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Best writer contest 2014

Syed.Ali.Hyder said:
Only four subjects should be taught formally (English, Maths, Science, and Civics) up to the 12th grade level with no compulsory religious material. Religion can be introduced at the college level as an optional area of study.

Such trends have also been finding a footing with the armed forces themselves. While there are some indications that efforts to reverse this trend are being trying in the military training institutions, they must be invigorated as a matter of grave urgency, ranging from the small steps (for example, all officers must be clean shaven and groomed at all times) to the bigger ones (for example ensuring that all promotion criteria are dereligified).

For too long, Pakistan has relied on results of mixing religion with policy to try to serve its national interests. It should now be clear to the leadership that this approach has failed and their entire enterprise is in danger of collapsing under this historical mistake. It is time to reverse these trends and ensuring that Pakistan is put before all else, including religion, if the country and its institutions are to survive in this fast changing 21st century.

Surely, this will be not an easy task, but it must be done. Failure at this stage is not going to be an option. Whether the steps proposed above are implemented or not is up to the leadership to decide, but at least the recipe for survival should be clear to them.
A very thought provoking article!!!

I completely agree to what the author had to say about the school curricula and how it should NOT be surfeited with religion.The squalor this creates in the mind of young minds is precarious to say the least.
Author has gone a step ahead with his bold words that religion should be kept away from the armed forces.
The perilous situation that humanity is in today, is all because of religion, ppl follow religions without understanding the essence of it.Alas!

@Slav Defence
Thanks for posting this article here and making it more visible to readers like me. This I guess is the first article to be published for this competition. Is it??

Wishing everyone a happy new year!!
 
A very thought provoking article!!!

I completely agree to what the author had to say about the school curricula and how it should NOT be surfeited with religion.The squalor this creates in the mind of young minds is precarious to say the least.
Author has gone a step ahead with his bold words that religion should be kept away from the armed forces.
The perilous situation that humanity is in today, is all because of religion, ppl follow religions without understanding the essence of it.Alas!

@Slav Defence
Thanks for posting this article here and making it more visible to readers like me. This I guess is the first article to be published for this competition. Is it??

Wishing everyone a happy new year!!
Yes mam
@Horus is also taking part as well as sir @RescueRanger is also participating.After seeing their interest I have decided to divide participants in two categories:
A-Title holders
B-Non title holders

So,the inter-competition will take place b/w 1) title holders (2) b/w non title holders.
Spread this message as much as you like.
Let us see that how many can stand up and punch:D
 
Yes mam
@Horus is also taking part as well as sir @RescueRanger is also participating.After seeing their interest I have decided to divide participants in two categories:
A-Title holders
B-Non title holders

So,the inter-competition will take place b/w 1) title holders (2) b/w non title holders.
Spread this message as much as you like.
Let us see that how many can stand up and punch:D
I have tried my part by tagging a few talented ones already.
There 're few more who can write well like @SarthakGanguly @Abingdonboy @Bang Galore @third eye @janon and also deft enough to get the badge of TTA.
 
There is a slight change in plan.Let us make this competition more interesting:
Section A
For participants which are non title holders.
Section B
For title holders

@RescueRanger @Nihonjin1051 @Luftwaffe @Security @Horus @WebMaster @Jungibaaz and others..
This amendment is made b/c many ttas have shown interest in taking part in competition.So those title holders which are not interested in becoming a part of jury but to take part themselves are also welcomed
Regards

Post No#1
Section B
Category: Opinion

Where to go from here?

Syed.Ali.Haider

(Original Submission to PDF)

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After the gut-wrenching horror of Peshawar, much has been said and written about how we found ourselves in this situation in the first place. Rather than looking at the past, this article intends to look at the future with an aim to proposing some feasible solutions to the security crisis facing Pakistan today. While some proposals may be painful or indeed regarded as being against collective wisdom, at least all of them should make for an engaging debate. The main thrust of the response should be on several fronts, not just the military one, with an aim to seizing the narrative across a wide domain. The military response has been swift and tactically effective, but to turn its gains into a more permanent state, much more needs to be done.

