BanglaBhoot
RETIRED TTA
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Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Shireen M Mazari
Just when one thinks the rulers can disgust no more, they surprise us once again. And so it was that one had to witness with revulsion the president of Pakistan awarding our Hilal series of national awards (second in rank after the Nishan series) to an American official whose sole claim to fame in Islamabad are his frequent visits to pressurise the Pakistani state into submitting to US diktat.
To see Richard Boucher being given the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam was to see our leaders slapping the Pakistani nation on its face. After all, Boucher represents the US administration that has all but destroyed the Pakistani polity through daily killings of our people in drone attacks and through consistent demands to 'do more' even as we have seen the fallout of the insane 'war on terror' bring suicide bombings, terrorism and polarisation into Pakistan as never before. Yes, we had had our share of sectarian terror much before 9/11, but it was limited and on the wane before the US struck Afghanistan with its deathly military might.
So what is Boucher being rewarded for? Killing Pakistanis in the tribal belt? Pushing forward a debilitating agenda for Pakistan? Putting Pakistanis into Guantanamo Bay and other US prisons? Getting our military political leadership to participate in renditions and torture of Pakistani citizens? Or getting our civilian political leadership to give in to the new round of Indian histrionic demands post-Mumbai? Are all these what our rulers see as the furtherance of US-Pakistan ties? What a shame and disgrace to this long-suffering nation of Pakistan.
But there should be no surprise in this. We now stand devoid of strong institutions, moral and ethical leadership and any modicum of dignity and self-respect. So when Boucher comes effectively as an emissary of India, to push Pakistan into accepting unquestioningly the Indian dossier on Mumbai, we award him the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam. Which brings up the whole issue of the Mumbai dossier. Those who have seen this brilliant piece of diplomatic propaganda feel there is little substantive in the way of credible proof. Instead, it is a compilation of past accusations, old theories plus pictures and apparent identities of the dead perpetrators with some purported mobile calls and so on. It is no wonder the Indians sent their US partner to push Pakistan into accepting everything without question. And our rulers welcomed Boucher with a national award!
Of course, one should accept the dossier but immediately also demand that we would need to verify the veracity of the 'facts' mentioned in the dossier. This would require our investigators going to Mumbai, questioning Indian officials involved in the investigations and examining the 'evidence' mentioned in the dossier. Then, if there really is even an iota of credible evidence pointing to anyone in Pakistan or belonging to Pakistan, we must move forcefully against the accused. But the rulers need to respond in an assertive fashion rather than in a strangely defensive, apologetic mode. Look at Indias brazenness on the Samjhota Express terrorist incident despite the now-established guilt of rogue elements in the Indian army and Hindu extremists!
But this brazen defiance of all international norms is the hallmark of not only India (look at its track record in Occupied Kashmir) but also its new strategic partner the US. Look what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza where a massacre is being conducted by Israel and the US is single-handedly refusing to allow the UN Security Council any role in stopping this mass killing of the Palestinians. Just as Muslim lives are expendable in Pakistan for the US, so Palestinian lives are totally expendable for the Zionists. Interestingly, the Indian state has also adopted a muted stance reflecting their now-established alliance with Israel and the US.
However, why decry the Indian stance when our own leadership along with the leadership of the Arab World has barely voiced its protest beyond the usual whimperings. No major Arab state has recalled their envoys from Israel only Mauritania of the Arab League has made this move and once again the Muslim world, especially the Arab leadership, has shown its confidence deficit and self-imposed helplessness in the face of the US and Israeli aggression.
Yet, ordinary Muslims across the globe hope that the determination of the Palestinians in Gaza will pull down the Israelis just as Hezbollah did so in Lebanon. We also know that it is these acts of barbarism that will create more defiant spirits in the coming generations just as we know only too well that the seeming connivance or acceptance of US-Israeli aggression will also create more radicalisation within the Muslim polities thereby shrinking ever further the space for 'moderates'. The timing of this latest Israeli killing spree in Gaza could not have been more ironic Muharram with all that that signifies in Islamic history and in the spirit of sacrifice.
