It looks like our friend in Pakistan, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has taken lessons from George W. Bush and Co, as the President's army has rounded up more than 500 activists, censored the media, and stated that scheduled presidential elections may need to be delayed.
U.S. Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice took a strong stand, declaring “We just have to review the situation.” Now there's some leadership for ya!
Some of the suspended rights in Pakistan under his declaration of “Emergency Law” are:
- Protection of life and liberty.
- The right to free movement.
- The right of detainees to be informed of their offense and given access to lawyers.
- Protection of property rights.
- The right to assemble in public.
- The right to free speech.
- Equal rights for all citizens before law and equal legal protection.
- Media coverage of suicide bombings and militant activity is curtailed by new rules. Broadcasters also face a three-year jail term if they "ridicule" members of the government or armed forces.
This list would be shocking, if only it weren't so familiar to Americans under the rule of Bush II.
Read more at The Huffington Post.
UPDATE: You can read first-hand accounts of the events and conditions in Pakistan at the blog All Things Pakistan:
As I wrote yesterday, the emergency declared by Gen. Musharraf is deeply disturbing, but not really surprising. The horrendous political situation that Gen. Musharraf described in his ‘Emergency’ speech is, in fact, true.Extremism and violence has gone out of hand. Society is deeply divided. Religion has been high-jacked and is now routinely used to incite violence. The writ of the government is being trampled. Politicians have failed and people do seek recourse in the judiciary. People are frustrated and deeply disturbed. We have been writing and discussing all of this and more on this blog repeatedly. We cannot, therefore, deny what is obvious.
However, none of this is a justification for a suspension of the Constitution and for the declaration of emergency. In fact, all this is damning evidence of government failure. A suspension of the constitution will not and cannot resolve any of these issues. It is more likely to - and has already - made each of these situations even worse.
2 comments:
If you ask me this whole mess came about because of a disastrous court decision in the 19th. century (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 1886) that accorded corporations the status of people, with equal protections under the 14th. amendment.
This lamentable legal decision has led to corporate 'rights' being expanded incrementally while the rights of real flesh-and-blood people has withered. The effect of globalization has been to take this legal fiction international.
It's really well past the time when we should be pushing back hard against this trend.
Oh, yeah. We're so oppressed here in the United States! They really did take a lesson from Bush. I can't walk outside without an armed guard approaching me to see what I'm doing. Every phone call I make is monitored! Nothing gets through on our news networks! Save us! Revolt!
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