Pervez Learns His Lesson, too late

After an hour, I was beginning to wonder whether Pervez Musharraf was going to hunker down and fight his political opponents to the death. He was making all these long-winded accounts of his accomplishments for Pakistan and was non-stop declaring his willingness to sacrifice for the country. In the end, he did what any elementary chess player facing a checkmate would do, he resigned.

Coincidentally, the bible reading for today comes from Ezekiel who describes what happens to the King of Tyre who is acknowledged as someone who is very intelligent and highly knowledgeable with finances and affairs of state and who predictably becomes “haughty”. The King meets a gruesome end.

As a powerless nobody, do I see a lesson that all these Presidents and Prime Ministers are unable to see? Nobody is indispensable. In a country of a hundred million, there must be at least 100, 000 others qualified to lead. In the case of Musharraf, 9 years is way too long. There has to be some moment in the lives of these people when they convince themselves that they have become too important, the same moment that transforms a fairy tale into both a personal and national tragedy.