The Khaki aura has been undermined and besmirched by steady attacks of gathering conceit which the Khakis have inflicted upon themselves over the years. The promises made and then broken by the Khaki elite, each time it stepped into political space, instead of eroding this conceit, seems anomalously to have only enhanced it. It has, sadly, become a case of “the more I fail, the more am I entitled to the adulation of those whom I periodically step in to ‘save’!”.
The Army, because of a coincidence of certain historic reasons, has been the strongest institution of the country, and therefore one with the longest stick to wield. Its main fault has been that instead of using the threat of wielding this stick, all too often it has decided to actually wield it. And wielded it to the detriment of the country.
Each time it has sallied forth to “save” the country, its stated compulsion has been to rein in the monster of corruption whereas its real aim has been to take power and keep it. Every time the army has involved itself in this exercise, it has ended up enhancing corruption because, instead of combating it, it has ended up joining the club.
If the army has a saving grace, it lies in the culture of its lower ranks. The beating heart of this culture has been for the junior officer to volunteer for every mission. This is why the casualty ratio of officers to men in every operation is highly weighted in favour of officers. This is the ultimate proof that men are being actually “led” by their officers. And it is these officers and men who save the day in every emergency to hit the country, and are its real saviours.
Culture change among the senior ranks has been huge glaring and shocking. Back in the old days the gates of the generals’ houses used to be open, and the walls of their houses were low. Any officer of any rank could walk in, ring the doorbell, and the doors of the house would be opened to him. Today they live in gated communities, virtually isolated from those they command.
This metaphor is an amalgam of a hundred other cultural changes among the senior reaches of the army, all of them negative. And I don’t have the time to go into each one of them, and why these have come about. But I must say this, that the greatest single driver of this change is the glittering attraction of obscene wealth radiating from the palaces of those who have plundered this land. It is these people whom a significant number of generals periodically decide to bring to account in order to save the country, but inevitably end up joining the worst among them.
If this segment among them is unaware of the stories of their own greed and corruption, it can only be because they avoid easy mixing with those who can point out “the emperor’s new clothes” to them– one great advantage of closed gates and high walls! These walls help create oblivion to reality. And prolonged oblivion causes imperviousness to good sense even in the off chance that one may occasionally come across it.
There is not a single social/political scientist of any eminence who has failed to point out the disastrous effects of the formation of oligarchy on state and society. Oligarchs will AWAYS undermine the state to safeguard their own interests. Mega corruption should therefore always be a prime concern of national security, which should have been redefined to include this [mega corruption] among its vital imperatives. Mega corruption can bring down a state without an enemy having the need to fire a single shot. But the problem with our army has been that though it has always cited mega corruption as its alibi for each of its forays beyond the bounds of its remit, it has never felt compelled to combat such corruption by bringing its perpetrators to the book. Instead, it has invariably joined such perpetrators and served to legitimize/legalize corruption, enhance it, and made it an inviolable right of the perpetrator.
In the most recent instance, the treasury of the country had been hollowed out by the unchecked ravages of its rulers. Pakistan could not have sustained even a three-day war with our ever-ready enemy hankering for a test of arms. A more dire emergency could hardly be imagined. It was the demand of the times that beginning from the top [and moving lower], the first batch of 20 to 30 plunderers should immediately have been arrested, tried, and hung out to dry, and whatever part of looted national wealth which was recoverable, should have been recovered from them.
This should have been a one-point agenda. And one-point agendas always have great clarity because of their very precision.
But what did we see the army doing all over again? We saw it bring out its big stick, which it began using like a tooth-prick pulling down the pants of an errant MNA here, and tweaking a bye-election there, and gathering and heaping shame on themselves with each new such tweak.
And the ultimate wound they inflicted upon the hopes of the people was when they arranged for Nawaz Sharif to escape justice, and for almost helping Shahbaz to get away as well! What a shame! What ignominy! And not a single crook has been brought to the book as yet. And all this while the pile of “khaki” wealth, of those readily writing out cheques of immunity, is growing. These cheques of course are being handed out to those who took Pakistan to the cleaners. This is becoming garishly visible to those looking up to their “saviours”. This is common knowledge among the rank and file. And it is common talk among the people. But this is unknown to the generals wrapped in the oblivion of clover.
What a bloody fall this has been! What a bloody scuttling of hope!
It is not for nothing that the coy hoots of a befuddled and nervous Nawaz Sharif driving down G.T. Road after his dismissal, have now graduated to Hamid Mir’s invective-laden screams threatening exposes of what goes on in the bedrooms of the military elite! What a lesson in creeping surrender this has been.
But it is not too late still. Even now things can be put right. All that is needed is a bit of humility to accept the cockups they have made. This acceptance could possibly blossom into a determination that for once they will put their necks out to redeem the hopes of the people of Pakistan.
All that would then be needed is to tighten up the ECL, and to begin arresting, trying, and punishing those who have stolen the future of our children. This is what they should have done from day one. But they can begin doing it even today and redeem themselves, instead of managing non-descript bye elections, and lifting up or socking some poor idiot having the temerity to question them.
The need is to go back to the one- point agenda which has always been the forlorn cry of those who were sought to be saved in the first place!
The need is for basic honesty of intent, and reasonable competence in execution. No Guderians are needed for this exercise.
Whenever you meet a person who argues that corruption is not only a matter of physical exchange of value, but can be intellectual corruption as well, you should suspect that person. Such a person is trying to muddy the waters by emphasizing something which is debatable as best, and pushing back something which is not debatable and often easily provable i.e the taking of wealth in any form, in exchange of a favour which inevitably hurts the interest of the state, directly, and its people ultimately.
P.s. Do see the following video from minute 2 to minute 7. What this man is saying, is being said by all and sundry.