National / Common Purpose of Pakistan and National Security
Thursday July 17, 2008President Musharraf has had to confess that there has been little progress if at all, on his all-important agenda point of National Integration and Provincial Harmony. It may be right to say that all his achievements have tended to be dwarfed and eroded by this weakness. This is tearing the nation apart! The bottom line is that if there is no integration and harmony at the national, provincial, institutional or people’s level, their will be little progress elsewhere. Be it the civil or military bureaucracy, the PIA, government institutions, NGOs or the Civil Aviation, if we do not have a common (and correct) focus, all the gains in economy, education, defence, industrial and social sectors will be eroded. Reason: All of us go our own ways! In brief, we tend to become insecure directly in proportion to absence of the correct/common focus.
A Chief Guest, while concluding a National Strategy Paper Presentation at the NDU, remarked that all of us including Tonga-wallahs are not supposed to know the National Interests. But then he realised his mistake and added, “But we (the elite) are supposed to”. Unfortunately none of us knows or agrees on the trinity of Common Identity, National Purpose and the National Interests. Hence the ever-growing conflict in Pakistan. The asymmetric war in the FATA is one big symptom of the same difference of opinion.
This article defines one of the basic national security parameters i.e. the Common Purpose etc for Pakistan, whose affirmation into belief should eventually make us secure. These articles should not irk anyone. They are not directed against any specific person, institution or organization, especially the government. As a part of the intended “National Security Debates”, these suggested parameters are meant to initiate a dialectic amongst us. These would discuss the relevant strategic security concepts and their relevance to Pakistan. Final aim is to understand and translate these paradigms for implementation in our environment. Let us remember we are all to blame for our national weaknesses --- some more some less.
Nation-states are created to ensure security for their people. Looking at the most secure countries of the world, we find one principle common among all of them --- a strong sense of Common Identity and Purpose. These are the first building blocks of a developing nation that gives one direction to its people. The second principle we can identify from empirical evidence, is that such an identity is based on universally acclaimed values. Fortunately for us, these values were identified over fourteen hundred years ago by Islam. The holy Quran, the Prophet (PBUH) and various documents like the Meesaq-e-Madinah and the Last Sermon, all stood for the equality, liberty and fraternity long before Rousseau and Voltaire debated them prior to the French Revolution. Alas we may not have philosophised their importance, and debated or affirmed them into belief. Hence the morass we Muslims find ourselves in.
National Purpose is defined as “shared values and beliefs” that we wish to be. Great and secure nations first selected the right set of values and then affirmed them into belief, which in turn manifested into psycho-physical effects. These effects consequently brought about security and affluence. The U.S Common Purpose based on three values life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, was established in the Declaration of Independence during the late 18th century. It took them sometime to make it their belief. Lincoln made a profound statement when he said that, while these may not have ensured total liberty for the blacks overnight, these were available in the preamble to the constitution to be implemented by men of belief, wisdom and courage in the coming times. And thus, liberty and equality couldn’t be completely ensured to the black Americans till as late as early 60s when the Kennedy brothers announced complete desegregation and followed up by sending federal troops when the white farmers rebelled.
Likewise the French common identity based on equality, liberty and fraternity (written in the first verse in the French constitution) was coined by the likes of Rousseau, well before the French Revolution and the founding of the republic. The same were gradually affirmed into belief over time during the late 18th and 19th century. These are today ingrained so firmly into the French psyche that no legislation can be made or interpreted against the spirit of the same.
These are probably the two most notable identities that are available in writing. Other European nations have more or less equally internalized de facto values, phrases and statements. Hence the consequent common direction and associated security achieved by them has been remarkable.
