Morality & politics

His critics have always faced a problem here. Even they are forced to admit that apart from an unblemished private life. ..... he was always courteous, modest and incorruptible in public.

Gordon Brook-Shepherds Sunday telegraph

I will get back to the above obituary on a famous politician, I am sure you will agree he sounds like a decent person?

 First things first this write up is dedicated to Cafe Pyalas latest must read post titled Fast Friends on the Kim Barker Nawaz Sharif story.

 Long story short Nawaz Sharif offers her a job and an IPhone as an incentive for frrrrnnnssshhaapp  and asks her to stay back in Pakistan..I paraphrase but you get the gist.

Amidst all the snickering, trashing the venal nature of Pakistani politicians and the jokes about desperate old men. This reminded me of the age old debate of politics and morality. Are peoples personal lives a reflection of their political lives? Is it newsworthy to go after them as individuals ?

Waiting for...the Curfew

My argument is that there is nothing new regarding Western female journalists getting access to  Pakistani movers and shakers, cases in point Emma Duncans groundbreaking 1980’s book on Pakistan “breaking the curfew”

  And Christina Lambs Waiting for Allah

It does go both ways though, both writers used their connections to access the highest levels of Pakistani society and state. While they were disgusted with the hypocrisy of the political elite they got book deals and fame out of it and admittedly they are both interesting books.

Notes from America

The argument goes likes this, that how someone behaves in their personal life reflects how they will behave in their professional/political lives. This was something the republicans in the USA used against Bill Clinton when he was first campaigning amidst stories of his extra marital dalliances.

The  "if Hilary can't trust him how can we "  was countered by the “It’s the economy stupid” argument and ultimately George Bush senior lost the election quite decisively.

My own take

I suppose I should stress here that I am not defending personal philandering or the fact that people with power often abuse that power for personal gratification or for that matter that some people are drawn to those with power. The fact is much worse can be said about others ranging from Shahbaz Sharif to Maulana Sami-ul Haq but in case of Nawazs case his story happened with someone who could talk about it and spread the word.

The fact is that human beings are complex beings and that they exist in different spheres at the same time. They can be both brilliant and stupid at the same time, moral and immoral at the same time and ultimately we are each capable of nearly anything irrespective of status, ability or lack thereof.

The exception to these cases are those people who allow there various worlds to overlap, they apply the rules of their personal lives to their professional/political ones.

The best bit

Still the best bit by CPyala was not the excerpts of Barkers book but the brilliant description of Nawaz Sharif :

"It confirmed much of what one already knows about Sharif, his ability to be easily distracted, his obsession with hi-tech gadgetry and his inherent shyness which manifests itself in an inability to communicate. But unfortunately for him, it also depicts a lonely, almost desperate man."

So ultimately like so many of us; Sharif is a man who cannot overcome his own shortcomings

P.s:  The obit was about Zia-ul Haq .