Having
roots in Pakistan, once upon a time a British Colony and a member of Common Wealth
for a long time, I believed that Britain was the oldest democracy. However,
this belief has been shattered after hearing that its ex-prime minister Tony
Blair would steer the country out of the turmoil. In my opinion, he should have
been punished for committing war crimes, the worst being his support for Iraq
invasion on the premise of having weapons of mass destruction. Ideally, he
should be hiding his face because tendering an apology could not save him from
the ultimate fate.
In
the recent past, I was engrossed with other topics that included Pakistan’s
prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, facing disqualification, US president not
behaving in the desired manner and his visit to Saudi Arabia, elections in Iran
and ongoing war in my country’s neighborhood, Afghanistan. I confess that I missed
statements of Tony Blair saying that he plans to become more involved in the
debate surrounding Britain’s departure from the European Union because of the
harm it would cause the country.
The
63-year-old, who was speaking on the 20th anniversary of his landslide win over
John Major in the general election of 1997, told the Daily Mirror, “I am going
to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means
getting out into the country and reconnecting. This Brexit thing has given me a
direct motivation to get more involved in politics. You need to get your hands
dirty, and I will.” I believe Britishers should not pay any heed to his
uttering.
I
regret that Britisher, who are the custodian of democracy and good behavior gave
him a chance to resurface, whereas he should have been completely dumped for
bringing the worst disgrace to them. I will even ask a question, are the politicians
from treasury and opposition benches incapable of bringing the country out of
the turmoil?
My
question to Tony Blair, if he is such an ardent supporter of Britain remaining in
the European Union (EU), why did he keep his country out of the common
currency, euro? I understand that somewhere at the back of his mind was that if
Britain joins euro; it would become subservient to Germany and France.
At
this juncture, both Germany and France are adamant at punishing Britain out of the
EU or be ready to pay a huge cost to stay its member. If Tony Blair committed a
mistake of becoming the spokesman of war monger George Bush and now living in
isolation, Britain also faces isolation for its decision to quit the community.
Even if the new parliament wishes to reverse the process, it would only be at
the stringent conditions of the EU.
