Nations learn from their history instead of suppressing it. Every nation, in its evolutionary growth, made mistakes and learnt lessons and made course corrections or ignored their past mistakes and suffered from the same consequences. No nation on this planet can claim exception to this repetitive cycle of empathy or ruthlessness of history. The recent world history has many lessons to teach to the young and growing nations to work out a safe and secure course for their march to modernity and prosperity.
Europe suffered religious wars spanning over three decades devastating many countries, the Napoleonic wars and the two world wars that caused enormous destruction. The Europeans separated the papacy from the state affairs reducing it to the Holy See. They joined hands with Russia to get rid of the evil genius, Napoleon. As a consequence of the two world wars, the European nations came together to establish the European Union. The Federal Republic of Germany, Japan and other nations which suffered humiliation and devastation in World War II made a course corrections and regained their splendour.
Humanity suffered a lot during the Cold War between the two clashing superpowers from 1945 to 1990. The world was divided into two warring camps. The Cold War gave impetus to the growth of weapons of mass destruction and the security of the world hung by a hairline. The collapse of the USSR brought a sigh of relief to the world. However, the growing differing political, economic, commercial and strategic interests between the USA and China have recreated the spectre of the Cold War. China, having learnt from its history, is trying to keep the differences within a manageable limit.
Nations should never be shy of learning from their past mistakes.
Nations should never be shy of learning from their past mistakes. We didn’t learn from the failure of ‘Operations Gibraltar’ and committed the same mistake in Kargil. We ignored our failure to conduct the post-election situation in 1971denying power to the largest party – Awami League – and plunged the country into a deep crisis that cost us the bigger half of Jinnah’s Pakistan. We repeated this mistake in 1973 dismissing the legitimate National Awami Party government in Balochistan and sending in security forces to subdue Baloch. We once again opted for force instead of dialogue to resolve differences with Sardar Akbar Bugti in 2002-2006. Since 1985, the elections have been closely engineered to have desired results and pliable governments irrespective of the public mandate. This is particularly so in Balochistan.
We considered Bengal a drag on our economy. General Ayub Khan refers to this in his ‘Friends -Not Masters. General Ghulam Hussain in his ‘A Stranger in his own country’ gives a painful account of how our commanders – General K. K. Niazi and General Tikka Khan – thought of Bengalis and how ‘Operation Searchlight’ was conducted by them. The history may be howsoever painful; it portends as many lessons to learn. The Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report is part of our wayward history. In the early 1970s, a single-member Commission was appointed by Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto to determine the responsibility for the humiliating debacle in East Pakistan. Though the original report of the Commission was never made public, its abridged version was leaked in Pakistan a decade ago. It has since been in circulation and is duly translated into Urdu. It is also freely sold online.
After separation from Pakistan, Bangladesh passed through difficult periods with repetitive military coup d’états and counter coups and the rancorous political tussle between the two Begums – Begum Khalida Zia and Begum Hasina Wajid. The latter won the elections as the political heir of her late father Sheikh Mujeeb and remained Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001. She again won the elections in 2009 and has now been in her third term as Prime Minister – the longest-serving female Prime Minister in the world.
Her rule is not ideally democratic. She has been ruthless with her political opponents including Begum Khalida Zia and leaders of the rightwing Jamaat Islami. She jailed Begum Khalida Zia and many senior Jamaat leaders and sent a few of them to the gallows for aiding and abetting the Pakistan Army in the war of 1971. However, the continuity of governance combined with economic reforms, strict management of public finances, empowerment of women, incentivizing exports and creation a friendly atmosphere for foreign investment and relocation of foreign textile industries, has set the country on the road to economic prosperity.
Bangladesh’s social and economic indicators, relatively speaking, are impressive. Far fewer babies die at birth there than in Pakistan; immunization is common; no polio drop administering worker is shot dead there; life expectancy there is 72.5 years higher than Pakistan’s 66.5 years. Women in Bangladesh are well placed in employment (33.2%) as compared to Pakistan’s 25.1%. In 2020, the debt per capita in Bangladesh was $883 significantly lower than Pakistan’s $1190. In the same year, the Foreign Exchange Reserves of Bangladesh was estimated at $ 32 billion – four times bigger than Pakistan’s $8 billion.
Before the Covid crisis in 2019, Bangladesh’s growth rate was 9.15% – much higher than India’s (4.18%) and far above Pakistan’s (0.99%). Pakistan’s growth rate in 2017, 2018 and 2019 was 5.5%, 5.84% and 0.99% respectively as compared to Bangladesh’s growth rates of 7.29%, 7.84% and 9.15% in the corresponding years. (GDP growth rates before Covid – World Bank).
For such impressive growth rates, Bangladesh owed much to its exports which zoomed to $39.34billion in 2018. Pakistan lagged with $23.33 billion. Bangladesh’s GDP in 2022 was $461billion as compared to Pakistan’s $320billion making the average Bangladeshi wealthier than the average Pakistani with the Pak currency undergoing a 30% devaluation in 2019 and a further steep fall in 2022. Pakistan was 70% richer than Bangladesh in 1971, and today Bangladesh is 45% richer than Pakistan. Isn’t it a moment of introspection for us?
The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books.