The Film
Are dictatorship and democracy mutually exclusive? In a country of cultures as ancient and complex as Pakistan’s, the answer to what the future holds is not straightforward. Projected to be the world’s third-most-populous country by 2050, Pakistan has stood at the crossroads of East and West for centuries.
Now in the “nuclear club,” and an emerging secular democracy amidst neighboring Islamic theocracies, Pakistan plays a critical role in America’s war on terrorism. Former President Pervez Musharraf had long been viewed as a key U.S. ally in the region—a reputation that did not always serve him well in Pakistan. DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT: A Nation’s Journey recounts a moment in Pakistani history and helps to inform an exploration of its future.
Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar and Sri Lankan co-director Satha Sathananthan request a dinner with their country’s leader—and to their surprise, the request is granted. The journey goes beyond dinner table conversation as the filmmakers achieve a sense of openness with their host. The president shares his thoughts about topics not usually explored by the media as he engages in personal conversation never seen in news clips.
The filmmakers travel throughout the country: from remote rural areas to talk with chiefs about traditional government, to a beach resort to take the pulse of wealthy young hipsters, and to the North-West Frontier Province to see how democracy works within a strict Islamic culture.
As they encounter people from all levels of Pakistani society, the film reveals a country where ethnic and tribal loyalties struggle against modernization and religious Islamic forces threaten to make Pakistan a theocracy like Iran. In the crosshairs of these changes sits the president himself, whose ties to the military and modernization efforts in Pakistan had made him a lightning rod for controversy from across the political spectrum.
DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT asks its audience to rethink conventional Western wisdom around concepts such as individual rights, democracy, power and political process.
Update
Pervez Musharraf is no longer president of Pakistan. Filmmakers Sabiha Sumar and Satha Sathananthan sent this update on September 28, 2008:The campaign to oust Pervez Musharraf, ostensibly over his attempts to impose authoritarian rule, exploited his role as a U.S. ally between 1999 and 2003 to pillory him as a “U.S. puppet” and underplayed his nationalist opposition to U.S. policies from 2004 up to his resignation from the office of President of Pakistan on August 18, 2008. He dodged sending troops to Iraq, refused to isolate Iran and strengthened nuclear cooperation with China, for which he earned Washington’s wrath.
The regime change in Pakistan carries telltale signs observed in the earlier “color revolutions” in Georgia (Rose Revolution), Ukraine (Orange Revolution) and Kyrgystan (Tulip Revolution). He appeared to wrap up his political career when in an hour-long televised farewell speech he said, “I leave my future in the hands of the people, to let them be the judges and let them do the justice.” However, he continues to live in Pakistan and in September 2008, up to 40 legislators requested him to re-enter politics as leader of a new party.
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