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US Leadership and World's Conscience Professor Khurshid Ahmed Democracy’s achievements include bringing into sharp focus the centrality of what the people think. Their voice remains irrelevant in all despotic and dictatorial regimes, not so in democracy. This represents a value long-cherished by the Muslims, best represented in their common saying: “What the people say echoes the Divine Will.” Human conscience has always recognized the power of people's emotions and sentiments, a barometer for good and bad. This has been recognized as such, even before the advent of opinion polls. Yet opinion polls and other expressions of popular will do remain chronicles of truth. All the opinion polls ever since the exposure of US crimes in Abu Gharaib show constant fall in the support for US War in Iraq in general, the creditability of President Bush and his team of the neo-cons, in particular. US and global opinion polls revel constant decline in US support and increasing population discontent against it. President Bush is on the helm of affairs of the world's sole super power. He and his extremist cronies have raised the slogan of promoting democracy in the world and even can go to the extent of imposing it through force. But they never stop to ponder what the people, on whom they want to impose their version of democracy, think about Mr. Bush and the U.S. policies. After the presidential elections in America, public polls show Bush's popularity is declining significantly. Recent surveys show that 61 percent of the American people are dismayed with Bush's job performance and leadership traits. BBC has recently organized an interactive Power play game in which 15,000 people worldwide participated. These people were invited to choose a team of 11-members who could lead a fantasy world government to redeem their miseries. The findings are eye-opening, revealing the chasm between what the people of the world think, and what are the power-realities of today! Former South African president Nelson Mandela topped the list. The second choice was former US president Bill Clinton. And UN Secretary General Kofi Annan could make to 11th place. Two religious leaders who could better manage the world according to the list were Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The later is also from South Africa and was the head of the Truth Commission. Noam Chomsky, a social scientists and a leading critic of US policies, came fourth. Five others were from IT and economic sectors. US President George Bush was placed at number 43; ranking below two of his fiercest adversaries Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro who ranked 33 and 36 respectively. Interestingly, the only Muslim who could hit the list was Osama Bin Laden at 70th position. Another renowned American journalist and writer and a staunch critic of Bush, Michael Moore, was 15th, well ahead of Mr. Bush. US public poll and research organizations Pew and Gallup surveys present a similar picture. These surveys reveal 60-70 percent of the people in western countries disapprove of US leadership and its policies. And in the Islamic world 70-92 percent are those who disapprove of the US policies and its leadership. The findings of these surveys have been re-affirmed from a very unexpected quarter i.e. by Sweden's Nobel Prize Committee. Two Nobel prizes have been awarded to the person with whom American leadership is cross. Nobel Prize for peace has been awarded to Dr. ElBarudei, Chief of International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. America abhorred Dr. ElBarudei and wanted to stop his job extension as he had declined to be an active accomplice of the US game about alleged 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' But it could not stop his re-appointment. In fact the Agency’s Inspector Brits charged US for sabotaging the work of the inspection team. Nobel Prize for ElBasrudei was indeed an insult for Bush and the US had to pocket it. The US made such a hue and cry that Nobel Committee had to explain its decision claiming that it was not meant against anyone. The US was still recovering from this injury when it received another blow from the Committee. The Committee awarded Nobel Prize for Literature to British playwright Harold Pintor. Pintor is famous British playwright and earned fame in literary circles since 1960s. His first play The Birthday Party was published and staged in 1958. But for the last 10 years he is more known for his political views and activities. No doubt, his plays also portray political themes. He has focused on the miseries and agonies of the destitute and under-privileged people in his plays. His style is unique. He uses the technique of distortion and exposing the absurd in his writings. His plays depict the disarray and mayhem of his time. Today he is famous for raising his voice against US 'war on terror' and his fierce criticism of Bush and Blair. Protesting in front of British parliament in 2002 he said: "Bush claims: We will not let the dirty weapons go into the hands of notorious leaders, well! Look into the mirror, it is you!” Speaking to a gathering at Imperial War Museum in September 2003, he charged Bush and Blair to use the cloak of freedom and democracy for inflicting death, devastation and disorder on the innocent people of the world. Pintor, in one of his writings in 2003, drew a parallel between Bush Administration and Nazi Germany, labeled Guanatanamo Bay prison camp as a fresh version of Nazi's Concentration Camps, branded by Mr. Bush as “blood-thirsty-beast” and Tony Blair as “stupid and mass killer”. He also implicated US media in the crimes committed by Bush. In his poem The Bombs he sketched the map of current political scenario: The bombs go off While it is an honour for both Dr. ElBarudei and Harold Pinter to win Nobel Prizes. More importantly these awards represent a clear cut vote of no-confidence of the world's conscience on the leadership of George Bush and Tony Blair. Would the leaders of the so-called free and democratic world and their protégés in the Muslim World care to see the faces in this mirror? |
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JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI PAKISTAN |