iHaveNet.com
World - Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage | Pakistan
  • HOME
  • WORLD
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Balkans
    • Caucasas
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Europe
    • Europe
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • North Africa
    • Scandinavia
    • Southeast Asia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Benelux
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Mexico
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
  • USA
    • ECONOMICS
    • EDUCATION
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • FOREIGN POLICY
    • POLITICS
    • OPINION
    • TRADE
    • Atlanta
    • Baltimore
    • Bay Area
    • Boston
    • Chicago
    • Cleveland
    • DC Area
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Detroit
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Miami
    • New York
    • Philadelphia
    • Phoenix
    • Pittsburgh
    • Portland
    • San Diego
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Saint Louis
    • Tampa
    • Twin Cities
  • BUSINESS
    • FEATURES
    • eBUSINESS
    • HUMAN RESOURCES
    • MANAGEMENT
    • MARKETING
    • ENTREPRENEUR
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • STOCK MARKETS
    • Agriculture
    • Airline
    • Auto
    • Beverage
    • Biotech
    • Book
    • Broadcast
    • Cable
    • Chemical
    • Clothing
    • Construction
    • Defense
    • Durable
    • Engineering
    • Electronics
    • Firearms
    • Food
    • Gaming
    • Healthcare
    • Hospitality
    • Leisure
    • Logistics
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Newspaper
    • Nondurable
    • Oil & Gas
    • Packaging
    • Pharmaceutic
    • Plastics
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Shipping
    • Sports
    • Steelmaking
    • Textiles
    • Tobacco
    • Transportation
    • Travel
    • Utilities
  • WEALTH
    • CAREERS
    • INVESTING
    • PERSONAL FINANCE
    • REAL ESTATE
    • MARKETS
    • BUSINESS
  • STOCKS
    • ECONOMY
    • EMERGING MARKETS
    • STOCKS
    • FED WATCH
    • TECH STOCKS
    • BIOTECHS
    • COMMODITIES
    • MUTUAL FUNDS / ETFs
    • MERGERS / ACQUISITIONS
    • IPOs
    • 3M (MMM)
    • AT&T (T)
    • AIG (AIG)
    • Alcoa (AA)
    • Altria (MO)
    • American Express (AXP)
    • Apple (AAPL)
    • Bank of America (BAC)
    • Boeing (BA)
    • Caterpillar (CAT)
    • Chevron (CVX)
    • Cisco (CSCO)
    • Citigroup (C)
    • Coca Cola (KO)
    • Dell (DELL)
    • DuPont (DD)
    • Eastman Kodak (EK)
    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • FedEx (FDX)
    • General Electric (GE)
    • General Motors (GM)
    • Google (GOOG)
    • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
    • Home Depot (HD)
    • Honeywell (HON)
    • IBM (IBM)
    • Intel (INTC)
    • Int'l Paper (IP)
    • JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
    • J & J (JNJ)
    • McDonalds (MCD)
    • Merck (MRK)
    • Microsoft (MSFT)
    • P & G (PG)
    • United Tech (UTX)
    • Wal-Mart (WMT)
    • Walt Disney (DIS)
  • TECH
    • ADVANCED
    • FEATURES
    • INTERNET
    • INTERNET FEATURES
    • CYBERCULTURE
    • eCOMMERCE
    • mp3
    • SECURITY
    • GAMES
    • HANDHELD
    • SOFTWARE
    • PERSONAL
    • WIRELESS
  • HEALTH
    • AGING
    • ALTERNATIVE
    • AILMENTS
    • DRUGS
    • FITNESS
    • GENETICS
    • CHILDREN'S
    • MEN'S
    • WOMEN'S
  • LIFESTYLE
    • AUTOS
    • HOBBIES
    • EDUCATION
    • FAMILY
    • FASHION
    • FOOD
    • HOME DECOR
    • RELATIONSHIPS
    • PARENTING
    • PETS
    • TRAVEL
    • WOMEN
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • BOOKS
    • TELEVISION
    • MUSIC
    • THE ARTS
    • MOVIES
    • CULTURE
  • SPORTS
    • BASEBALL
    • BASKETBALL
    • COLLEGES
    • FOOTBALL
    • GOLF
    • HOCKEY
    • OLYMPICS
    • SOCCER
    • TENNIS
  • Subscribe to RSS Feeds EMAIL ALERT Subscriptions from iHaveNet.com RSS
    • RSS | Politics
    • RSS | Recipes
    • RSS | NFL Football
    • RSS | Movie Reviews
Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage
Joel Brinkley

HOME > WORLD

 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

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.)

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

 

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

 