As long as the Muslim leadership in our part of the world is only able to bare its fangs on its own people, we will be trodden upon by outside forces and kept repressed by our elitist leaders. Today in Pakistan the people are without any independent avenues for legal redress and democracy has only brought into power civilian dictators hell-bent on unleashing their power not through responding to the will of the people but through the force of power and naked hooliganism. Instead of defending our people against external enemies and threats, our leaders are trying to bring their people to their knees through economic hardships and political use of the state apparatus to browbeat the dissenters. If the US agenda for Pakistan is truly to balkanise the country, then it is being served loyally not only by the IMF but also by old Citibank employees. And it would appear our rulers are silent partners in this agenda since the Citibankers have come in at their behest!
As for the use of naked political power, I saw it up close in a recent bye election in southern Punjab where members of the Punjab cabinet supported by at least ten Kalashnikov-touting gunmen (police I was told) went around barging into polling booths. Since I was confronted with one such group inside a polling booth, I saw such power for myself but as with all bullies, once one stands up to them, they back off. But this is a topic for another day, as it exposed the sleaze and moral bankruptcy of the emerging political forces being supported by the diehard tumandars that comprise the PML-N/PPP leadership of southern Punjab. Suffice it to say that despite the modern pretentions of at least the PML-N leadership in Punjab, the feudal mindset rules the roost and there is little to choose from between the main contenders and wielders of power today.
The point really is that if Muslim leaders were to trust their own people more and learn to live with peaceful dissent and diversity, they would not suffer from a continuing psychological confidence deficit when confronting external powers and threats. Unfortunately at present they feel more threatened by their own people which makes them vulnerable to being exploited from outside. The present Arab crisis in the wake of yet another Israeli aggression against the Palestinians supported by the US reveals this in a most glaring fashion.
But we in Pakistan have been witnessing the US play this murderous role since 9/11 in our own region and we have watched our Kashmiri brethren suffer abuse and repression at the hands of Indian state terrorism since 1947, as our leadership has bungled on one count after another on these issues. As long as our leaders repress and mistrust their own people, they will continue to fall prey to hostile external actors as our people continue to die at their hands. But then perhaps our lives are also cheap for our ruling elites?
Our rulers repress their own, kowtow to outsiders
Shireen M Mazari
Just when one thinks the rulers can disgust no more, they surprise us once again. And so it was that one had to witness with revulsion the president of Pakistan awarding our Hilal series of national awards (second in rank after the Nishan series) to an American official whose sole claim to fame in Islamabad are his frequent visits to pressurise the Pakistani state into submitting to US diktat.
To see Richard Boucher being given the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam was to see our leaders slapping the Pakistani nation on its face. After all, Boucher represents the US administration that has all but destroyed the Pakistani polity through daily killings of our people in drone attacks and through consistent demands to 'do more' even as we have seen the fallout of the insane 'war on terror' bring suicide bombings, terrorism and polarisation into Pakistan as never before. Yes, we had had our share of sectarian terror much before 9/11, but it was limited and on the wane before the US struck Afghanistan with its deathly military might.
So what is Boucher being rewarded for? Killing Pakistanis in the tribal belt? Pushing forward a debilitating agenda for Pakistan? Putting Pakistanis into Guantanamo Bay and other US prisons? Getting our military political leadership to participate in renditions and torture of Pakistani citizens? Or getting our civilian political leadership to give in to the new round of Indian histrionic demands post-Mumbai? Are all these what our rulers see as the furtherance of US-Pakistan ties? What a shame and disgrace to this long-suffering nation of Pakistan.
But there should be no surprise in this. We now stand devoid of strong institutions, moral and ethical leadership and any modicum of dignity and self-respect. So when Boucher comes effectively as an emissary of India, to push Pakistan into accepting unquestioningly the Indian dossier on Mumbai, we award him the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam. Which brings up the whole issue of the Mumbai dossier. Those who have seen this brilliant piece of diplomatic propaganda feel there is little substantive in the way of credible proof. Instead, it is a compilation of past accusations, old theories plus pictures and apparent identities of the dead perpetrators with some purported mobile calls and so on. It is no wonder the Indians sent their US partner to push Pakistan into accepting everything without question. And our rulers welcomed Boucher with a national award!
