A crisis for Lee Bollinger?

Given Columbia University president Lee Bollinger's love affair with Pervez Musharraf, I can only imagine the long faces in the Bollinger household over this news:

Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday, ahead of a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, thrusting the country deeper into political turmoil as it struggles with spreading Islamic militancy.

The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, were cut.

Seven Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said.

Let's try to be positive here: maybe they were just being taken out for a fun and informative tour of Islamabad.

You'd almost be tempted to say that Musharraf is exhibiting "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," wouldn't you.  But that would just be piling on.

UPDATE: Democracy marches on in Pakistan:

The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, making no concessions a day after seizing emergency powers, rounded up leading opposition figures and said Sunday that parliamentary elections could be delayed for as long as a year.

Security forces were reported to have detained about 500 opposition party figures, lawyers and human rights advocates on Sunday, and about a dozen privately owned television news stations remained off the air. International broadcasters, including the BBC and CNN, were also cut off.

Again, can't we try to be positive about this?  Parliamentary elections are very complex and time-consuming, so it's not at all surprising that it might take a while to hold them.  And perhaps Musharraf just wants to have a series of encounter groups with these 500 "detained" people, in order to brainstorm a democratic transition plan for Pakistan.  And as for cutting off CNN--c'mon, who can't relate to that?  A few minutes of Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs is enough to put anyone off of television news for a lifetime.

Comments

[Save the Oocytes]

"I suspect that Pakistan's sovereignty is in danger unless timely action is taken."
"Extremists are roaming around freely in the country, and they are not scared of law-enforcement agencies."
"Kindly understand the criticality of the situation in Pakistan and around Pakistan. Pakistan is on the verge of destabilization."
"Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide."

It seems all too familiar.

"US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the declaration of emergency rule was 'highly regrettable.'"

[John Caruso]

You have to admire his selflessness, don't you? And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the action required of him in order to help Pakistan in its time of need just happens to raise him to a position of supreme power over the country as well.

[Save the Oocytes]

He'd mah HERO! You have to love a president who looks good in a military uniform and protects a country from its judiciary. Thank goodness the remaining justices have been made to pledge an oath of loyalty! Who knows what they might have done to the country? The more I read about the situation, the lovelier it seems.

Comments on the BBC are, as usual, remarkable. Notable is that many are from Pakistan.
You also have to love Paul Reynolds' article "West faces new Pakistan dilemma." Good we're able to focus on what really matters. Reynolds and Matt Frei consistently piss me off.

[mistah charley, ph.d.]

By pre-emptively imprisoning his opponents, the President is showing his commitment to non-violence. Putting them in prison now makes it unnecessary to shoot them dead in the streets, as regrettably happened recently in Burma.

[John Caruso]

That's the spirit!