Pakistani textbook’s pro-Bush poem gets failing grade
Work to be deleted from language schoolbook
ISLAMABAD — A poem in a school textbook has been removed by embarrassed education officials in Pakistan after it was found that the first letters of each line spelt out “ President George W Bush.’’
The 20-line anonymous poem, The Leader, lists the qualities of “ a man who will do what he must’’ and bears a passing resemblance to Rudya rd Kipling’s If.
“Ever assuring he’ll stand by his word/Wanting the world to join his firm stand/Bracing for war, but praying for peace/Using his power so evil will cease’’, run typical lines.
A n e d u c at i o n m i n i s t r y spokesman said it had no idea who wrote the poem nor how it found its way into A Textbook of English for 16- year-olds last year.
The acrostic is highly embarrassing for President Pervez Musharraf, who is already under fire at home for being allegedly pro-American and supporting the U.S. war on terrorism.
America has even donated money to transform Pakistan’s national curriculum into something closer to western ideals.
The result is a much lampooned U.S.-friendly philosophy called “ enlightened moderation’’ which the U.S. has agreed to pay to disseminate in schools.
“ We have decided to delete the poem from the book, published by the National Book Foundation and prescribed for the federal board students of intermediate,’’ the spokesman told the Pakistani newspaper The News.
“It will be stretching the matter too far to assert that the poem was inserted in the book deliberately to enumerate the qualities of the American president.’’
The official said the ministry is investigating how a raft of committees employed to monitor and censor the contents of all textbooks failed to notice the acrostic.
The poem would not appear in the next edition of the book, he added.
The book was printed in 2004 for the first time after the Islamabad government decided to deregulate the publication of textbooks. Daily Telegraph