| Biswo |
Posted
on 16-Apr-02 09:42 PM
Dictators around the world have one striking resemblance: they tend to think they
will have a better fate than others. They tend to think they are not the dictator
that people fear from, or they are the so called benevolent dictators. They live in
a world created for them by their henchmen. And their henchmen would like to
present the world the way they want to see. So, there are these layers of illusions
that keep the dictator at distance from the real life and facts.
The writer of "Black Hawk Down", Mark Bowdon, recently documented the life of
Saddam Hussain in the recent issue of 'The Atlantic'. Not new information emerges
as far as the pattern of all dictators concerned. All dictators love to think that they
are beloved by people, yet they know they are feared ones. Dictators tend to
keep double life, and shun the scrutiny in their personal life as much as possible.
Because in their personal life, they are as vulnerable as us, they are as oenophile,
gynophile, kleptomaniac, power-cloyed, paranoid as their predecessors. In national
crisis, they thrive. They thrive by diverting the attention of their populace away
from national developement.
As soon as Iran Iraq war ended, Saddam proclaimed that he would build
underground metro in Baghdad, fully knowing he had no money to make them.
What he had at the time was a million plus army lazing out their time and accepting
salary every month. What a dictator would do at the moment? Invade Kuwait if he
is dumb as Saddam. (To read his other miscalculation, please buy a copy of
Atlantic where his intelligence officer tell how misguided he was!)
The communists provided numerous dictators to the civilization, and we learned
a lot from them. Lenin, whose contribution to October revolution is somewhat
murky, tried to lead the communist world with theoretical backup of Marxism. Yet,
as soon as second world war ended, the sole claim to power of Communists around
the world became their defeat of Nazis. But, hey, weren't they themselves communazis? The influx of Russian jews as soon as they were allowed to move to
Israel proves this vividly and literally.
King Mahendra was the first major dictator from Shah family in Nepal. His act as
the king was desperate and ,yet, fitted the pattern for all dictators. He loved to
think he was the one who cared people, which he wasn't. He thought he could
make Nepal prosperous with his sheer intention, but he couldn't. One man can't
make a nation. Gone are those megalomaniac days!Only collective efforts can
make a nation!He then tried to portray himself as the patriotic leader. He didn't
get any help from any genuine intellectuals in Nepal. He was tended by those
people who told him what he wanted to hear, who showed him what he wanted to
see. King Birendra , however, provides an unique examples to the world's
dictators. He proved that capitulating to your own populace is a better option than
fighting to death/exile. He redeemed some of his lost credibility later by becoming
constitutional.
Now, finally, we have got this Girija problem in Congress. Girija in Congress is some
thing like a dictator. Like all dictators, he is now trying to rest in peace in his senile
days, but is unable to do so. His relatives are bickering with each others for his
legacy exactly the way Suharto's sons/daughers fought for the share of nation's
oil/gold resources in Suharto's final days. Girija is busy quelling dissent in his party
while watching helplessly his kins waging internecine war for legacy. All dictators
die painfully, so will Suharto (actually his death process is already on) and so will
Girija. Nepali Congress suffered a lot from this old dotard, but it will emerge
strengthened once it get rids of Koirala clans whose ossified and greedy mindset is
the greatest hindrance for our democratic future.
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