Daily Times

Pakistan was the only country amongst 21 countries surveyed that preferred Governor Mitt Romney over President Barack Hussein Obama in the US election. It may well be a commentary on the resentment Pakistanis feel towards drone attacks but it is also indicative of a naiveté that our so-called intelligentsia and opinion makers have about the world that we live in. Unfortunately, many of the famous journalists, especially those known for their patronage of the water car, deliberately skew the public opinion in a way that makes it impossible for the ordinary Pakistani to form an informed opinion. It is therefore not surprising that most Pakistanis are oblivious of what is best for their own interests.

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of global politics could tell that out of the two candidates, President Obama remains the far better option for Pakistan. For the first time in 65 years, it is plainly obvious that the Americans are engaging ordinary Pakistanis instead of meeting the suits and uniforms behind closed doors. Its various diplomatic missions are investing in education and capacity building of Pakistani businessmen, farmers, lawyers, writers and journalists. Today more than ever, American diplomats in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi want to engage with and listen to the various points of view that Pakistanis hold. Under the Obama administration, the US understands that this country of 180 million people, primarily Muslims, with a democratically elected government about to complete its term against all odds and an increasingly independent judiciary, requires a strategic and not tactical engagement. This is a paradigmatic shift and we must recognise it. Had Romney been elected, much of this would be brought to a complete halt. At the very least, it would be months before a working relationship could be worked out.

In terms of the global situation, President Obama is our best bet in averting a regional crisis. In the coming months he will enter into direct talks with Iran over the nuclear crisis. His victory has already upset the Israeli rightwing and strengthened the Israeli centre-left considerably. This paves the way for an honourable and fair solution to the Middle East. Pakistan obviously has an interest in seeing that the Iran crisis does not blow up into open hostilities, with Pakistan being forced to choose sides. In 2014, the Americans will get out of Afghanistan, bringing to an end the war there. Mr Obama is also — if you look at his statements carefully — the most sympathetic US president on the issue of Kashmir. Obviously, the US’s major interests in India stop him from coming out in the open and saying it but he did say it four years ago that the solution to Afghanistan lay in resolving Kashmir. Mr Obama will back any India-Pakistan reconciliation and a peaceful and just solution to all outstanding problems. Not everything is hunky dory of course but on our part, we need to recognise that most of our anxiety arises out of our own terrible failings. If even today Pakistan decides to put its own house in order, we will find a more sympathetic audience in Washington. To do this Pakistan must tread the path of secular democracy — even with a Muslim majority — that it was originally intended to be, because every other experiment has failed. Indeed that is the key to Pakistan’s survival as an honourable, sovereign and self-respecting nation standing tall in the comity of nations.

There is, however, some cause for concern over the way the Obama administration has engaged the greater Islamic world in general and the Arab world in particular. The US should recognise that its Arab Spring policy has exploded badly. The US had rushed in to support what it saw as a great people’s movement without considering the darker forces the Arab Spring was bound to release. As a result of this naïve policy, we now see reactionary religious clerics and hard-boiled Salafis taking over the once moderate states of Egypt and Tunisia. The Arab Spring in Libya has already proved very costly for the Americans. In Syria, the US has again chosen to back the wrong horse. In all these places, the solution lay in pressurising the secular regimes to democratise themselves and complete the process of transition from authoritarian republicanism to a democratic polity. It required patience and understanding on the part of the Americans but they were found wanting.

The US as the lone superpower, though on decline in terms of influence, still has a role to play in the Muslim world. It must support, unwaveringly, those forces and people who want to see their countries develop as egalitarian and pluralistic states respecting human rights, women’s rights and minorities’ rights. In Pakistan especially the US needs to back the democratic government and a peaceful constitutional transition that is coming in the next few months. Pakistan, much more than Egypt or Tunisia or even Turkey, with its large civil society and a diverse population is going to be a test case for the success of real democracy with all its attendant presumptions, such as a profound respect for fundamental rights, and not electoral democracy alone, in a Muslim majority society this century.

President Obama, this writer suspects, knows this and one hopes that in the coming four years we would see a more focused cooperation between the Obama administration and the democratic forces in Pakistan. This also means keeping up the pressure on those anti-democratic forces that wish to keep Pakistan mired in periodic authoritarian rule. Pakistan is likely to remain a very important part of Obama’s foreign policy agenda in his next term.

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Jinnah; Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address yasser.hamdani@gmail.com