Pakistan's place in the world

[RobbieS]

Here’s a quick general knowledge question: who represented Pakistan at the recent UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen?

Give up? I don’t blame you. It took me several minutes of searching various Internet sites to find out, and I am a regular reader of Pakistani and international newspapers. The answer is that Pakistan, a nation of some 180 million people, was represented by Mr Asim Hussain.

The name doesn’t ring a bell? It didn’t with me either, even after I learned that he is chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau. Now I have no doubt that Mr Hussain is an entirely competent bureaucrat; otherwise our government would have hardly sent him all the way to Copenhagen at our expense, right?

So while I have no reason to question this selection, I would like to point out that almost every other national delegation was led by a head of state or government. These high-powered teams were able to argue for their national interest. For instance, Sudan was a major player from among the developing countries. India, of course, was a central figure in the talks, and its views were solicited in every important discussion.

Given the importance of climate change to our planet and everybody living on it, almost every country has developed a position on the ongoing debate over how to avert global disaster. What’s Pakistan’s? Is anybody in this government even aware of the issues and the stakes?

Forget the government which is in perpetual reactive mode, anyway. What about the media? While our fearsome tribe of anchorpersons and talking heads threaten to topple governments, I do not recall any of them seriously discuss the issue of global climate change and its implications for Pakistan. And why was not the government taken to task for not sending a high-powered delegation to push our position? Indeed, why was Zardari not taken to task for not having a position on this crucial issue at all?

The answer lies in our fixation with things like the NRO and the 17th Amendment. While our TV hosts and their guests toss constitutional provisions around like confetti, how many of them are aware of, for instance, the number of degrees centigrade the world’s temperature is projected to rise if there is no significant reduction in carbon emissions?

As a nation, we have become so intent in gazing at our own bellybuttons that we have forgotten that there is a world out there, and what happens beyond our borders does affect us. There was a time when Pakistan commanded a measure of respect in international gatherings. Our voice was heard, and our diplomats were seen as professionals who spoke for much of the Third World.

Under Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, our foreign policy projected our concerns and our views effectively and clearly. But gradually, since Zia’s hypocritical Islamising policies and their fallout began ringing alarm bells in foreign capitals, Pakistan has come to be seen as the source of many problems. We are no longer viewed as part of the solution to the dilemmas of the day.

Equally importantly, India’s rise as a regional power has eroded Pakistan’s demand to be treated as an equal. Our international agenda has been reduced to Kashmir and security issues like Islamic terrorism. We seem to have developed no clear positions on a range of global issues like the environment, scientific research or the exploration of the oceans and outer space. New developments in these and other fields have passed us by.

While some individuals and organisations have achieved a degree of recognition, successive Pakistani governments have struggled to just stay in power. Thus, they have had neither the time nor the inclination to address other, broader issues that affect all humanity.

However, the problem goes beyond our official attitude: the media and parliament are equally preoccupied with mundane, day-to-day and mostly self-created crises. Sit before your TV and flip from one Urdu channel to another, and chances are that you will find one talk show after the other discussing nothing but the NRO, drone attacks and when the Zardari government will be sent packing. The latest Taliban atrocity will be reported and its impact analysed. But you will have to wait for a long time to find an intelligent discussion about a book, a scientific discovery or a medical breakthrough.

This endless fascination with everyday politics is as dangerous as it is boring. More and more, we have convinced ourselves (with a little help from our private TV channels) that we are at the centre of the universe.

The other day, I spent half an hour watching a video clip of Imran Khan being interviewed by a popular anchor on an Urdu channel. Mr Khan expounded at length on his theory of how America, India and Israel were bent on destabilising Pakistan. Drone attacks and Blackwater were the pieces of evidence that underpinned this hypothesis. The anchor did not question these assertions, and threw in some carefully selected American video grabs from the Internet to bolster the argument.

Given the fact that a fragmented Pakistan is everybody’s worst nightmare, it is difficult to understand how intelligent people can swallow such wild speculation. If the Americans were seriously interested in securing the break-up of Pakistan, why on earth would they be investing such large sums of money in us? At no point did the anchor ask this obvious question. All anybody who wants to see Pakistan disintegrate has to do is cut off all financial and military assistance, and we would go into meltdown within a week. But many Pakistanis are so convinced about our importance that they genuinely believe that the rest of the world has nothing better to do than plot our collapse. They should rest assured that we are doing such a good job ourselves that others don’t have to lift a finger.

One result of this self-absorption is that we no longer figure in important international councils, except as a breeding ground for global jihad. An accident of geography has placed us across several fault-lines, and we are trading on our location to keep afloat.

However, if we are to reclaim our position in the world, we need to emerge from our paranoid fantasies and our fixations, and engage with the international community as a responsible member. Whenever in doubt, just hold on to the thought that at the end of the day, nobody is out to get us except ourselves.

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Our place in the world

 

[mrwarrior006]

All anybody who wants to see Pakistan disintegrate has to do is cut off all financial and military assistance, and we would go into meltdown within a week

POINT TO PONDER ABOUT

 

[ek_indian]

A related thought....

When elites are made to think only in terms of hard power all problems starts to appear. There is also a term called "soft power" which has far better and bigger effect.

We should remember USA or China (and I am avoiding my nation intentionally to avoid flame) is not respected because they have military only. They have economy, diplomacy, science which is non-military in nature, cultural projection etc. etc. as well.

There is a reason few nation are termed as super/global/regional powers...

 

[karan.1970]

Here’s a quick general knowledge question: who represented Pakistan at the recent UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen?

Give up? I don’t blame you. It took me several minutes of searching various Internet sites to find out, and I am a regular reader of Pakistani and international newspapers. The answer is that Pakistan, a nation of some 180 million people, was represented by Mr Asim Hussain.

The name doesn’t ring a bell? It didn’t with me either, even after I learned that he is chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau. Now I have no doubt that Mr Hussain is an entirely competent bureaucrat; otherwise our government would have hardly sent him all the way to Copenhagen at our expense, right?

So while I have no reason to question this selection, I would like to point out that almost every other national delegation was led by a head of state or government. These high-powered teams were able to argue for their national interest. For instance, Sudan was a major player from among the developing countries. India, of course, was a central figure in the talks, and its views were solicited in every important discussion.

Given the importance of climate change to our planet and everybody living on it, almost every country has developed a position on the ongoing debate over how to avert global disaster. What’s Pakistan’s? Is anybody in this government even aware of the issues and the stakes?

Forget the government which is in perpetual reactive mode, anyway. What about the media? While our fearsome tribe of anchorpersons and talking heads threaten to topple governments, I do not recall any of them seriously discuss the issue of global climate change and its implications for Pakistan. And why was not the government taken to task for not sending a high-powered delegation to push our position? Indeed, why was Zardari not taken to task for not having a position on this crucial issue at all?

The answer lies in our fixation with things like the NRO and the 17th Amendment. While our TV hosts and their guests toss constitutional provisions around like confetti, how many of them are aware of, for instance, the number of degrees centigrade the world’s temperature is projected to rise if there is no significant reduction in carbon emissions?

As a nation, we have become so intent in gazing at our own bellybuttons that we have forgotten that there is a world out there, and what happens beyond our borders does affect us. There was a time when Pakistan commanded a measure of respect in international gatherings. Our voice was heard, and our diplomats were seen as professionals who spoke for much of the Third World.

Under Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, our foreign policy projected our concerns and our views effectively and clearly. But gradually, since Zia’s hypocritical Islamising policies and their fallout began ringing alarm bells in foreign capitals, Pakistan has come to be seen as the source of many problems. We are no longer viewed as part of the solution to the dilemmas of the day.

Equally importantly, India’s rise as a regional power has eroded Pakistan’s demand to be treated as an equal. Our international agenda has been reduced to Kashmir and security issues like Islamic terrorism. We seem to have developed no clear positions on a range of global issues like the environment, scientific research or the exploration of the oceans and outer space. New developments in these and other fields have passed us by.

While some individuals and organisations have achieved a degree of recognition, successive Pakistani governments have struggled to just stay in power. Thus, they have had neither the time nor the inclination to address other, broader issues that affect all humanity.

However, the problem goes beyond our official attitude: the media and parliament are equally preoccupied with mundane, day-to-day and mostly self-created crises. Sit before your TV and flip from one Urdu channel to another, and chances are that you will find one talk show after the other discussing nothing but the NRO, drone attacks and when the Zardari government will be sent packing. The latest Taliban atrocity will be reported and its impact analysed. But you will have to wait for a long time to find an intelligent discussion about a book, a scientific discovery or a medical breakthrough.

This endless fascination with everyday politics is as dangerous as it is boring. More and more, we have convinced ourselves (with a little help from our private TV channels) that we are at the centre of the universe.

The other day, I spent half an hour watching a video clip of Imran Khan being interviewed by a popular anchor on an Urdu channel. Mr Khan expounded at length on his theory of how America, India and Israel were bent on destabilising Pakistan. Drone attacks and Blackwater were the pieces of evidence that underpinned this hypothesis. The anchor did not question these assertions, and threw in some carefully selected American video grabs from the Internet to bolster the argument.

Given the fact that a fragmented Pakistan is everybody’s worst nightmare, it is difficult to understand how intelligent people can swallow such wild speculation. If the Americans were seriously interested in securing the break-up of Pakistan, why on earth would they be investing such large sums of money in us? At no point did the anchor ask this obvious question. All anybody who wants to see Pakistan disintegrate has to do is cut off all financial and military assistance, and we would go into meltdown within a week. But many Pakistanis are so convinced about our importance that they genuinely believe that the rest of the world has nothing better to do than plot our collapse. They should rest assured that we are doing such a good job ourselves that others don’t have to lift a finger.

One result of this self-absorption is that we no longer figure in important international councils, except as a breeding ground for global jihad. An accident of geography has placed us across several fault-lines, and we are trading on our location to keep afloat.

However, if we are to reclaim our position in the world, we need to emerge from our paranoid fantasies and our fixations, and engage with the international community as a responsible member. Whenever in doubt, just hold on to the thought that at the end of the day, nobody is out to get us except ourselves.

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Our place in the world

fantastic article.. Find a few more people like him in Pakistan and India and let them lead the 2 countries for a 5 year term. And then see the magic.