Pervez, with panache

General Musharraf seems to be aspiring to transform himself into a statesman with much to do on the world stage. Just the list of his public engagements in New York will leave the most ardent crusader for world peace envious. He is addressing, in addition to the UN General Assembly, the Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace, The American Jewish Congress and a group of women at Columbia University to address gender issues in Pakistani society.

One has to admire the way in which the general does not shirk difficult issues and potentially hostile audiences. He has an extraordinary capacity for turning things on their head. Normally being charming is not a virtue associated with battle-hardened generals. But this one knows when to turn on the charm. The old saying, 8220;the problem can itself be the solution8221; could well have been written with the general8217;s conception of Pakistan in mind. And that really is the message he appears to carry to all his meetings. If Pakistan is the source of terrorism, it can also lead the fight against it; if Pakistan is the source of religious extremism, it can also be the source of moderation; if Pakistan is the source of proliferation, it can also help fight proliferation. Pakistan8217;s disadvantage is its advantage. The strategy is brilliant: in the fight against good versus evil, Pakistan is indispensable, not because it is good but because it is the source of evil. Pakistan deserves more aid, not because it has been responsible. It needs to be rewarded in order to mitigate the consequences of its own irresponsibility.

Musharraf is clearly positioning himself as a Moderate Mediator between tradition and modernity, fundamentalism and progressivism, Islam and Israel, terrorists and peaceniks. Lesser moralists may sneer at this aspiration. Doesn8217;t Pakistan8217;s ground reality belie these claims? Osama has not been caught, fundamentalists are still going strong, terrorist camps still exist, and he continues to describe Kashmir as a religious conflict! But these moralists fail to understand Musharraf, who must surely rank as a skilled exponent of the art of the dialectic 8212; making history move through contradictions.