It maybe noted that the Americans and the French took almost over one century to internalize their distinct identities, after defining them in the late 18th century. The English defined some values in their first ever constitutional document (Magna Carta) in the 12th century. They subsequently took almost over six centuries to create the mother of all parliaments and democracies and thus achieve security for themselves. Today their de facto common identity is equality, liberty and fraternity. Fortunately for us there are two nations that shaped similar identities and purposes in just over ten years. Both are Asian and one of them is Muslim. The latter is probably the most secure amongst all Muslim nations. These are Singapore and Malaysia. Even though people may say that these are centralized and controlled democracies, their people most certainly are more secure. Even they themselves have no qualms about their democracies and deem them suitable for their culture and ethos. But surely relative equality and fraternity (if not liberty) can be credited to them. Malaysia has declared its National Purpose in the first verse of its constitution, as “The nation both in Malay and English will be known as Malaysia”. That means, Total equality!
Both Malaysia and Singapore affirmed their National Purpose through the deft use of unique strategies and with the help of 20th century tools and instruments of statecraft. Today it is fortunately possible to affirm, reaffirm, rehearse and reiterate relentlessly, all chosen values; through instant polls-based TV discussions, talk shows and through discussion on BLOGS. Public opinion and beliefs today, can be molded in months if not in weeks if not days ---a process that took years if not generations earlier. No wonder Lee Kwan Yew ran over half a dozen campaigns from the Prime Minister’s Office, to change the beliefs of his nation. It is said he decided to make his people polite and courteous, accordingly ran a campaign and achieved the same in almost six months.
Fortunately we did develop a Common Purpose out of the Objectives Revolution. Its article five says, “WHEREIN democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam should be fully observed”. Unfortunately the same could not be debated or affirmed into belief. The phrase was good but probably not be good enough for being too long. Three values are thought to be the appropriate number for easy focus, memory and subsequent affirmation into belief. Thus Equality, Freedom and Brotherhood/Fraternity maybe considered as an option for the Common Identity/ Purpose, for a national debate on the subject. These three values in themselves enable the achievement of the rest i.e. Democracy, Tolerance and Social Justice.
These time-tested values were affirmed by the Holy Quran in Surae Ale-Imran which says (and is reiterated by Iqbal in the Allahabad lecture) “O’ Prophet (PBUH) tell the people of the book; let us get together on what is common amongst us (one Allah)”. The Prophet (PBUH) reaffirmed the same principles of Equality, Liberty and Fraternity in the Meesaqe-Madina and the Last Sermon.
The same values were affirmed by the Quaide Azam in his landmark speech on 11th August 1948, when he advised its members regarding formulation of the constitution for the nascent state. These were also emphasized upon by Allama Iqbal in his famous Allahabad address.
Unfortunately we have never debated these ideas by our founding fathers; leave alone discuss them. American children of around ten years age can be seen discussing the Declaration of Independence (preamble to the US constitution), but almost all our people are not even familiar with our documents, thus the consequent confusion and rudderless ness of the nation. If a nation has no common vision of where it is going it is not going anywhere, especially in a globalised world.
The Way Forward: Common Purpose is the most basic and the first building block of a nation state. Accordingly the following is recommended for our nation comprising linguistically, culturally and racially four (if not six) different stocks:
*All these Founding Father Documents should be made a part of the primary and secondary classes.
*The same should be dispassionately debated on the media for arriving at a preferably three-word identity.
*The legislature should debate and eventually approve the Common Identity and National Purpose of the Pakistani nation and make it a part of the constitution.
*Relentlessly affirm the decided purpose/identity through education, media and the IT, till it becomes the belief of all Pakistanis.
A nation without a correctly worded common identity will go wrong at all levels --- strategic, operational and tactical. None of its institutions shall work efficiently because all groups would endeavour to capture as many resources as possible, to the detriment of others and well being of the state. Such a nation shall be paranoid because no group would trust the other. The casualty in all cases will be the security and wellbeing of the nation, the state and its people.
The writer, Air Marshal (Retired) Masood Akhtar has been CI at NDC and a visiting faculty for “Statecraft and National Security” at the National Security Workshop and the Administrative Staff College.
E-mail: mak366 @ hotmail.com.
Pakistan News Service - PakTribune
