Daily Times

“We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

Or rats’ feet over broken glass

In our dry cellar” — The Hollow Men, TS Eliot

These are strange times. There is palpable agitation in the air. People are talking about an array of sequential happenings.

They are talking about the lack of protocol extended to our not-so-prime-ministerial prime minister during his recent trip to Saudi Arabia and not giving him an opportunity to reiterate his humiliating subservience to the House of al-Saud.

They are talking about him failing to get an extended session with the President of the United States to complain that his government was under relentless assault by the military.

We need to put our feet on the ground. Our skulls may not be appropriately endowed, and we may be a wee bit stunted, but we can try to see what we stand on. The learning process begins there

They are incredulous that he was not given a place of honour in the front rows and that his nuclear arsenal credentials were not displayed boldly in the conference arena.

That and so much else may well have been, but what is really disturbing is the nature of discourse in Pakistan that our prime minister was insulted in this grand bonhomie of like-minded powers gathered in the capital of decidedly the world’s most repressive, regressive and degenerate regime.

Also disturbing is the thought that our prime minister is still hungry for securing a certificate of legitimacy from the United States and his Saudi mentors and that he would stoop low to garner that. This, in turn, symbolises a wilful negation of the democratic process that has catapulted him to the highest seat of power in the country. To “this headpiece filled with straw”, the process is not sufficient by itself and needs further endorsement from external sources.

It is also disturbing to learn that the prime minister spent all his time in the plane on way to the holy land rehearsing the pearls of wisdom that he was going to shower when bestowed with the honour of speaking in that august gathering.

But what really bothered me was looking at the miserable picture that the prime minister cut sitting among those other delegates at the conference. Oops!

What is it that ever struck him which refuses to go away? What is it that he assimilated in those fledgling days by way of indoctrination from that most demonic of dictators that the world may have known, and which he has not been able to yank out?

Whatever it was, at the end of the day, all that matters is what a leader makes of what he has. Under the given circumstances, there is a lot that Pakistan does not have, and may not have for a while yet.

Why, someone may ask? The answer is simple: because Pakistan has pursued, and insists on pursuing policies that have led to its isolation in the regional and international domains.

Pakistan virtually stands alone today among the comity of nations.

The foremost challenge confronting us is to get Pakistan out of this harrowing quagmire and help it engage productively with countries and communities across the globe. Given the present circumstances and the bent of prevalent policies, this is not happening anytime soon.

Something needs to break. Is it our preoccupation in pursuits which are disproportionate with our legitimate power base as also our lopsided pretensions? Is it our infatuation in controlling rather than engaging with others, and the manner in which we have raised ourselves to a stature of insurmountable self-righteousness?

We are used to banking exclusively on friends we believe will not desert us. We did so with the US. Then we accused them of deserting us. But we didn’t learn. We repeat mistakes.

Now we are doing it with China, chanting incessant hymns about our incomparable friendship being higher than the Himalayas, counting the unbelievable wonders of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and the endless drab that consumes us.

We refuse to learn that there are no constants in relations among states, that these relations are dictated by strategic and economic interests. We refuse to learn that these interests may change as we move along. We are blind to the reality that there are multiple directions in which China can look, and that Pakistan is just one of these directions.

We are reluctant to understand that it is our immediate neighbourhood that we need to be at peace with in preference to friendships across distances and divides. Three against one around us should give sleepless nights to the foreign office. But, do we see it that way? Or, do we want to remain swamped in our security-driven, India-centric syndrome, allowing this self-defacing mindset to thwart other equations that we need to establish and nurture?

Do we see that, in the ultimate analysis, it is the credibility of a leadership won at home that will give it acceptance

regionally and internationally? And that trying to append certifications and legitimacies from foreign masters will only generate negativity?

Do we know that dealing with our national institutions is the job of the elected government and brandishing dossiers of unconvincing complaints only elicits scorn and ridicule?

This and much more can be said. There are others who may have said it in their own way. The issue is that bulk of it is likely to fall on deaf ears. So, how do we generate the ability to pay heed while there is still time? This cannot happen with incapacitated brains and a narrative fed on oligarchic proclivities, making it inexorably inflexible and self-elevating

We need to move away from this narrative. We need to cultivate ability to understand things in their right perspectives and divorce the zero-sum game-plan.

We need to initiate a viable, credible and sustainable process to end our growing isolation. We need to shake off our perpetual betrothal to (mis)perceived notions of being omnipotent. We need to put our feet on the ground. Our skulls may not be appropriately endowed, and we may be a wee bit stunted, but we can try to see what we stand on. The learning process begins there.

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan