Toadyism, Shahbaz Sharif & the Family Chappell

Rewards for Loyal Toadies

In June 2005, when Musharraf went ballistic over a village woman - the hapless Mukhtaran Mai – and disallowed her from traveling abroad, his loyal toady Nelofar Bakhtiar (engaged as some sort of supposed advisor to the supposed prime minister) rushed to the press and fervently announced:

'All I want to say is that whatever decision the president took was the right one.'

Unable to pass the opportunity to eulogize this woman, I commented (in my blog): 'This lady deserves the Victoria Cross for sycophancy above and beyond the call of sanity.'

Ms. Bakhtiar was undoubtedly aware that dynamic toadyism pays untold dividends in modern Pakistan. And so, not surprisingly, it was recently reported in the local press that Muslim League (Chumcha Group) has awarded a guaranteed senate ticket to this fearless female example of accomplished sycophancy.

Way to go, Senator Nelofar Bakhtiar!

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Shahbaz Sharif Takes Leave of His Senses?

According to yesterday’s Daily Times

Shahbaz Sharif admitted that although he previously regarded ‘competence and ability’ as the most important qualities in a party member, he too was now beginning to agree with his brother’s emphasis on ‘loyalty’.

Hang on. Your Blogger can understand political ‘loyalty’ to a set of beliefs or principles, but unvarnished loyalty to any politician or political family reeks of pure ‘Badshah-ism’. Besides the only people who could profess loyalty to man with a revealed IQ that is even less than that of George W. Bush’s, would be those whose political self interest would be cloaked with bountiful sycophancy.

Since October 1999, those who could ditch the Sharif brothers and prosper did so. Most of other so-called ‘loyalists’ who didn’t abandon the Sharif family did so because they weren’t offered any significant positions by the military and were not terrorized by NAB for their past misdeeds.

What Shahbaz Sharif ought to have said is: ‘We need people with political integrity accompanied with a measure of competence’.

Someone should perhaps remind him that abject ‘loyalty’ and ‘ability’ rarely go hand in hand; on the other hand ‘competence’ and ‘integrity’ can be compatible.

I can’t help but wonder whether the word ‘integrity’ even exists in the Sharif brothers’ lexicon?
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A Dim-Witted Australian Sheila

The three Chappell brothers – Ian, Greg and Trevor - have never been acknowledged for being superior cricketers in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, if anything, they have been known for the meanness, pettiness, at times, plain nastiness.

The eldest, Ian Chappell, notoriously changed the cricket’s chivalrous code for good. He is widely credited with starting the trend of not walking, even when the batsman knew he was out. Ian’s attitude was that it was the umpire's job to make the decision. As a result, he would stand his ground until the finger was raised, no matter how obvious the dismissal. Unfortunately the disease spread through the Australian team and then was caught eventually by all other international sides.

Then it was Greg Chappell, as the Aussie cricket captain in 1981, who told his brother Trevor Chappell to bowl underarm along the ground for the final delivery of an ODI against New Zealand. The action prevented tailender Brian McKechnie hitting the six runs required for a tie in the first match of the finals series.

And now we have the same Greg Chappell, as the Indian coach, irately complaining about Shoaib Akhtar’s deliveries shortly after India’s test series defeat in Pakistan. If he had wished to have been taken more seriously, he ought to have complained during the series and not after it was all over. No one can be blamed for assuming that it was a case of the usual Chappell ‘sour grapes’.

And now to cap it all, today I read the following on the Net:

A half smoked cigar of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is the most precious memento that Judy, wife of Indian team coach Greg Chappell, is carrying from her Pakistan visit.

When Indians next meet Zimbabwe, I would suggest that Judy Chappell collect a similar trophy from Robert Mugabe, another celebrated third-world ‘democrat’. If she can’t collect Mugabe’s half-smoked cigar than perhaps she should settle for one of his oft used snot-covered handkerchiefs.

Pakistan