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Revolution? You Kill My Guests I'll Kill Yours
temporal
The sudden surge in violence after Musharraf resigned is significant and telling.The Fasadi Pakistani Talebans are exploiting the leadership vacuum and making inroads. The losers are the civilians, who face death unexpectedly, the army whose morale is sagging, and the fledgling civilian administration trying to rebuild democratic institutions.
There is a way out, but the political and military rulers and their Western backers have always ignored it: serious land reforms, the creation of a proper social infrastructure and the establishment of at least a dozen teacher-training universities to lay the basis for a proper educational system. Malaysia has done so. Why not Pakistan?Tariq Ali's Way Out of Pakistan's Impasse.
In response to above iFaqeer wrote:...who's going to bell the cat? That's the basic question...Pakistan's headed for a revolution. The question is of what nature it will be and when it will happen. Today...the obvious option is scary...
Until recently my definition of revolution in the Pakistani context was: transfer of power from one un-elected representative to another.
But given the rise of religious militancy and extremism this definition is out the window. The revolution alluded to by iFaqeer will be unpredictable, chaotic and murderous.
I had heard this story growing up. The Pathans were very hospitable people and in one of their village they had a tradition. After sunset the villagers would head for the outskirts. If they found a tired hungry traveler headed in their direction they would jostle with each other for the privilege to play the host to the traveler. One evening, in the jostling between Badshah Khan and Peer Khan to play host to the lone traveler, the old Enfield rifle went off accidentally killing the traveler.
Said Badshah Khan to Peer Khan, "Khocha tum fik'r mut karo. Tum nay amara aik maimaan mara hum tumara dus maimaan maray ga." (Don't worry friend, you killed one guest of mine I will kill off ten of yours some day.)
Earlier today, near the entrance to a high security ordnance factory at Wah, suicide bombers killed 70 plus Pakistanis. [Death toll in Wah blasts climbs to 70]
Later on ARY TV, Maulvi Omar (not the one eyed Afghan Taliban leader) admitted responsibility for the suicide attack. He claimed that that suicide attack was in response to the government attacks in Bajaur and Kurram Agency. He also boasted that his forces were capable of carrying out attacks anywhere in Pakistan.
So in this political game, of killing guests the innocent Muslims are killed.
The Pakistan Army is at the receiving end and failing miserably. Like other classic armies, its Achilles heel is a sustained guerrilla fight. Their training and motivation becomes suspect and they open themselves up to ridicule. And with the fledgling civilian politicians bashing them openly, their morale suffers.
The Pakistani Talibans have the edge. Theirs is a guerrilla movement. They do not need planes and tanks and heavy artillery. They are mobile. They can disappear in the crowd. And they are armed with belief. Belief in their cause that may appear suspect and unfounded in western and Muslim scholarly eyes, but is unshakable and firm like K2.
Lessons learned fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan have been polished. They have also demonstrated formidable political savvy. The weak Gilani government, under pressure from the West, from their own people, is desperate to find a solution - any solution that may work. And when they open negotiations, these Taliban groups use the pauses to regroup and re arm. Ho Chi Minh would have chuckled.
With encouragement and support from the Indians and the Iranians, the Mayor of Kabul accuses the Pakistani Administration of being spineless. The Pakistani government bristles. They opened their homes and welcomed millions of Afghan refugees. They still play host to nearly three million of them. The embattled and lame duck US Administration leans on Pakistanis to do more.
The civilian government of Yusuf Raza Gilani, rife with infighting and intrigues, and plagued with incompetence and inexperience is rowing furiously with one oar. Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist disagrees:
The US, for its part, will need to adjust to a Pakistan in which anti-America sentiment could seriously undermine US interests. The US can best do this by offering Pakistan not the appearance of an alliance but the equality and mutual respect that constitutes the substance of one. Pakistan's people have already demonstrated through the ballot that they reject the Taliban worldview, and the number of Pakistanis who died in terrorist attacks last year alone exceeds the number of Americans killed on 9/11. Pakistan should be allowed to determine how best to fight extremists on its soil. Pakistani solutions are likely to be slower and more cautious than US ones, but also, crucially, more sustained and popular, and therefore more effective in the long run. Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it - Mohsin Hamid.
