Are we at another crossroads? Is this a defining moment? Will this too pass? In adversity, is there an opportunity? Will mindsets change all around? Have we learnt a lesson? I try and seek answers to these puzzles that I brought along from my land of black moods, psychoneurosis and schizophrenia to the leafy climes of San Francisco. I am here for a conference or two related to my country’s ailments and how it works or not with the rest of the world. Somebody recently called it an international migraine; others have tended to categorise us as a part of the problem. President Obama certified the latter in his June speech by shifting the focus of his military effort in Afghanistan to Pakistan, which he now calls ‘the hub’. We may not agree with all and fight such characterisations, but then when have words alone washed against persistent missteps, or simply lack of any steps?
And then a few more. Is the US out to destroy us? Or at the minimum ‘defang’ us by taking away our nukes? Is the US in collusion with India out to reduce us to a vassal? Well, there is both good and bad news on this count. The good news first: President Obama is mired in his own difficulties at the moment and does not have time to think of all the heinous plans on Pakistan; neither are the Americans or their ‘media’ obsessed with furthering American designs any longer. I have not read or heard the Americans vilifying Pakistan as a normative reflex other than the Perlezes writing from Islamabad, embedded and subsumed in the Pakistani complex of ‘localitis’ — a malady that overpowers cognitive sensibilities with neurotic, obsessive centrality akin to egocentrism. For Obama the difficulties lie in negotiating a rather cumbersome Congress that is unwilling to let him tread his way out of severe fiscal disposition threatening to stall his government come August 3rd when either the US will join the ranks of nations such as Greece and Pakistan unable to pay their bills, trashing his country’s money bonds into worthless paper and taking the floor away from under the dollar, destabilising world’s economy into a deadly tailspin or provide him some space to seek further input, albeit from increased borrowing. Yes, his worry is if the American government will indeed continue to function beyond August 3, or close down, not how to further accelerate Pakistan’s malfeasance.
And now the bad. Well South Asia is inflicted with what psychologists call the Down syndrome, perpetually and without abatement. In these conferences we had our colleagues from India who too seem to live in a world of their own. Undaunted by better sense, even the most redoubtable former names from the Indian establishment spew venom and hatred like nobody’s business in international environs putting their hosts to deep embarrassment and, unbeknown to their esteemed selves, descend to such shallows of human behaviour that even if they had a reason or two for their deep reservations on Pakistan they lose relevance and respect and hence acceptability with their audiences as soon as the first syllables are spoken. What do the Schultzes and the Rices of this world think of it can only be additional burden on the much benighted region. Any surprise then that the next conference on my agenda in Washington is titled ‘The Ticking Bomb’, short-named for the maladies that have come to be the misfortune of South Asia.
Trust me, mindsets need to change wholesomely all around, not just in Pakistan. And yes, knowing what one does over this time of interaction at the track Iis, the very best to Messrs Khar and Krishna in their wishful but sadly devious pursuits. A colleague related the inuring plight of the South Asian malady to the gaping holes in comparative intellect that our hosts in Secretary George Schultz, at age 92, and a much younger Condoleezza Rice had on offer with the worthy compatibles on the South Asian scene. Of bluster and bile however there exists no shortage.
What this rather discursive ramble may lead one to conclude is that the cause for our national malady lies patently within. The US is not the demon out to deconstruct mission Pakistan; they have enough already on their own plate, with the rest as it happens more or less on auto-mode. And India, one can do little about it. One may keep knocking at some promising virtues with little hope that promises will take shape under a cloud of suspicion and an endemic inability to cross the Rubicon of mistrust.
I began this piece with a title ‘seizing the moment’, a rather popular formulation with some of our more enlightened colleagues. Their domain of interest however remains dangerously narrow, of restoring the civil-military balance on the back of a military that appears under stress. They lament Bhutto’s inability, post-1971, to rein in the military when it was weakened with a loss in East Pakistan. They urge the politicians to not lose the moment of another presumed ‘ignominy’ that the country’s military finds itself confronted with, quite oblivious to its continued popularity with the rather less ‘enlightened’ majority of the country. Recent polls point to that reality.
It remains though a propitious moment in our national existence with a greater promise to find a more salubrious future than what has befallen our fate. Consider: this nation state of ours has the making of some promising indicators — elements of society seem more vibrant; the judiciary, however overbearing, has found its niche in our societal melee; the media is an existential fact and unforgiving, though it must establish its bearing with an improved sense of responsibility; the civil society or at least the upper crust of it has found greater traction with societal fringes and the media has given it much greater voice in the shape of an expanding intellectual discourse bringing about a coherent enunciation of national concerns. Society sees some hope for justice, and establishing a tradition for freedom of expression.
The military as an overarching factor in state matters is in an existential pause, has chosen to let politics lead the way and more importantly sustain and survive under difficult obtaining national, regional and international conditions, and find its place in national issues. Whatever might be the compulsive raison d’être of such organisational behaviour, it remains a useful moment that the politicians might use to re-establish themselves in the leadership role. The Afghan war may be coming to a close, though a difficult close, and the people at large have a much greater awareness of the downside of letting religious deviants lead a society. Education is considered an absolute imperative and if enough focus sustains, we just might see some improvement there.
What is needed is for the politics to seize the moment. Establishing leadership where none exists, and creating capacity, both in intellect and will, will show this nation the way out of this muddle. Escapism through finger pointing and inaction will simply squander the moment, once again.
The writer is a political and defence analyst