Minging Excuses for Dictators

Musharaff invents a new reason for the imposition of Martial Law in Pakistan. First, it was to protect the country from terrorists. Now this:

Seeking to wrest the spotlight from the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has dominated the airwaves, Musharraf admitted that he had considered resigning but felt he was the man to lead Pakistan to democracy.

"I am not a dictator, I want a democracy," he told Britain's Sky News. "The day when there is no turmoil in Pakistan, I will step down."

Meanwhile, with an eye on the all-important US audience, the general told the New York Times that the state of emergency was crucial to fair elections - a position the opposition strongly rejects.

"The emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner," he told the paper.

This must rank as probably the sorriest set of excuses for imposing dictatorship in history. He has only had 8 years to lead the country to democracy but only just got around to realising that he needed to do this. What made me laugh was the declaration that he will step down the day Pakistan is not in turmoil. This is like the Eurosceptics declaring that they will commit to a federal state of Europe as soon as the oceans have evaporated. Or like the BNP saying they will welcome immigrants as soon as they all pledge to whiten their skin and draw swastikas on their foreheads. Soon, Ian Blair will be announcing that he will resign as head of the Met, as long as everybody else in the country resigns their jobs too.

Didn't you know that it is necessary to have a state of emergency before elections? This is what poor Gordon Broon didn't know, before his prematurely aborted autumn election. He should have declared Martial Law and put David Cameron under house arrest (not a bad idea actually). On that theme he could have gone even further like Musharaff:

Pakistani authorities today charged the opposition politician Imran Khan under the anti-terrorism act after he was arrested at a student demonstration in Lahore.

Brown should have arrested Ming Campbell under the terrorism act for talking to students. In fact he could have done everybody a favour and outlawed all students unions and made attendance at lectures compulsory too. Mind you, arresting elderly gentlemen under the terrorism act is not exactly new territory for the NuLab gestapo.