Not half as interesting as Berlusconi

If we think we have a leadership problem, we should look at Italy. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, also known as Emperor Silvio, has turned politics into one never-ending soap opera in which the star performer is, as you may have guessed, himself. He is the subject of scandal and titillating gossip but it harms him not. Far from being chastened by the attention his behaviour attracts, he revels in it. Economically Italy is in a mess but he rides the tide of popular approval in a way few other leaders in Europe and North America can match.

Perhaps this says something about Italy. Politics, Italian-style, is a lot more fun than in most other places, certainly more fun than in Pakistan where we have made a national pastime of constant moaning. We are too grim about things. If we need a strategic partnership with any country it should be Italy. At least we would take a less frenzied view of the universe.

La Dolce Vita, the sweet life, is not just about material things. It is first about a mental attitude which we used to have once upon a time until, our luck giving out, we fell into the Zia era. Since then we haven't been able to live life as a normal nation. (See how easy it is for Pakistanis to become grim and unbearable.)

Our politics, however, is not all grey. There are colourful figures in it, none more so than the president, our accidental president as we like to call him when other words fail us when it comes to describing the emotions he arouses.

President Asif Zardari is a man with a reputation which rests for the most part on his extraordinary skill in high financial matters, the fortune by all accounts that he has amassed, some of it here but mostly abroad, his Swiss bank accounts which despite the occasional fits the Supreme Court has when it considers this issue remain safe and untouched, his taste in necklaces, one of which was supposed to have been bought for his wife but, if well-founded gossip is to be

believed, actually went to some one else.

This is an impressive portfolio. Power players in Pakistan don't wear kid gloves. Whether from the army, the bureaucracy, the turbulent fields of politics, or commerce and industry, they need no education in how to work the system to their advantage. But no one in Pakistan's history comes close to the scale on which Zardari has operated. There has been nothing petty or smalltime about his exploits.

But compared to Berlusconi this still looks tepid. Berlusconi heads a media empire which includes the three largest private television networks. Since 1970 his TV stations have offered a staple diet of scantily-clad women. This has been done so consistently -- two sexy showgirls on either side of the male TV host -- that it has reshaped the political landscape, making celebrity more important than ideology.

For years Berlusconi has been dogged by charges of corruption, bribery and even contacts with organized crime. But he remains unfazed and no questions arise about his grip on power.

The NRO, a law drawing a curtain on previous corruption cases, was passed by Pervez Musharraf, not Zardari, although Zardari was its principal beneficiary. But Berlusconi has had about eighteen laws passed -- some record this -- to protect his person.

But the field in which Berlusconi outshines all rivals relates to his lifestyle which he flaunts in a way no one else would dare to do. To go about with pretty women is one thing. But to consort with ladies of the night publicly, to the extent of inviting them to official functions, is somewhat different. Showgirls figured prominently in his campaign for the 2008 elections. Several former showgirls were even candidates and are now in the Italian parliament. Two were made ministers: of equal opportunity and tourism.

In 2009 Berlusconi chose a couple of dozen showgirls, in their early twenties, as candidates for the European Parliament. As an article by Alexander Stille in the New York Review of Books -- The Corrupt Reign of Emperor Silvio -- from which I have gleaned most of this information, puts it: "Few of them (the candidates) had any political experience. One of them had been the weather girl on a Berlusconi network (good for her, which is my comment, not the author's). Several had attended some of his private parties. He set up a school to give them a crash course in European politics so that they wouldn't embarrass themselves during the campaign."

Berlusconi's wife, Lario, was outraged. She denounced the women as "trash without shame…who offer themselves like virgins to the dragon in order to chase after success, fame and money."

Was Berlusconi embarrassed? Not a bit. Soon enough a rightwing newspaper carried a topless photo of Lario from her time as a showgirl, to show she wasn't much of a saint herself. There was also a story published (which Stille says was almost certainly false) that she had been having an affair with her bodyguard.

Italy has also been rocked or rather titillated -- Italy not rocking that easily -- by stories of the prime minister having a close relationship (she calls him 'Papi') with a teenage girl, Noemi Letizia. She too wants to be in parliament: "I am also interested in politics. I'm ready to take advantage of any opportunity at any of the 360 degrees of the circle."

We are too strait-laced, too preoccupied with thoughts of the hereafter to come close to this idea of political liberation. But it would certainly lift the atmosphere of parliament if we had some faces from the arts and the world of culture in it. Imagine Maulana Attaur Rehman as minister of tourism and then consider Berlusconi's choice for the same position.

One of the Maulana's first steps as tourism minister was to seal the liquor outlet at Flashman's Hotel, Rawalpindi. As a result, 20 lakhs worth of beer has gone flat, of no use to man or beast. We might be closer to redemption but money has been lost, to say nothing of the parched throats, certified license-holders, which would have benefited.

Compared to Muslims, soldiers of the faith, our Christian brothers and sisters are thrice empowered. They have two votes, one for general seats, the other for their own representatives. And they have the right to have a liquor permit, which makes them the envy of the more errant members of the majority community. When we talk of minority persecution we should consider this aspect of the matter too.

Dino Boffo, editor of a Catholic newspaper, wrote something criticizing Berlusconi's private conduct. A Berlusconi newspaper countered with a story suggesting that Boffo had wayward tendencies (I hope my meaning is clear). This distracted attention from the scandals relating to Berlusconi then playing in the media. Boffo was forced to resign. Compared to the charge against him, Berlusconi's own conduct seemed like old-fashioned fun.

Berlusconi has a villa on the island of Sardinia where he throws interesting parties, photos of which have appeared in the press showing both girls and politicians in a revealing light (let me say no more). A businessman, Gianpaolo Tarantino, hoping to gain access to Berlusconi, rented a villa close by for $100,000 a month. He gave a string of parties full of attractive girls. His efforts were soon rewarded.

He and his associates obtained contracts for the rebuilding of the city of Aquila, hit by an earthquake. To quote the Review, "The centre of the city was fenced off as a construction site and television cameras were kept out until angry citizens broke through a police barrier in order to see what had become of their homes. They were stunned to find everything exactly as it was on the day of the earthquake."

Things like this happen here too and there are officials and businessmen who know how to pander to the tastes of bosses in power. But given our closed society, these things remain largely behind wraps. We will never have Italian-style politics -- no fun, please, we are Pakistanis -- but a bit of Italian openness should be welcome. And in our parliament we could do with some of the talent that Berlusconi has so successfully promoted in Italy.



Email: winlust@yahoo.com