Through ballot the people have turfed out the fundamentalists for now. But the key question is whether the people can withstand their bullets?
It is well to remember that for a short while after the lawlessness, mayhem and chaos in Afghanistan, following the Soviet withdrawal, the Afghanis did welcome Mullah Omar's Talebans the first time around. Will it be repeated in Pakistan? Will there be a rural-urban divide? One embracing the neo-Talebans the other rejecting them?
The population is divided. If there is a retrogressive Fasadi Revolution the rural population I suspect would welcome it, much like the Afghans did. But I suspect the Fasadi would have a tougher fight on their hands in the urban centers. For they have learned what havoc the orthodox and rigid Talebans have caused in Afghanistan earlier.
Meanwhile, in this revolution to come expect murder and mayhem in the name of Allah the Merciful.
Vinod Joseph
August 22, 2008
11:01 AM
Tariq Ali recommends serious land reforms, creation of a proper social infrastructure and education. I don't see any of these happening through outside pressure. Land reforms, especially, will take place only when the majority of Pakistanis demand it. Even in India, land reforms have been successful only in two states - Kerala and West Bengal.
Maybe the Afghan government should consider empowering local warlords. Weren't at least some of them quite 'progressive' though a bit brutal? Is Abdul Rashid Dostam still around? He used to keep the Uzbek provinces in relative quiet.
temporal
URL
August 22, 2008
05:23 PM
vinod:
tariq only scratches the surface...the ailements so many...and each nearly fatal...it is difficult to even decide where to begin...
ah dostam...ex air force general...ex communist...ex warlord...ex defence minister...yes he has nine lives...(hasn't grown a flowing beard yet)
the US disbursement of sackfull of dollars keep the various warlords silent (and happy) and when they ambush a convoy or kill it is a sms to the US "where is the moolah?"
Desh
URL
August 23, 2008
01:16 AM
I think one thing that Pakistanis need to learn is to take responsibility for their lot. The rules seems to be:
1. If anything goes right in the country, it is because they did it.
2. If something goes wrong, it is because the Westerners or outsiders did it.
3. But if something "good" happened and outsiders were involved, it is because Pakistanis "forced" them to do that "good".
4. And if something "wrong" happened and the Pakistanis did it.. it is because the Westerners or outsiders FORCED them to do it!
Kinda dependency mentality. Terrorism is mainstream today, let someone .. a common man get up and say.. I fucked up when Jinnah (Direct Action Day of 1946), Zia (Khalistan/Kashmir terrorism) and others played with fire everytime and I supported them in the name of Allah!!
Allah the merciful ki duhai bahut pehle dee jaani chahiye thi.. its too late now, my friend!
How many Pakistanis cried when Ahmediyas were declared blasphemous to Islam? Do you think today's intolerance of each other has different roots? Dont you think killing an Ahmediya because of blasphemy law was as much a mockery of that same Allah? The day Allah was rendered "contextual" was to far back! This is just the maturing of that same contextualization....
You are right, the problem is multi-faceted - but cure is available right under your nose - in your heart! Allah does not become relevant when a Muslim kills Muslim... but when ANY man kills ANY man. Unfortunately, that never happened... the intolerance for "others" after sometime haunts one's ownself... because the definition of "other" gets narrower and narrower - intolerance remains undiminished!
love,
-d.
temporal
URL
August 24, 2008
06:58 PM
desh:
thanks for your input
;)
re: the killing of any innocent civilian any where has been stated publicly often enough and is not Heaven-dependent...to repeat...yet again...am against a single innocent civilian death at the hands of other individuals, organizations or states
Desh
URL
August 24, 2008
11:40 PM
Temporal - That general statement is neither here nor there. I doubt you get the import of what I was saying....
