 Dictators are rarely
tall
From Napoleon to Ziaul Haq & ...
Ali Ashraf Khan
July 22, 2004
iranian.com
Long years ago I read an article on class of rulers
known by the nomenclature of dictators. The common characteristic
of the dictator as pointed out in the article was, and it is a
fact also that dictators were rarely tall, when there is deficiency
in one characteristic of man, God compensates him somewhere in
some other quality.
Napolean Bonapart was 5 feet 1 inch, Herr Hitler,
dictator of Germany, the world's most photographed man at that
time, was a little below the German average height. Benito Mussolini
was 5 feet 6 inches. General Franco, the man who led a successful
revolt against the Monarchy in Spain was a little above 5 feet
in his field boots, he ruled Spain as Head of the State for 36
years without any elections, and the beauty of his character is
that he returned Spain to a scion of the Monarch whom he toppled
in Spain and returned the country back to Monarchy.
Herr Hitler
wanted to dominate Europe. Before annexing
Czechoslovakia summoned the President of Czechoslovakia Dr. Benes,
and barked at him. "Are you not aware that you are in the presence
of the greatest Germen history has ever known?" Dr. Benes fainted.
Hitler tried to find excuses to expand his empire over Eurasia.
Hitler's claim on the Polish port of Denzig came as easy excuse
and he invaded Poland in September 1939, his army ran through Scandanavian
countries and France. Wherefrom the British expeditionary forces
had to withdraw, which Churchill, the then Prime Minister, in his
famous address to parliament called a colossal military disaster.
Hitler's succesess in Europe found an ally in the person
of Benito Mussolini, who ransacked Ethopia in search of hidden
gold. But there is a similarity in the end of these two dictators
also. At the end of the 2nd World War when German-Italian axis
was defeated Musolinis body was dragged in the streets of Rome
and hung up in a public square for display to the Italian nation,
he once ruled.
Hitler confined himself in a cellar in Berlin along
with his mistress Eva Braun and his faithful dog. He called for
the
priest, to perform the nuptial rites and then gave a capsule of
poison to his newly weded wife Eva and put a bullet through
the head of his faithful dog and another bullet to his own head.
Allies tried to find out dead bodies, which they could never find,
probably they were burnt by his followers, Hitlers second-in-command
Field Marshal Goering and others Herr Von Ribbon Trop, Herr Himmler,
Dr. Gobbles, the propaganda chief were brought for trial before
the Nuremberg Tribunal for War Crimes and sentenced to death.
The
leadership of Eurasia was expected and it was an ignobel death
that was seen, fate has these turns, the makers of history forget
that the wheels of history grind slowly, but surely grind small.
The final destination of every ruler is the grave, irrespective
of his or her expectations. When Alexender the great died and his
body was being taken to the grave both of his hands were stretched
out of the coffin to indicate that he is going to meet the Maker
empty handed.
In the case of Napolean, throne of the world was
expected, it was St. Helena that was seen, fate has these turns,
out of all these facts of history there has emerged a saying that
pride goeth before fall. It happened in the case of Hitler, it
happened in the case of Musolini, it has happened and it will continue
to happen in the case of every ruler turned dictator. The main
difference between a ruler and a dictator is that a ruler is benevolent,
he rules according to laws framed by the nation, while the dictator
is free of all restrictions, his word is law.
The greatest example
of democracy is in England, where there is no written constitution,
the Prime Minister rules according to the traditions laid down
by the parliament, when Charles-I wanted to rule according to the
constitution, the parliament took away all the powers of the King,
the King refused to sign this law and no law can be passed as an
Act unless it is ascented by His Majesty Charles I refused to
give his ascent, the parliament then passed the law to behead the
King and the King was in fact beheaded. In parliamentary democracy,
the Prime Minister is responsible to parliament for each and every
action, so much so that a Minister can not afford to have a scandel
and himself much less the prime Minister.
There is one mitigating factor in case of Napolean
and Alexender: their intense love for their mothers. Once Napolean,
when he was
a soldier in the French army, was standing a bit worried on the
bank of River Siene. His life long friend met him, but Napolean
was unmoved. His friend shouted, "What is your problem? Are you
not happy to see me?" Napolean replied, "My mother
is very sick and I can't buy her medicine." His friend asked him to keep
standing there and then ran back and brought with him six thousand gold Francs.
Napolean took it and rushed to remit the money to his mother and when he returned,
his
friend was not there.
Later Napolean was riding to the place for his
coronation, riding in a stagecoach. He
spotted his friend in the
crowd. Napolean stopped the procession, ran to his friend, caught him by his
hand and brought him in his coach to ride with him. Napolean offered sixty
thousand gold Francs, his friend refused to take it, he had enough
of his own money, he
did not need it, he only gave money to Napolean when he needed it. The two
friends never met thereafter. Can we find such an example of such
a sincere friendship?
I am sure the answer would be in negative.
