The Messiah streak

DEFYING the democratic logic of bowing before the popular will and leaving the office in good grace, President Musharraf remains adamant, justifying his position on the ground that the country needs him to tide over the wide range of challenges it is confronted with. At an address he delivered before a group of Karachi traders on Friday, the Messiah streak was once again clearly in evidence. Still suffering from ‘the messiah complex’, he maintained, it was his duty to save the country from ‘political, economic and extremist crises’, little realising that the blame for the scary situation would largely rest with his regime. The political scenario, which soon after the general elections appeared to hold promising prospects, stands confused and unpredictable because of his refusal to quit. The danger is that the tension between the two major political parties on the issue of the President’s future, which has given rise to the political vendetta he has talked about, might prove a setback to the development of healthy democratic traditions in the country. It is extremely essential for the political leadership to eschew the policy of vendetta and work towards solving the people’s problems. The President has rightly listed the extremist menace as a major evil, but then its present ominous form has largely been the outcome of his policies blindly pursued in compliance with American wishes. Somehow the government finds itself bogged down in these two crises, rendering the economic challenge graver by the day. But whatever the raison d’être of our economic woes, it would be a great folly not to address them on a war footing and put them off till the political situation improves.