Most of the world's newly independent nations lack the traditions and the training to make democracy work. Yet such is the magic of the word that dictators use it to justify their own brand of one-man rule. Indonesia's Sukarno and Nepal's King Mahendra call it "guided democracy," Guinea's Touré has "total democracy," Egypt's Nasser his "presidential democracy." The strongman most entitled to claim "democracy" for an essentially undemocratic system may well be Pakistan's benevolent dictator, President Mohammed Ayub Khan. His catch phrase: "basic democracies."
A Sandhurst graduate, General Ayub overthrew a discredited parliamentary government...