Our Election, Their Election

It's a story of two elections. Fittingly, on Pakistan, where Musharraf8217;s pre-poll manoeuvres ensured that most of the action was over b...

It8217;s a story of two elections. Fittingly, on Pakistan, where Musharraf8217;s pre-poll manoeuvres ensured that most of the action was over before the polling day, the comment in the US and British press flowed in even before the ballots were cast. Not so for the J038;K polls. In Kashmir, foreign correspondents couldn8217;t get away early. In the end, the strain of waiting and watching over a staggered and varied process began to show. Britain8217;s FINANCIAL TIMES, for one, impatiently signed off on the final day of polling, emphasising the violence: 8216;8216;Terrorist violence has overshadowed all four rounds of polling in the disputed state8230;8217;8217;

The day after, confronted with the rout of the ruling National Conference, the FT hailed it as 8216;Kashmir8217;s first free election in a generation8217;. The NEW YORK TIMES said that the 8216;unexpected election results8217; are likely to do much to restore Kashmiris8217; faith in the democratic process. Indeed, it said 8216;8216;the elections may bolster India8217;s international stock.8217;8217; The result radically transforms Kashmir8217;s landscape, gushed the GUARDIAN, as it spoke of a 8216;fresh start8217; and a 8216;new era8217; for Kashmiris. The WASHINGTON POST observed that the final outcome could be analysed as both a defeat and a victory: while the National Conference8217;s defeat 8216;struck a blow8217; to the Vajpayee government8217;s 8216;control over Kashmir8217;, it indicated that 8216;elections had been conducted fairly8217;.

Free? Fair? Confused?

8216;8216;But the vote is neither free nor fair8217;8217; the USA TODAY had protested on the morning of the vote in Pakistan. It said that Musharraf8217;s 8216;political abuses8217; deserve 8216;loud condemnation8217;8217;. Yet, the Bush administration has felt 8216;forced to muffle its rebuke8217;. Gamely, the paper tried to explain: Because 8216;American style political reform8217; may lead to 8216;upheaval8217;8230; the prospect of Pakistan8217;s nuclear weapons falling to extremists 8230; 8216;too hard a US push for democracy8217; could produce a 8216;worse alternative for American interests8217; in Pakistan. Having said that, the paper was forced to acknowledge that at a time when the Bush administration is calling for a friendly regime and democracy in Iraq, Pakistan is a reminder 8216;8216;of how difficult both goals are to achieve8217;8217;

The British media was more unbridled in its comment on the Musharraf brand of democracy. The FT rued that instead of running against discredited politicians he could 8216;easily have defeated8217;, Gen Musharraf banned them. By doing so, Musharraf has set himself on a path to confrontation with 8216;modern and secular forces8217;, it said, and the US must be warned that 8216;these highly restrictive elections8217; will not produce a stable ally.

But the GUARDIAN went the farthest. 8216;8216;If George Bush8217;s 8216;war on terror8217; were remotely rational, or even roughly reasoned, then its next target might be Pakistan, not Iraq8217;8217;, it said. Because 8216;8216;by most 8216;war on terror8217; measures, in fact, Pakistan, with its ruptured economy, unstable politics and military government is a state both failed and rogue that is over ripe for regime change8217;8217;.

Bang On, TIME

In the event, TIME would appear to have got it right. It had predicted that the likely beneficiary of the 8216;General8217;s election8217; would be the religious right. With the two major parties in retreat, the magazine warned that the force that 8216;has filled the vacuum8217; is the 8216;volubly anti-American8217; alliance of six hard line religious parties, the Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal MMA.

Until the clerics made common cause against America, leaders of the six parties were bitter foes, but came together to fight this election, joined by a shared litany of gripes against the Americans, and against Musharraf for being an 8216;American agent8217; and scaling down Pakistan8217;s covert support to militants waging 8216;jehad8217; in Kashmir. Noted TIME: 8216;8216;Musharraf has plainly given the religious groups more free rein in the campaign than he has allowed the two big parties that were his main rivals8217;8217;.

What8217;s Sexy, What Isn8217;t

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There is still good reason perhaps to heed what Anatol Lieven said in the GUARDIAN. 8216;Western commentary needs to cool down8217; wrote the senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, from Lahore. He said that most western journalists in Pakistan for elections are preoccupied with the power of Islamist movements and popular attitudes to the US. You ask any Pakistani his or her opinion of US policies and you get a diatribe. But if you begin by asking people what issues are most important to them, in this election and generally, a very different picture emerges. Unemployment, education, health, sanitation, transport are issues, said Lieven, even in Pakistan. But trouble is, socio-economic issues are not considered sexy, they don8217;t grab the attention of western audiences or western policymakers. It is mostly on these issues, he said, that elections are fought.