The Army has invested much blood and effort in creating the ideology under which it fights and motivates its personnel. The terrorists have managed to create a competing narrative specifically aimed at undermining this ideology due to the poor governance across wide swathes of the country. To leave it to the civil arena to resolve this issue is simply going to fail. Therefore, the Army must seize control of the way the masjids and madrassahs are financed from both within and without the country as a matter of national security. There need not be overt bans on what the mullahs can say, but tying it to their remuneration is a potent lever that will yield the desired results in short order. No money should be allowed to flow to any masjid or madrassah without being vetted and passed through a special cell created for this specific purpose. Anyone trying to bypass this system should be tried before a military court as an agent of the terrorists.

The second front that must be controlled is the several avenues of propaganda that the terrorists use to great effect. A specific task force must be assigned the seek and disrupt those who create and distribute the CDs, DVDs, posters and similar material for the terrorists. Anybody found to have participated in such material must be charged as an abettor of the terrorists, right down to truck drivers who may be found carrying such contraband in their cargo and right up the chain with confiscation of duplicating machines and computers and presses wherever indicated.

The third front should be specifically aimed at removing the equipment and support structures that the terrorists rely upon to infiltrate before their planned attacks. A task force with the specific authority to conduct searches for weaponry must be instituted to achieve this goal. Surprise raids with no warning must be carried out at all suspected sites without any regards to political or other sensitivities across the country, not just in KPK. Video recording of such raids must be made at the time to serve as proof as those responsible for their places are put up before military courts.

Once these three specific campaigns are in place and running, thought must the be given to the longer term strategies. These strategies must cover the following three areas: political, educational, and military.

For too long, political parties and factions have been able to create armed student wings that serve as the illegal forces serving their overall political agendas. These armed forces must be taken out without consideration to which political parties they belong. Direct intimation to the party leadership giving them a suitable period of time to disarm their armed wings at the highest levels must be followed through with action to confiscate this weaponry and personnel. Any political party found to still attempt persistence or creation of such wings must be eliminated from the political process forthwith.

Similarly, there has been a creeping religiosity that has been strangling all academic activities and laying the groundwork for manipulation of young minds later on. All curricula must be reviewed by the specific Board constituted for this purpose with an aim to removing such material and leaving behind a secular educational framework only. Only four subjects should be taught formally (English, Maths, Science, and Civics) up to the 12th grade level with no compulsory religious material. Religion can be introduced at the college level as an optional area of study.

Such trends have also been finding a footing with the armed forces themselves. While there are some indications that efforts to reverse this trend are being trying in the military training institutions, they must be invigorated as a matter of grave urgency, ranging from the small steps (for example, all officers must be clean shaven and groomed at all times) to the bigger ones (for example ensuring that all promotion criteria are dereligified).

For too long, Pakistan has relied on results of mixing religion with policy to try to serve its national interests. It should now be clear to the leadership that this approach has failed and their entire enterprise is in danger of collapsing under this historical mistake. It is time to reverse these trends and ensuring that Pakistan is put before all else, including religion, if the country and its institutions are to survive in this fast changing 21st century.

Surely, this will be not an easy task, but it must be done. Failure at this stage is not going to be an option. Whether the steps proposed above are implemented or not is up to the leadership to decide, but at least the recipe for survival should be clear to them.


Excellent post @Syed.Ali.Haider ! It was a great read and i agree with you that there should be a clear delineation, separation between religion and state. If I may add, Pakistan's democracy is one that is recent , after years of military dictatorship and dealing with the insurgency in the Northwest as well as handling and addressing the issue of Kashmir. Your reflections are well received , and brings a new light for many of us who are observers of Pakistani politics and social development(s).

