Its been a tough month for Pakistani President General Pervez "the Perv" Musharraf. Perhaps after casting a nervous eye towards the burning streets of Karachi, he decided that his country's biggest problem was an unruly media, and he moved quickly to rectify the problem. When a few European allies seemed a touch perturbed about the media clampdown, Musharraf's Foreign Ministry said the only reasonable thing:
"This is for our people, our government and our media to discuss, debate and decide"And that's precisely what they did. After much discussion and debate, the General reached a compromise. There would be no new media restrictions, provided the media agreed to observe new media restrictions. The media pledged to show "respect for national institutions like the armed forces." This was a gracious compromise for the General to offer. After all, he said it best in his own words: "I gave the media that freedom it has today."
Freedom is a relative concept, as Masud Alam eloquently explains in one of the most entertaining articles I've read in months. Perhaps General Musharraf genuinely feels that his country is free. Perhaps he feels that freedoms of Western liberal democracies are foreign to his culture and his country's world view. Or perhaps he feels that freedom of the armed forces and the Inter Services Intelligence is more important than the freedom of individual citizens. Either way, this sordid affair in a troubled country brings up an interesting point. By its nature, political language is peppered with vacuous and ultimately meaningless terminology. Every political leader in the world purports to defend "freedom" and "liberty," including thugs like President Musharraf.
That such words still carry a heavy emotional appeal is clear. Political speech writers of every stripe insist on inserting motherhood terms into their bosses words. But I am at a loss to explain why they still carry impact to citizens. This phenomenon can be seens even in the online comments following Alam's hilarious piece. It's fascinating to read the comments of people who seem oblivious to the concept of satire. Or perhaps they don't believe that people should be telling jokes when Freedom is at stake.
