of Parliament from the Pakistan Muslim League, called the penthouse purchase a "condemnable act." That money, he added, could have been used "to provide shelter to at least one million" flood victims.

You could say Zardari has a tin ear for politics. But in truth, the problem runs much deeper than that. He is of the social class whose wealthy members barely recognize that the rest of the nation, 170 million poor and unwashed Pakistanis, even exists. Consider how the president dealt with the epochal flood after he returned from his sojourn through Europe (where he also took time to visit a 16th century Normandy chateau; he didn't bid on that).

Until just now, as he realizes his job is in jeopardy, Zardari never even thought to visit the flooded regions so he could see how his people were faring. He went out only when he had no choice. Sen. John Kerry and then Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, came to see the devastation for themselves. Zardari had to accompany them -- flying over flooded areas in a helicopter.

Hussain, the MQM leader, is certainly no angel; brutality and corruption allegations dog him, and he has lived full time in London for almost 20 years, afraid he would be assassinated if he returned, just as his brothers and cousins were. But he has a strong following, particularly in Karachi, population 18.5 million. His call for regime change hit a chord, especially since the nation's other political leaders offered underwhelming ideas for helping the victims.

Nawaz Sharif, probably Pakistan's most popular politician, simply urged the government to hand out financial aid. In response, the minister of labor said the solution lay in remittances. Pakistanis working abroad should send more money home.

In late August, Hussain urged "patriotic generals" to "take martial-law type action" against corrupt politicians and major landowners. Political commentators were at first dismissive, saying he was calling for martial law. Like politicians everywhere, Hussain said he had been misunderstood and tried to recast his remarks. That's were the French Revolution line came from.

Actually, for more than half of the time since its birth in 1947, the military has ruled Pakistan, so not everyone found Hussain's original statement shocking.

"It is clear by now that most of those who welcome regime change through 'honest generals' are focused not on new elections but a tenure of national caretakers selected by the army," Khaled Ahmed, a senior Pakistani journalist, wrote in the Friday Times newspaper.

Syed Kamal, the former mayor of Karachi and an MQM loyalist, told me in an e-mail: "Revolution is needed if you want to bring Pakistan back from the I.C.U., and the Pakistan Army is the only institution with whose support this psuedo-democracy can be abolished."

For the moment, an army coup or citizen revolution seem unlikely. But now that the flooding has shown Pakistanis what kind of president they really have, the status quo has forever changed.

Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times.)

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization

The Great Gamble

At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

 

 

(C) 2010 Joel Brinkley