@Slav Defence , thanks for making a new amendment to enable more of us who have expressed interest in contributing. :)
 
Suggest me a topic please. Got my hands full, but will try to pitch in. Any good and preferably controversial topic - and I will make time. Promise. :D
controversial???
Hmmm??
Okay
These 're the topics....
Topics can be related to:
-Autobiograpghy of any prominent military figure
-Opinion : Pakistan's economy
US war on terror
Indian foreign policy
Sustaining friends and foes: Pakistan
strategy with Russia

Others may include: TTP's network

For database:
Pakistan nuclear technology:Hatf 5,6 7,8 etc
Or you can choose tank designs.

Besides these topics if you are not interested and you want to portray or narrate any warfare (ie battle of Vietnam or any operation ie Operation enduring freedom),then type:
You name:____________
Pesudonym:____________
Topic of interest:___________
Fall or against(optional):___________
Country:____________

Regards
How about Indian foreign policy and Af-Pak???
Or what about friends n foes: Pakistan ???

I seriously am looking forward to reading your article.
 
controversial???
Hmmm??
Okay
These 're the topics....

How about Indian foreign policy and Af-Pak???
Or what about friends n foes: Pakistan ???

I seriously am looking forward to reading your article.
Mam,
I am host of this show while rest are part of jury.:D

Excellent post @Syed.Ali.Haider ! It was a great read and i agree with you that there should be a clear delineation, separation between religion and state. If I may add, Pakistan's democracy is one that is recent , after years of military dictatorship and dealing with the insurgency in the Northwest as well as handling and addressing the issue of Kashmir. Your reflections are well received , and brings a new light for many of us who are observers of Pakistani politics and social development(s).

@Slav Defence , thanks for making a new amendment to enable more of us who have expressed interest in contributing. :)
Be very careful young samurai, Horus and resue ranger are gonna give you tough time! :D
Best of luck!! :D
 
controversial???
Hmmm??
Okay
These 're the topics....

How about Indian foreign policy and Af-Pak???
Or what about friends n foes: Pakistan ???

I seriously am looking forward to reading your article.
Picked - 'Indian Defence Policy - Challenges and Solutions'
Will be doing it this weekend.

@Slav Defence
 
A very thought provoking article!!!

I completely agree to what the author had to say about the school curricula and how it should NOT be surfeited with religion.The squalor this creates in the mind of young minds is precarious to say the least.
Author has gone a step ahead with his bold words that religion should be kept away from the armed forces.
The perilous situation that humanity is in today, is all because of religion, ppl follow religions without understanding the essence of it.Alas!

@Slav Defence
Thanks for posting this article here and making it more visible to readers like me. This I guess is the first article to be published for this competition. Is it??

Wishing everyone a happy new year!!

This is a good article relating to one of the points that I have mentioned:

Imposing faith - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

Imposing faith
Faisal Bari

IT is time to fight and take back at least some space that we have, over the last 30 odd years, ceded to self-proclaimed religious authorities, those who act as bigots and those who use religion or interpretations of religion to oppress others. If this means taking some risks, so be it. After the Peshawar tragedy, we do not have many options left. Either we stand up and be counted or we remain on our knees — and still die. For most people, I hope, the former is the path they choose.

The best way of destroying something for a child is by imposing it: the stricter or stronger the imposition the more the level of destruction. When Islamiat was imposed, as a compulsory subject, the reaction that came from students was exactly that. I did not see a single contemporary who took Islamiat/Pakistan Studies seriously, who spent time trying to ‘understand’ the subject, and who did not resort to rote-learning to ‘get through’ examinations.

Ever since, I have not come across a single student who has shown interest in either subject or who has argued that they learnt about Islam through Islamiat or got the motivation to be better Muslims because of the subject at school. For almost every other subject, which students took voluntarily, I have interacted with many students whose lives were shaped by it. Was this the objective of making Islamiat compulsory?