... have you agitated or written anything on why Ahmediyas are oppressed by law ? Do you even think it is wrong?? And more importantly, do you even see a link between the intolerance for them and the bomb blast in the hospital in Dera Ismail Khan last week to target Shias?
The day you will see that clear and unmistakable link - you would have taken the first step to understanding what is the root cause of issues not only in Pakistan but in most of the Islamic world.
-d.
temporal
URL
August 25, 2008
01:00 AM
desh:
since you are so well informed about everything i have ever written.....
;)
and since you are heaven's gift for us
mortalstemporals i will let you have the last and final word on all that ails the muslim worldof course this is neither here nor there....
commonsense
August 25, 2008
12:43 PM
Desh:
""The day you will see that clear and unmistakable link - you would have taken the first step to understanding what is the root cause of issues not only in Pakistan but in most of the Islamic world.::
Thanks for unmistakably clarifying the issue vis-a-vis "most of the Islamic world". Why most, not all of that part of the world?
Man Singh
URL
August 25, 2008
04:03 PM
Bhai Vindo Joseph, we have to analyse the root of the evil to solve the problem. Is lack of
#land reforms, creation of a proper social infrastructure and education.# is the problem?
Is poverty the root of violence?
Definitely not. Jehad has nothing to do with poverty or riches, age education or any other factor.
Most of the Jehadis are well educated people. 35 Indian doctors chatted on line before Glasgo terror attack. All 9/11 perpetrators were highly educated people and rich many of them born and brought up in Western countries.
Our analysts are shy in catching the real culprits. It is the ideology of Jehad when fed in minds of youngusters since childhood along with propagands of `discrimination by infidels' jehadis are produced irrespective of education land reform or economy?
`Infidels' are non muslims in secular countries like India.
Another opposition group of muslims themselves is declared as `infidels' in muslim countries and jehad factories are continues.
Pakistan was created on the basic mentality of `We Muslims can not live with infidels' and jehad was carried out. Today the same mentality is growing among various groups.
It is funny to see the analysts here shying away from telling truth. They prefer to befool the readers by presentinmg false economic reasons for terror bloodshed and suffering created by Jehadis in Muslim and non muslim countries.
Truth is that Jehad is a killing cult. Unless Islam reforms itself and isolates itself from it, situation will never improve. To isolate Jehadis, Muslims have to ammend Quran which they will never do.
Therefore this killing spree will remain so eternally. Non muslims have to make a stretegy to defend themselves to minimise their damage.
The only hope is if some liberal muslims come forward and accept truth and make amendment in Quran and eliminate jeahd related ayats from it.
Desh
URL
August 25, 2008
05:24 PM
CS:
Thanks for unmistakably clarifying the issue vis-a-vis "most of the Islamic world". Why most, not all of that part of the world?
your say...if you insist..
-d.
commonsense
August 25, 2008
08:25 PM
Desh,
Maybe. But perhaps you might clarify and shed some light about solutions for the rest of the world?
Desh
URL
August 25, 2008
11:18 PM
CS:
Good qs. I have been thinking about this myself. I can see of no other viable way that the difficult way to challenge and be persistent. We need Raja Ram Mohan Roys in every religion.. who point out the ills and stand their ground. The process of challenging may create such people.
I have been watching GEO TV - specifically the aalim online program..for last two weeks and was amazed that even the "learned" and seemingly moderates don't get it.
There is no sight of a Sir Sayyed to start something as revolutionary as AMU. Heck even AMU has been radicalized.
Well, either people change themselves or the world will pass them by.. our generation will go and another will come.. and the world will go on with or without mankind. If it does pass away, there won't be anyone to cry for it.
Just one species less.
all the best..
-desh
temporal
URL
August 26, 2008
01:22 AM
desh
aamir liaqut hussain the host of alim on line is a charlatan ... LINK
try ghamdi on tv...the programme is called alif
and then read shariati, nasr, amin, that turkish fellow, forget his name...for a start if you want to be a genuine student
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