'That man' is Osama bin Laden. The person who has not had relations with him (supposedly) is Pervez Musharraf (FORMER President of Pakistan). Well, directly... but the interaction has been real if not 'actual'.

And, in the end, Pervez Musharraf has paid the price for a 'perverse' and distant relationship. Some would say that it was not soon enough.

'Coup leader' certainly, some might say 'despot', a powerful military leader perhaps, someone who took his country to brinks on several fronts (notably with India and ObL), a leader for some but not all, someone who held on too long, a player in regionl stages but perhaps not the world stage, someone who 'saw the writing on the wall'.

Will his successor(s) lay their country's problems at his feet after all? Will his memory be impeached, nevertheless?


Yet, please compare and contrast Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan to Robert Gabriel Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

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For those who wonder, I also relate the 'perversity' to the oblique and odd relationship of the government of Malaysia to its former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

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Peter