Is school or college the best place to teach religion? Do children become moral or better human beings by having it as a compulsory subject? I would argue to the contrary. By imposing something, and in an unthinking way, we can only close minds of children to that activity or subject.

Our school allowed us to wear half-sleeved shirts in high school. But one of our Islamiat teachers, instead of talking to school authorities about it, would cane us every time he came to our class and found students in half-sleeves. As one can imagine, he was not a popular teacher and his canings did nothing to create interest in the subject he was teaching.

Do children become better human beings by studying religion as a compulsory subject?

Children learn by emulating adults. If people at home act morally, subscribe to and practise a particular religious belief, and explain the reasoning behind actions well, children are very likely to follow suit. Schools have never been the place for this.

In 2010, we added Article 25-A to the Constitution guaranteeing all five- to 16-year-olds access to compulsory and free quality education. Despite four years having passed, an estimated 25 million children of schoolgoing age are still out of school (having never been to school or having dropped out before matriculation).

We have also allowed hundreds of thousands of five- to 16-year-olds to be enrolled in madressahs. When the promise is for free and compulsory mainstream education how can a state allow hundreds of thousands of its children to be taught in institutions over which the state has little or no control, and where state and society do not know what is being taught and how?

Whether or not terrorism has any links to madressahs, extremism, fundamentalism, lack of tolerance, the politics of division, sect-based politics, and close-mindedness certainly do. Whether it is the students of Jamia Hafsa or students of mainstream seminaries, is there any Pakistani who would feel safe challenging the views of either these students or their teachers?

There have been madressahs in the vicinity of the last couple of residences I have lived in. From Zia’s time onwards, the residents of the neighbourhood have never felt comfortable challenging the madressah people on anything they or their students have done, howsoever illegal or anti-social. Students from these madressahs have imposed their brand of morality on the streets around them, they have often made it uncomfortable for females to go to schools and colleges and/or their places of work.

Their use of loudspeakers has been illegal and quite a nuisance for neighbours: even when there have been sick people in certain homes, nobody has had the gumption to tell madressah administrators to reduce the volume of their loudspeakers. And, at times, when people did try to say something, implicit and sometimes explicit threats of violence kept most of them cowed.

Even when people had the courage to reach out to state institutions for help, there was never any help available. If the aim is to train better Muslims and thought leaders most madressahs have failed in the endeavour miserably. State and society have also failed the children that they have allowed to be enrolled in madressahs.

A crime that has an economic network behind it is an established crime. When the establishment of a crime comes in our vision, the economics behind it must be found. Until the economics behind the crime is addressed, the crime will not go away.

Peshawar was an unprecedented tragedy in the history of a young nation that has seen more than its share of tragedies. We have had more than 50,000 victims of terrorism. But even then we were shocked by the brutality of what happened on Dec 16. There has been a lot of talk since then, by government, politicians and the army leadership that this was a watershed moment. We wait and see.

Will state institutions stand with the people and against any and all forms of bigotry, extremism and lack of tolerance? Will the state help society recover spaces that have been ceded over the last 30 odd years? Will the state correct some of the worst mistakes we have made: imposing faith and certain versions of it on all people including students, allowing madressahs to get away with anything and making society cower in fear whenever the spectre of faith is raised?

The early signs are not of hope: the lack of movement against Abdul Aziz, against Geo and Amir Liaquat, and lack of response to the murder of a citizen of Ahmadi faith. But if we do not move now, more Peshawars will be waiting for us.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at LUMS, Lahore.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2015
 
@Syed.Ali.Haider
Thank you so much for posting that article about imposing faith on children. I cant agree more that anything if imposed becomes nothing but a punishment whether its religious study or say a language.
Arabic is ostensibly a compulsory subject here in UAE for all the students (incld the expats), which so far hasnt achieved anything other than students opting for rote-learning to pass the examination. This is just an example as to how the creativity of young minds should not be stifled.
If only those at the helm of affairs understood this simple fact would we be able to cultivate a generation which would be more broad minded and who would respect other's religions as much as theirs.The world would be a much better place then.
I'm so glad that you took time to write that article.
 
