A Tale of Two Dictators

Dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan visited the US last week and was feted like the King of England by the neo-cons. Once again the blatant hypocrisy shown by the neo-con regime in Washington is unbelievable.

They rant and rave about bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and yet at the same time they give their wholehearted support to murderous tyrants like Dictator Nazarbayev.

Dictator Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan like his own personal fiefdom for nearly two decades. He holds "elections" in which he and his party receive over 90% of the votes but these "elections" have been condemned as rigged and flawed by all neutral observers, including the OSCE. Opposition politicians have been imprisoned on trumped up charges or they have mysteriously "died" just before the elections.

Many of the companies privatised by Nazarbayev have ended up in the hands of his family who also run virtually every TV/radio station and newspaper in the country. Despite all this Dictator Nazarbayev has the US's full support.

Q) Why?

1) Could it be because Dictator Nazarbayev has allowed the US military to use Kazakhstan as a launch pad for it's rape of Afghanistan?
2) Could it be because Kazakhstan, sandwiched between Russia and China, provides the US with an important foothold in a strategically important part of the world?
3) Could it be because Kazakhstan contains vast reserves of oil and natural gas?

A) All of the above.

Meanwhile Dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan was speaking at the Oxford Union. Has the world's leading academic institution abandoned democracy? No, this is simply a case of the wallet ruling the heart.

The Pakistani elite, who have profited under Dictator Musharraf's rule, love to send their sons and daughters to Oxford so that they can learn to speak posher than the von Saxe-Coburg Gotha's. The tuition fee they pay Oxford is many times that paid by British students. This buys them a great deal of influence. The Pakistani elite are using this influence to add one more badge of legitimacy to Dictator Musharraf's rule.