Zardari, Zuma and zodiacal mysteries

Sep 29, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If billions of people had told me that Asif Zardari would have become the President of Pakistan, I would have waved them off as people who know nothing about politics. I read that he became President of Pakistan while reading the newspapers in my car in the National Park after jogging. It was incredible news for me. It was shocking and abhorrent. It was news that made me want to vomit. I normally read the newspaper after jogging, then go for a quiet walk under the trees where the seaside grapes are. The idea came to me that I should do an article entitled “A crapaud has become a king”, but I wasn’t sure if the editor would accept the caption.
Mr. Zardari has been in and out of jail for massive corruption when his equally corrupt wife, Benazhir Bhutto, was Prime Minister. The Swiss Government had handed over evidence of his banking transactions in that country to their Pakistani counterparts. The BBC found proof that he owned property in the UK. Now this man that should never be accepted as a politician in any country on Planet Earth is the President of one of the world’s important states. Maybe, deep in the heart of the universe, there are mysteries connected to the zodiacal signs that humans cannot understand. Within those esoteric corners lie the luck of Asif Zardari.
Imagine the farce in Pakistani society, where civil servants, judges and journalists would have to pay respect to this man. His rise to power puts the Americans in choppy water. Is the American Government going to do business with a man whose release from jail came about not because of the working of the rule of law, but because of a huge political crisis over which no one in Pakistan had control? Whatever one wants to say about the story of the unexpected stardom of Zardari (surely not in his country alone, but on the world stage, because Pakistan is not a minor player in world politics), it sharply symbolizes the vagaries and vicissitudes of life that arrive in our lives and shape our fate in ways we never expected.
People in this world should learn one vital, priceless lesson about the political elevation of Asif Zardari, and that is that life has secret movements that one day will come back to confront and haunt us. We should all be careful how we treat people. Do you ever think for a moment that the bankers in Switzerland, the journalistic reporters of the BCC, and the civil servants and judges in Pakistan would have ever stopped to think that Asif Zardari would have become the President of Pakistan? Nothing, absolutely nothing in Pakistani politics offered even the slightest clue. Even if his wife had become the Prime Minister, she would have assigned him a low profile because of the negative perceptions her country had of him.
The Zardari tale is one that should cause little dictators, arrogant power-possessors, and haughty policy-makers to stop and contemplate the aura of luck, magic and mystery that form part of the essence of this life we live. People you mash up may one day get up on their feet, long after you have trodden on them, and could decide your destiny. When Jacob Zuma was facing a magistrate, South African President Thabo Mbeki perhaps never thought that, six months after the charges, that same Zuma would play a huge role in toppling him. When I reflect on the unforeseen forces that lie in our path, I think of Robert Persaud. Colin Smith and I had fun with Robert when he was a young reporter working with us at the Catholic Standard. I would jokingly insist that Robert bring fresh cow’s milk for me in exchange for writing his pieces. Today, Robert is considered a leading candidate for the Guyanese presidency.
Who knows what type of journey we will embark on? Who knows what roads lie ahead? Fate is a crystal ball we can never possess. It is a mirror that reflects only the hidden and the invisible, and not what we want to see. This young man, sporting a bald head, that is so fashionable these days, came up to my car at the Vlissengen Road Esso Station. He introduced himself as the son of the late Joseph “O’Lall. His eyes told me that he was deeply hurt at the mistreatment of his father. Many believe O’Lall died of a heart attack because of his unjustified dismissal. Could we rule out that, one day, the son may avenge his father’s victimization? There is talk all the time of a permanent electoral victory for the PPP. Those who talk this talk know nothing about life.

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Zardari, Zuma and zodiacal mysteries

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