@Syed.Ali.Haider
Thank you so much for posting that article about imposing faith on children. I cant agree more that anything if imposed becomes nothing but a punishment whether its religious study or say a language.
Arabic is ostensibly a compulsory subject here in UAE for all the students (incld the expats), which so far hasnt achieved anything other than students opting for rote-learning to pass the examination. This is just an example as to how the creativity of young minds should not be stifled.
If only those at the helm of affairs understood this simple fact would we be able to cultivate a generation which would be more broad minded and who would respect other's religions as much as theirs.The world would be a much better place then.
I'm so glad that you took time to write that article.
Miss levina,
My own experience says that religion is something which cannot be "imposed". There was a time when I was rote learning religion-but then a time come into my life when I began to think about my "afterlife".I realized that how terrible death appears when my uncle died.I was in ninth standard and I never payed much attention.I was a good student and I was capable to explain verses as well as understand them well.However, I never felt their meaning.I used to think that why God build up this amazing concept of death.
I was 18 years old when I was reborn-Interestingly studying religion made me realized that Jew/america/India is not responsible but I myself-my own ignorance. I become more tolerant towards other religion.I was one of those who hated to even look at any news regarding with Israel and was the one reading song of Solomon chapter 5.Amazing isn't it?
I believe that teaching religion to student doesnt affect much but their environment also plays significant role-we must teach our children about religion respectfully before they hear from some negative source it is much better to introduce religion to them in schools.

Regards
 
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Miss levina,
My own experience says that religion is something which cannot be "imposed". There was a time when I was rote learning religion-but then a time come into my life when I began to think about my "afterlife".I realized that how terrible death appears when my uncle died.I was in ninth standard and I never payed much attention.I was a good student and I was capable to explain verses as well as understand them well.However, I never felt their meaning.I used to think that why God build up this amazing concept of death which is terrible.
I was 18 years old when I was reborn-Interestingly studying religion made me realized that Jew/america/India is not responsible but I myself-my own ignorance. I become more tolerant towards other religion.I was one of those who hated to even look at any news regarding with Israel and was the one reading sing if Solomon chapter 5.Amazing isn't it?
I believe that teaching religion to student doesnt affect much but their environment also plays significant role-we must taught our children about religion respectfully. Most prominently, before they hear from some negative source it us much better to introduce religion to them in schools.

Regards

You're an evolved being sire!!

But the last line in your post got me thinking.I was wondering if somebody had taught me my religion?? Fortunately- unfortunately NO!
All I knew was that chanting a few mantras might not make me a good hindu, but my karma would.
In this same way every child must be given the freedom to choose if he/she wants to study religion.Isnt an aethist thousand times better than a religious zealot??
 
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You're an evolved being sire!!

But the last line in your post got me thinking.I was wondering if somebody had taught me my religion?? Fortunately- unfortunately NO!
Just chanting a few mantras might not make me a good hindu, but my karma would.
In this same way every child must be given the freedom to choose if he/she wants to study religion.Isnt an aethist thousand times better than a religious zealot??
Mam,
To be very honest I am nobody to claim that as if he is better or not-maybe yes or maybe No
The first thing religion teaches you is to stop considering yourself as pure while others as impure.
I believe if that atheist has become atheist b/c he was either afraid of religions or b/c of HATE then there is no difference b/w him and religious zealot. Another point is that you must study that what are those points to which he is not compromising-are those even fundamentals of his religion OR illegal distinctions imposed by his own interpretations.
Let GOD judge him:D maybe a religious zealot was the cause of that man to become an atheist-then who will be worse in sight of god?that atheist or religious zealot whose extremism and misinterpretation made him HATE or DISBELIEVE?
Regards
 
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