  • Widening Divide in American-Chinese Commercial Interests
  • The New Old World Order
  • Global Human-Rights Cause Gets a Shot in the Arm
  • Obama's Foreign Policy Performance
  • New Russia Takes Root in Saint Petersburg and Moscow
  • Dismantling Worst-Case Proliferation Scenarios
  • A Numbers Game in the Middle East
  • Middle East Peace Talks: Here We Go Again
  • Obama and Clinton Revive Middle East Peace Talks
  • Guess Who's Coming to the Table
  • Iraq: Unanswered Policy Questions on U.S. Troops
  • Iraq: Implications of a Pointless War
  • Iraq: Book Review
  • Iraq: No Drums and No Bugles: None Dare Call It Victory
  • Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage
  • A French Leftist Ritual Takes on Sarkozy
  • United States Losing Latin America Market Share
  • The Power of Being Multilingual
  • Chavez's Obsession With Past Turns Creepy and He's Not Alone
  • Obama Could Help Stop Mexico's Bloodshed
  • Interdependency Theory: China, India and the West
  • The Dangerous Dog Days of Summer
  • The Next 500 Years
  • A New Plan For Nuclear Postures
  • Strengthening the Political - Military Relationship
  • Hydraulic Pressures: Into the Age of Water Scarcity?
  • South Korea: Prosperity and Anxiety
  • China Wealthy? That's Rich!
  • Islamism Unveiled: From Berlin to Cairo and Back Again
  • Beyond Moderates and Militants: Charting a New Course in the Middle East
  • Middle East Peace Talks: Pointless Talks
  • Why Israel Can't Rely on Deterrence Against Iran's Nuclear Program
  • How to Handle Hamas
  • Bringing Israel's Bomb Out of the Basement
  • Iraq: Anxious Iraqis Look at Uncertain Future
  • Iraq: U.S. Combat Troops' Departure Leaves Uncertainty in its Wake
  • Iraq: A Promise Kept?
  • An Unlikely Trio: Can Iran Turkey and the United States Become Allies?
  • Staying Power: The U.S. Mission in Afghanistan Beyond 2011
  • Long Road Ahead for Afghan Security Forces
  • Afghanistan's Dirty Little Secret
  • Russia's New Nobility
  • Mexico Needs U.S. Help But Not Troops
  • Mexico's Narco Problems Are Our Problems, and Vice Versa
  • No 'I' in 'Team,' but Plenty of 'I' in India
  • Afghanistan - There Can Be No Graceful Exit
  • Afghanistan Timetable Remains a Factor of Uncertainty
  • We Are Playing Fidel Castro's Game
  • Has the Time Come to Legalize Drugs?
  • Handling Tensions on the Korean Peninsula
  • Richard C. Holbrooke: Pakistan Aid Inadequate
  • Afghanistan Leaks Answer Few Questions
  • Afghanistan & The Karzai Problem
  • Afghanistan - Winds of Changing Policy
  • Obama's Juggling Act in the Middle East
  • Defusing Lebanon's Powder Keg
  • Germany's Good Fortune Tips the Scales Against its Neighbors
  • End Poverty: Export Capitalism
  • Haitian Quake Hasn't Dislodged Status Quo
  • Why We Go Back to Haiti
  • Iraq - Mission Accomplished II
  • The Fight Escalates Against Fake Drugs
  • China's Coal Addiction
  • Afghanistan: The Pentagon's Lost War
  • Afghanistan: The Cost of Nation Building
  • Afghanistan: Pentagon Papers Redux?
  • Behind Iraq's Long Political Indecision
  • Venezuela - Colombia Spat to Pass, Return
  • Will China Rule the World?
  • NATO's Future Involves More Global Partnerships
  • Gloom Awaits U.S. Climate Diplomacy
  • U.S. - U.K.: Difficult Duet in Afghanistan
  • 'Pariah of the Pacific' Has Ham-handed Grip on Fiji
  • Turkey Takes the Veil
  • For Israel a Two-State Proposal Starts With Security
  • Is It Too Late to Stop Iran
  • The Middle East's Private Little War
  • Reality and Reform for How the EU Keeps Its Peace
  • Chancellor Angela Merkel's Sinking Support
  • The Real Reason Why Afghanistan Is a Lost Cause
  • The War Drones On
  • When the 'Right War' Goes Wrong
  • The Afghanistan Paradox
  • Pakistan's Gambit in Afghanistan
  • Obama Wasting Opportunities in Latin America
  • Stopping Nuclear Proliferation Before It Starts
  • Veiled Truths: The Rise of Political Islam in the West
  • Steps to Stop Iran From Getting a Nuclear Bomb
  • Iran: The Nuclear Containment Conundrum
  • Iran: The Right Kind Of Containment
  • China Is the Key to Handling Nuclear North Korea
  • Coping With China's Financial Power
  • What China's Currency Reform Means For Investors
  • Russian-American Obstacles Overshadow Obama-Medvedev Meeting
  • Russia's Courtship of Silicon Valley
  • Ukrainian Blues: Viktor Yanukovych's Rise and Democracy's Fall
  • Russia: Prisoners of the Caucasus
  • The Afghan Challenge Is Far Tougher
  • New Guard, Old Policy on Afghanistan
  • Fear and Uncertainty in Afghanistan
  • Afghanistan: Bribing the Enemy
  • Afghanistan Poses Difficult Challenges
  • Defining Success in Afghanistan
  • Sad Stan, Famous Petraeus
  • The Challenge of Reconciliation in Kenya
  • The Tyranny of Unity in Zimbabwe
  • Mexico: The New Cocaine Cowboys
  • Under Santos Colombia Could Rise to the Next Level
  • Autocrats' Latest Weapon: Indirect Censorship
  • Latin America's Rich Should Be More Generous
  • Castrocare in Crisis

 

(C) 2010 Joel Brinkley

 

Recommend

Search Powered By Google

Google Search   

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

Job & Career Search

career & job search                    job title, keywords, company, location
  • HOME
  • WORLD
  • USA
  • BUSINESS
  • WEALTH
  • STOCKS
  • TECH
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS

World - Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage | Global Viewpoint

  • Services:
  • RSS Feeds
  • Shopping
  • Email Alerts
  • Site Map
  • Privacy