This editorial won't so much be an argument as an encomium. Perhaps this violates my contract ... If so, here are some quick theses: GM foods are good. Don Imus is bad. America should preemptively invade the moon to prevent its imminent Chinese domination.
Now that that's out of the way, I want to spend some time singing the praises of folks who don't often get much praise: lawyers and their kin.
I don't like lawyers for the same reason I don't like doctors or auto mechanics — I can't tell if they're lying to me. Nonetheless, in Pakistan, the lawyers and judges the only ones holding back Musharraf.
On Monday, I saw a picture of one of them in the International Herald Tribune. He was middle-aged, and portly bordering on obese. He wore a nice suede suit, glasses, and a mustache large enough to flag down aircraft. This lawyer looked like he hadn't taken the stairs in a decade, but here he was, throwing tear gas shells back at the police who had fired them. Fist raised in anger, tie flaring up in the wind, his mouth was open in a wordless scream against the establishment. Zack de la Rocha never looked so fierce when he was raging against the machine.
One does not generally think of lawyers as fighting the man, but out in Pakistan, they were occupying buildings and throwing stones at police who advanced on them with riot gear and batons. It wasn't much of a fight — but it was a fight, and that counts for something.
The story is that Musharraf instituted martial law on some trumped-up charges of national security, and the Supreme Court fought him on it. The Court had circumscribed Musharraf's excesses for quite some time, since legitimate courts tend to dislike dictators. Earlier this spring, Musharraf tried to dismiss the Chief Justice, Chaudhry. Lawyers responded by leading massive protests, and the General (President?) gave up.
Now, Chaudhry has been fired, and police have arrested about 2,000 protestors and opposition leaders in order to forestall a repeat of the spring demonstrations. Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the most powerful opposition party, is laying low until later in the week. For the time being, at least, the lawyers are going it alone.
Still, they've had successes. My favorite story is this one: In the city of Multan, two new judges are sworn in during the martial law; they're cronies of the government. Hundreds of lawyers confront them, with the line: "You've taken an unconstitutional oath; if you don't go, we will throw eggs at you." They went.
I can only hope that if an American president imposed martial law, our lawyers and judges would be game to fight it. Lawyers have a lot to lose; they have regular, high-paying jobs and a high place in society. It takes courage to risk that easy life for your moral principles. The worst the government can do to me is to take away my crappy apartment, but these lawyers could lose it all.
I haven't lost my respect for your run-of-the-mill, college-age, indigent protester. But in Pakistan, at least, social justice wears a tie.
Seth Pate wouldn't mind seeing some lawyers he knows get tear-gassed.
Disagree with him at spate@asu.edu.
