 Doesn’t Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper come to mind? But were there 13 disciples of Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif sitting at the dinner table after signing the ‘Charter of Democracy’ in London? If so, then say goodbye to both and hello to Pervez Musharraf the Second. The number thirteen since disciple Judas betrayed Jesus with his kiss of death is known to bring bad luck. While we do a quick headcount of Syed Ghous Ali Shah, Tehmina Daultana, Naheed Khan, Aitzaz Ahsan and significant others flanking their leaders and raising their chalices chanting ‘Hail Democracy’, who do you think will be the Judas in the 2007 elections? Actually, it’s not Judas we seek, but the Holy Grail that contains the secret of a doomed democracy in Pakistan.
President Musharraf’s knee-jerk reaction to the charter was strong. With diction unbecoming, he trashed it to a pulp. The general must hate Mian and Bibi enough to want to send them and their charter to the nearest dumpster. But someone whispered sense in his ears. He has since relented. Now Mushahid Hussain Sayyed — who may well be the next caretaker prime minister — the sharpest of them all (don’t forget he was once a respected journalist and an editor) in PML-Q ranks has received the presidential farman to read the charter whenever he gets a moment from globe-trotting, firefighting, politicking or entertaining just about anyone who visits Islamabad.
Mushahid Hussain can yet salvage his name tainted by the company he keeps by rising to the stature of Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, which has broken all records of The New York Times’ bestsellers list and caused a hurricane among the thinking populace of the world. A film of the page-turner has just been released. It too has lit up bushfires among Christendom which is up in crusade against Brown for saying that Jesus Christ was a much married man with daughter Sarah whose ancestors are today running around in France.
The title of the book of course is named after the Italian painter, Leonardo Da Vinci (who, apart from the Last Supper, made Mona Lisa immortal by painting a woman whose smile the world has yet to fathom.) The Holy Grail, according to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is not a chalice as is the commonly believed but a woman called Mary Magdalene, the wife of Jesus Christ who features in the two paintings by the 15th century Italian master, Leonardo Da Vinci. The juiciest part then of the Da Vinci conspiracy theory outlined by Dan Brown is the assertion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a secret marriage that produced a child, perpetuating his bloodline. Furthermore, Mary Magdalene’s womb, carrying Jesus’ offspring, is presented in the book as the legendary Holy Grail, a secret closely held by a Catholic organisation called the Priory of Sion. Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo Da Vinci were all cited as members.
But let’s keep our eye on the ball and not worry about Jesus and his fatherhood. Our Holy Grail is totally different. It contains the secret code of democracy in Pakistan. None has so far found it. If the task of becoming a desi Dan Brown proves beyond Mushahid Hussain, whose hands currently are full with serving the Chaudhry league, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is my hope. He’s a global player and a suave sleuth. Recently another dimension has been added to his portfolio. I have become his mureed ever since he got the mosque men to pray for rain to avert a drought. Hallelujah, the rains came down and brought with them hail. Maybe Pakistan won’t go dry after all. If only Aziz could pray with the rest of 160 million Pakistanis for true democracy that rids us of personality cults like Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif or Pervez Musharraf or any other general, the polls next year can be the turning point in our history.
In the 2007 elections, it’s not Judas we seek, but the Holy Grail that contains the secret of a doomed democracy in Pakistan
Do you in all sensibility think that the 35 per cent of our poor today will become affluent by the Mian-BB team? Just see the photos coming out of London. Have you noticed them seated on golden chairs with a heft of delicacies overloading the coffee table in front of them? What does it tell? It speaks of poor taste.
Have you seen the president lately? His photos tell us that he’s a busy man. A chunk of his time must go to the presidential dressing room, changing gear — from army wear to kaki slacks complete with leather loafers, summer blazer and blue shirts trimmed with white collar and cuffs (that, by the way. is passe now). His concern for the poor appears vacuously out of sync against a backdrop of hubris and presidential pronouncements.
So who then can save Pakistan? This is neither a cliche nor a trite statement. Only “Cracking the Da Vinci vote” or some such title for research can lead to the clues of how deep is the hidden hand that has held democracy hostage for six decades. If found, can that long, deep and demonic hand be severed from the body politic? While one is not supposed to speak ill of people in power (I just made up this rule) just wait until they get out. Then all the dope on them will splatter the newspapers. Who made how much will fill columns and columns of print.
Let’s first begin with the present ruler. He wants a second term and has said so. His thinking is erroneous. He thinks he has handpicked the best team which is not tainted with corruption, cronyism, nepotism and ‘generalism’. Why waste billions on elections when we already have a father who shall rule until kingdom come, his will be done on earth? Why waste public resources when we already know that the Chaudhry cartel will rule supreme and govern like the Mughals of yore? The same faces and same chandeliers and the same silken sofas will be there until 2012, unless ...
Still, it’s a sin to give up that quick. We Pakistanis must fight to change the system.
 “We have to keep on demonstrating and demonstrating and demonstrating ... there’s no solution but to say we do not want to live in a world like this, with wars, inequality, injustice, the daily humiliation of millions of people who have no hope that life is worth anything. We have to express it with vehemence and spend days on the street if we have to, until those in power recognise that the people are not happy.” These words I cite from Jose Saramago, Portugal’s Nobel Prize winner. He’s 83.
“I was giving a talk about my novel, The Double, in Barcelona,” said the Nobel laureate. “I have this habit of only talking about my books for a few minutes, then I prefer to spend the time talking about the world in which we find ourselves, a world which is a disaster, and usually I end up talking about the problem of democracy, whether we truly have a democratic system, and I believe that we don’t. And in Barcelona, someone asked me, well then, what do you propose? Because I was saying that, in reality, the world is governed by institutions that are not democratic — the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO. People live with the illusion that we have a democratic system, but it’s only the outward form of one. In reality we live in a plutocracy, a government of the rich.”
He hands a solution. Don’t boycott elections but cast a blank vote to send a message to the establishment that the status quo is no longer acceptable.
Is this is the Holy Grail that holds the secret of democracy?. We may have found it and really don’t need Mushahid Hussain or Shaukat Aziz to lead us to it. It’s there. The Da Vinci vote is in fact the blank vote. Are you with me on this one?
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