Of course, one should accept the dossier but immediately also demand that we would need to verify the veracity of the 'facts' mentioned in the dossier. This would require our investigators going to Mumbai, questioning Indian officials involved in the investigations and examining the 'evidence' mentioned in the dossier. Then, if there really is even an iota of credible evidence pointing to anyone in Pakistan or belonging to Pakistan, we must move forcefully against the accused. But the rulers need to respond in an assertive fashion rather than in a strangely defensive, apologetic mode. Look at Indias brazenness on the Samjhota Express terrorist incident despite the now-established guilt of rogue elements in the Indian army and Hindu extremists!
But this brazen defiance of all international norms is the hallmark of not only India (look at its track record in Occupied Kashmir) but also its new strategic partner the US. Look what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza where a massacre is being conducted by Israel and the US is single-handedly refusing to allow the UN Security Council any role in stopping this mass killing of the Palestinians. Just as Muslim lives are expendable in Pakistan for the US, so Palestinian lives are totally expendable for the Zionists. Interestingly, the Indian state has also adopted a muted stance reflecting their now-established alliance with Israel and the US.
However, why decry the Indian stance when our own leadership along with the leadership of the Arab World has barely voiced its protest beyond the usual whimperings. No major Arab state has recalled their envoys from Israel only Mauritania of the Arab League has made this move and once again the Muslim world, especially the Arab leadership, has shown its confidence deficit and self-imposed helplessness in the face of the US and Israeli aggression.
Yet, ordinary Muslims across the globe hope that the determination of the Palestinians in Gaza will pull down the Israelis just as Hezbollah did so in Lebanon. We also know that it is these acts of barbarism that will create more defiant spirits in the coming generations just as we know only too well that the seeming connivance or acceptance of US-Israeli aggression will also create more radicalisation within the Muslim polities thereby shrinking ever further the space for 'moderates'. The timing of this latest Israeli killing spree in Gaza could not have been more ironic Muharram with all that that signifies in Islamic history and in the spirit of sacrifice.
As long as the Muslim leadership in our part of the world is only able to bare its fangs on its own people, we will be trodden upon by outside forces and kept repressed by our elitist leaders. Today in Pakistan the people are without any independent avenues for legal redress and democracy has only brought into power civilian dictators hell-bent on unleashing their power not through responding to the will of the people but through the force of power and naked hooliganism. Instead of defending our people against external enemies and threats, our leaders are trying to bring their people to their knees through economic hardships and political use of the state apparatus to browbeat the dissenters. If the US agenda for Pakistan is truly to balkanise the country, then it is being served loyally not only by the IMF but also by old Citibank employees. And it would appear our rulers are silent partners in this agenda since the Citibankers have come in at their behest!
As for the use of naked political power, I saw it up close in a recent bye election in southern Punjab where members of the Punjab cabinet supported by at least ten Kalashnikov-touting gunmen (police I was told) went around barging into polling booths. Since I was confronted with one such group inside a polling booth, I saw such power for myself but as with all bullies, once one stands up to them, they back off. But this is a topic for another day, as it exposed the sleaze and moral bankruptcy of the emerging political forces being supported by the diehard tumandars that comprise the PML-N/PPP leadership of southern Punjab. Suffice it to say that despite the modern pretentions of at least the PML-N leadership in Punjab, the feudal mindset rules the roost and there is little to choose from between the main contenders and wielders of power today.
The point really is that if Muslim leaders were to trust their own people more and learn to live with peaceful dissent and diversity, they would not suffer from a continuing psychological confidence deficit when confronting external powers and threats. Unfortunately at present they feel more threatened by their own people which makes them vulnerable to being exploited from outside. The present Arab crisis in the wake of yet another Israeli aggression against the Palestinians supported by the US reveals this in a most glaring fashion.
But we in Pakistan have been witnessing the US play this murderous role since 9/11 in our own region and we have watched our Kashmiri brethren suffer abuse and repression at the hands of Indian state terrorism since 1947, as our leadership has bungled on one count after another on these issues. As long as our leaders repress and mistrust their own people, they will continue to fall prey to hostile external actors as our people continue to die at their hands. But then perhaps our lives are also cheap for our ruling elites?
Our rulers repress their own, kowtow to outsiders