Another example of the intense love
for his mother is of Alexender the great, when he left Greece for the conquest
of the world, he handed over the charge of the affairs of the state to his
friend Antipeter. Antipeter used to write to Alexender every
day and in one of his letters
he expressed his inability to carry on the affairs of the state because of
the interference of Alexender's mother. Alexender read the letter
and said, one drop
of tear from the eyes of my mother can wash off one thousand such letters
of Antipeter and threw the letter into fire.
When Iraq was being
ruled by King
Faisal, Prince Abdul Ilah was the crown prince and also the ruler
of Syria. Nuri-es-Said
was the Prime Minister and when General Abudul Karim Kasim of Iraqi army
staged a
coup, Nouri-es-Said fled the country. King Faisal's mother caught hold
of the hand of her son, took a copy of Holy Quran in her hand and went to
General Abdul Karim Kasim to beg for the lives of her son and herself. General
Kasim
took out his revolver and shot both the mother and her son King Faisal. They
may be buried in a corner in the royal palalce. Violence begets violence,
and later on dictator General Abdul Karim Kasim met the same fate alongwith
his
few supporters.
So there is a great similarity not only in the heights
of the dictators
but also in their policies and movements and their final end, this is the
law of God. This is what Saddam Hussein is facing now for his unjust attack
on Iran,
Kuwait and Kurds.
Another typical example of dictators is General Ziaul
Haq of Pakistan, nearly 5 feet 6 Inches in height. A dictator has
got no priciples,
no policies, and no morals and true to his character Ziaul Haq
toppled his own benefactor Prime Minister Zulifikar Ali Bhutto,
who had selected him for appointment
as Chief of the Army Staff. Ziaul Haq not only toppled Bhutto but also
saw to it that he is put to death and that too by judicial process,
he ruled the country right, left and center, appointed ministers and got
them approved by a hand picked majlis-e-shoora.
But in the
final anylasis, his fate was also the same as that of Hitler, Musolini
and others.
Ziaul Haq wipped and flogged and used the boggey of Islamization
to crush the national spirit of the people of Pakistan. He did not fail
even to
exploit
religion of Islam to perpetuate his rule in one form or the other and
died in a mysterious plane crash in which the American Ambassador
and a Brigadier
General
were also killed. A dictator lives and dies for himself and not for country.
No enquiries were finalized to ascertain the real cause behind
the assisination
of the Head of the State of Pakistan. This is how the dictators end because
they do not have the support of the people.
Smoking blood over crowded
cemetries and
mothers in tears are formidable pleaders to which the abiss has to lend
an ear. The problem with power is that it goes to the head of
the person who
attains it; first he attains power, then he uses power and then he abuses
power and
finally
he losses power, this is what happened in the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
He was advised to consolidate the nation first before entering into international
arena of politics, this advice was taken lightly by him and in the process
he
expected the leadership of the Islamic world, but a hangmans noose was
seen, fate has these turns.
History does not record a person
who has been able
to retain the balance of their head after attaining power. The so-called
sacred
document
known as the 3rd Constitution of Pakistan is a piece in example. Immediately
after promulgation of the 1973 constitution Mr. Bhutto brought in seven
amendments one of which was that if the President does not give
his ascent to an act
passed by the parliament within 7 days, the ascent of the President will
be deemed to
have been obtained.
 Mr. Bhutto was also not satisfied with his dejure
number 2 position in the Pakistani heriachry and wanted to amend
the constitution
suitably, and that is why 2/3 majority in the parliament had to be obtained,
which led
him to the hangmans noose. This is where dictatorial nature of the rulers
comes in. Thus the father of the Islamic bomb went to the gallows.
The
present impasse
before the world is that the super power is trying to become the supermost
in the world of today. In pursuit of its goal, the super power has
to find excuses
to subdue the other nations and take control of their resources. God
has given ample wealth in the continents of Africa and Asia, over
which the
super power
is concentrating to take control, so a kind of fear is being inculcated
in comperatively weaker but oil rich nations and also over European
nations
for which American
manned NATO is being successfully used.
Law of nature is that strength
lies in unity and unity alone, and this advise is given in the
Holy
Quran, Surah Luqman, where an old mad had seven sons, who use to fight
against each other, the old man called all the sons and gave each of
them a bundle
of sticks tied together and asked them to break the bundle of sticks,
they could
not, then he untied these bundles and gave each one of them a stick,
which they broke in no time. The moral of the story is that unity is
strength,
there is
no greater hour than now, when greatest demand for the Islamic world
is to unite and exploit their own resources and meet the challenges of
the
so-called
terrorism
and its imaginary villan Osama bin Laden created by President George
W. Bush.
 Instead of acting on the policy of friends or foe,
let us adopt the
policy,
live and let live. This is the only honourable way of life otherwise
law of God is
bound to come into action and take its toll. This is what happened
to Namrod during the pre-historic days of Prophet Abraham, this
is what
happened
to Remesis during the days of Moses and the law of God has never been
defied or can it
ever be defied. The preachers of democracy, who turn themselves into
dictators through
sheer
brute majority created by power politics, may want to take serious
note of this facet of history.
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Dictators are rarely
tall
