A letter to our President - since he's so busy

A letter to Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, something I felt I had to right since he’s so busy traveling all the time, I don't think I'd be able to say all this in person.
Please note that this is a candid letter and although to the best of my abilities I've tried to provide links to most of the facts in this article, some facts may have been prompted by personal hatred and lack of conviction on my part with regards to our president's abilities. Wherever that may have happened, I apologies.

Dear Mr. President,
Earlier today, I wrote a letter to a fellow colleague of yours in the field of politics, someone who ruled this country before you. He didn’t come into power through a democratic way but then again neither did you. You simply took the back door and stood at the podium when no one was really paying any attention. Now sure you can argue that yours was a more politically correct method but I can’t help but do certain comparisons as time goes by. Allow me to elaborate.
Your predecessor, Pervaiz Musharaf was a man of the uniform, came into power through a coup, but was legally granted legislative authority by a 12member bench in the Supreme Court – you remember what a court is? No it’s not one of those places you have in your mansions and country clubs with green grass and white painted lines, it’s actually the only judicial body that had a backbone before you broke it, granted Mr. Musharaf did cripple it before you but you didn’t want it to stand up either, now did you.
Nevertheless, I do believe that Mr. Musharaf had this country’s best interest at heart. He did state that he wanted to improve the economic situation of the country and while in office from 2000 to 2008, this country did see a growth rate of 6.6%[1] (adjusted for inflation) for two consecutive years and this was coming up from a low of 4.5% in 2003 (again adjusted for inflation), and mind you he had the war on terror issues to deal with ever since 2001, so you can well imagine the difficulties he had to face. Some analysts even site 8% as a possible GDP growth number during the 2004 to 2007[2]. The growth was lead by the service sector and also industry. People were making a living, sure we could have been better but we were getting by.
Now you’ve been in office for a little over 2years and our GDP has plummeted to an all time low of 2.7% (adjusted for inflation) - my question to you is, how the hell did you manage to do all that? All the building blocks were in front of you, the foundation had been laid down, your party had majority seats in the government – you took an oath to help us live a normal economically viable life, you promised! Or didn’t you?
At the time of your government’s entry inflation is at an all time high – the consumer price index (CPI) was up by 24%, the sensitive price index (SPI) 33% and the wholesale price index (WPI) was 34%![3] And this was in 2008 to 2009, the current year we’re expecting another 11% hike on the CPI over an above last year. Upto 2007 during Musharaf’s time inflation was in single digits at 7.7%[4] (high but still bearable)
Now the question arises, if all things were going so well for us in the past 8 years of Musharaf’s rule, what in the hell happened in a matter of a few months of you taking office?
Even unemployment went up when you took office from 13.6% in 2008 to 15.2% in 2009[5] - current events in 2010 with the floods perhaps should not be taken into account, I’ll give you that one, but why Mr. President? Why?!
The more we earn the less it has become over the years – in 2007 just before you came into power the US Dollar was worth PKR60.63 this was slightly higher then PKR59.5 in 2005 but the moment you came into power the US Dollar just simply sky rocketed to PKR70.6 in 2008 and then 81.4 in 2009[6] and it now stands at PKR85.8!
When I see members from your party on television speaking on the different political talk shows all I see them doing is brushing away relevant questions asked by the opposition or the common man and bringing forth a barrage of mud slinging allegations, taunts and humiliating remarks. You even have a PPP member by the name of Sardar Abdul Qayyum (a federal minister) admit that corruption was the right of your party![7] Yup finally an honest statement from your party, sad it had to be so ugly.
There was an article the other day in the newspaper (apologies I don’t have the link to this one), where it was stated that your first term in office you spent more time abroad than you did back home, I don’t even want to think of the how much I had to pay to keep you there but why Mr. Zardari – why do you feel the need to do this? Is it because you can’t find a Sara Palin to shake hands[8] with here or is it because you can’t breathe the same air of the common man?
What I’m trying to ask you Mr. President is why are you here? Have you not made enough money for yourself? Can we not have some development from your end, do we not deserve dignity and self respect like every other human being? Why on Earth do you feel the need to leave your common man in a state of disarray at a time when you could have gained the most respect from them?
The floods have now affected close to 15,000,000 people in Pakistan (that’s close to 10% of the population). This natural disaster has claimed over 3000 lives. Your main puppet, I mean the Prime Minister Raza Gillani has stated that we have been pushed further back into the dark ages – and I thought the power issues of the country had already pushed us into pitch darkness. Are you going to be using this calamity as a reason for further unemployment and lack of effort ony our part?
So fine, you wanted to help by asking for aid – ok then answer me this If you had to go begging for money (which seems to come naturally to you), could you not have done it like a humble man. Travel by PIA perhaps, stay in a low end hotel (of course not a 3star, but perhaps a 4star, but not necessarily a suite in a five star hotel[9]). And what’s with the entire entourage that travels with you, is there really a need?
You’re the president of one of the poorest countries in the world, snap out of your dilution of greatness.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states very clearly that one has to be able to achieve his/her physiological needs (food, water, shelter, the basics) before he even thinks about safety, belonging, esteem or self actualization. If you’ve cared to hear the plea of the common man, all we’re asking for is the physiological and safety needs, we haven’t even asked you for much.
Please try to be a human being and do what should come naturally to us humans, try to belong, try to help, try to be honest and last of all try to be humble.
[1] http://www.indexmundi.com/pakistan/gdp_real_growth_rate.html - checked on 12th Aug 2010 (all GDP numbers taken from here)
[2] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html - Economy section checked on 12th Aug 2010
[3] http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/price_statistics/monthly_price_indices/mpi7/cpi_details.pdf - checked on 12th Aug 2010
[4] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html - Economy section checked on 12th Aug 2010
[5] http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/pakistan/pakistan_economy.html - checked 12th Aug 2010
[6] http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/pakistan/pakistan_economy.html - checked 12th Aug 2010
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz_GhVe3yBs – checked on 12th Aug 2010
[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkFnaFyylQ8 – checked on 12th Aug 2010
[9] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/04/zardaris_katrina - checked on 12th Aug 2010