Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Clothes maketh the man’

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Clothes maketh the man’

    ‘Clothes maketh the man’



    By Irfan Husain


    EVERY once in a while, what passes for the opposition in Pakistan demands that General Musharaf must doff his uniform immediately. This is not unlike the Philistines asking Samson, the Old Testament hero, to shear the locks that gave him his mythical strength.

    It finally took Delilah to beguile Samson into a haircut while he slept. In the absence of a similar stratagem, why should Musharaf divest himself of the true source of his power? The truth is that a retired general is a pathetic figure: shrunken and forlorn, his swagger gone, he is just one more retired army officer scurrying around, desperately seeking a sinecure that would remind him of his days of glory.

    The higher up the greasy pole you go, the more there is to lose: staff cars, outriders, smart salutes and an unlimited number of underlings at your beck and call. And if a young nephew gets into a fight, all you need to do is call the corps commander to send in the heavies. Who would voluntarily wish to give up all this? So when hacks like me talk of ‘exit strategies’, we forget that it’s very easy to get used to the good life.

    In the late eighties, during Benazir Bhutto’s first brief stint, I was in the lobby of a so-called five-star hotel in Islamabad, waiting for a friend, when I saw a brigadier in uniform striding towards the exit. He looked neither left nor right, expecting people to make way for him. And they did, too. His comportment was that of a hero on urgent business, and for whom lesser mortals had better make room. On his smart epaulets sat the power, the arrogance and the authority of the Pakistan Army.

    Wearing a uniform, no matter how humble your station, makes you a member of an anointed elite, and you derive your authority from the state. Thus, a police officer, even one not overendowed by nature, can stick his puny chest out and strut about, master of all he surveys. An immigration officer at the airport may earn a tenth of what you do, but his uniform gives him the power to stop you from catching your flight. Similarly, a customs officer can hassle you for hours on your return just because he is wearing that smart, white outfit.

    Over 20 years ago, General Zia had the brilliant idea of putting the bureaucracy into shalwar-kameez. I was working in the Railway Headquarters in Lahore in those days when out of the blue, orders arrived that henceforth, we would all have to wear the national dress to work. I think the reason given was that suits, trousers and shirts were a heritage of the colonial era, and therefore not suitable for officers working for an independent, Muslim state.

    Because of press censorship, nobody could ask Zia why he had exempted the armed forces and the police from his edict. After all, these uniforms too had been handed down by the Brits. But despite the loud grumbles from my colleagues, we duly turned up at work in our new, desi uniforms. Embarrassingly, a team of French consultants had been negotiating a proposal with some of us in Lahore those days, and they were amazed to see the overnight metamorphosis.

    Zia understood that smart army uniforms gave him and his men an authority that would seep away once they donned the garb of the ruled. One reason the armed forces have maintained a semblance of the discipline that was their hallmark in the colonial era is that they have not fiddled around with their uniforms. Much else might have changed, with old traditions now things of the past. But the starched khaki and the chestful of largely unmerited medals imbue the man within with a spurious aura of reliability.

    But if a uniform lends authority, it also imposes a measure of mediocrity. After all, as the word implies, a uniform leads to uniformity. Field Marshal Wavell (then a newly promoted lieutenant-general) wrote to a friend in 1938 about his impressions of the territorial divisions that had recently joined his command in Salisbury:

    “They are magnificent material for the most part. But it is pathetic to see how much a uniform tends to cramp a man’s natural commonsense and instincts. I suppose it is an almost inevitable characteristic...”

    It must be said that the flip side of the coin is that men in uniform have seldom been accused of original ideas, or even interesting conversation with (retired General Moinuddin Hyder excepted). A lifetime of conforming to a certain way of doing things, and of laughing at bad jokes told by superior officers, must deaden creativity.

    I can claim some limited insight into the military mind by virtue of having spent a couple of months with an infantry battalion in Quetta in the early days of my civil service career. In those days, new civilian officers were attached to military units to teach them how the army ran the show. No doubt this policy was designed by Ayub Khan to improve civil-military relations. Quetta in those days was not the intellectual capital of the country, so I scoured the base library for books. Often, young officers coming to the mess in the evening would ask me if I was preparing for an exam. The concept of reading for pleasure was unknown to them. No doubt,they have since risen to great heights.

    While retaining the uniforms of the colonial army, our soldiers have also retained many of those attitudes. They thus view the rest of us (‘those bloody civvies’) as rabble, and themselves our saviours. Just as the Brits did not consider the natives able to govern themselves, so too does our army deem it necessary to intervene when things are not going according to their idea of how the country should be run.

    While we are on the subject, let’s admit that although General Musharaf cuts a natty figure in his suits and sherwanis, he exudes far greater confidence and authority in his green and brown camouflage uniform. His various medals, ribbons and stars add a dash of adventure and daring. With his beret at a rakish angle, a cigar clenched in his teeth, he could easily be returning to Kargil.

    Given all this, why on earth should he willingly surrender his uniform?
    http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/mazdak.htm
    While this man is attempting to deride Musharraf and his not wanting to step down as the Chief even though he is the President, yet, much that he writes is most humorous and quite true to life.

    What's the scene in western armies?


    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

    HAKUNA MATATA

  • #2
    You take off the uniform before you can wear the suit, Sir.

    Comment


    • #3
      What about the way he makes the military chap appear a jocular martinet.

      Are your officers so pompous?

      In our Army we have some who always act very officious and larger than life!


      "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

      I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

      HAKUNA MATATA

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Ray
        What about the way he makes the military chap appear a jocular martinet.

        Are your officers so pompous?
        Pffttt, Of course, Sir. We had a Chief of Defence Staff who ordered a retirement parade for himself. Another CDS ordered everyone (soldier, sailor, airman) to search the entire day to look for any and all documents concerning Somalia. Another CDS couldn't hack it in Washington DC being a small fish amongst sharks. Our last CDS personally took the heat for our Prime Minister playing golf instead of attending Jordan's King Hussein's funeral. It's only the starch stiff uniforms that hide the fact that they're spineless.

        Comment


        • #5


          "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

          I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

          HAKUNA MATATA

          Comment


          • #6
            Ooops?

            Well then. If the Question is one of bespoke Tailoring, may I suggest something on the erm...
            Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

            Comment


            • #7
              You're under the impression officers have balls.

              Comment


              • #8
                civ.

                Originally posted by Officer of Engineers
                You're under the impression officers have balls.
                depending on the guest list nach etc.
                Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

                Comment

                Working...
                X