pitafi
11-28-2006, 01:30 PM
It was the first interview of my career in TV journalism and I was sitting in front of Stephen Cohen asking about the changing regional realities and the burgeoning US interest in India when a query crossed my mind. How relevant was morality in world politics? I asked it right away. He smiled appreciatively and replied that while most people did not agree on its relevance, he did. And the most important example he gave me was of the Sino-Pakistan relationship.
There is no doubt that the relationship thus far has stood the test of time, but in the changed global scenario the phrase ‘higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the Indian ocean’ sounds a bit hollow. And no doubt when it was stated this time during the Chinese president’s address to the Pakistani nation, most of us were not thrilled. The reason was the accompanying content and the general expectations. More than even any substantive measures, most of us were expecting something symbolic like an open civilian nuclear deal. In my eight years as a columnist, I have always been a vocal supporter of the Sino-Pak strategic alliance. But today I am compelled to rethink the idea of a strategic partnership. Strategic partners do not fraternise with your enemies. The fact remains that President Hu first went to India, where he signed a declaration in which he showed readiness for a nuclear deal, and then came to Pakistan. And here he emphasised that the priority of his government in providing support to Pakistan in the energy sector would be through conventional means.
This episode should effectively highlight the diplomatic dire straits we have landed in. It is not an exaggeration when we say that Pakistan for long has been a loyal ally of Beijing. If we have benefitted from the relationship, we have also done a lot. It then appears a case of a broken family where one brother becomes very rich and then realises that in the new rich club the nemesis of his poor brother is not, after all, his own enemy. We all now know what will happen if India someday chooses to attack us. The budding relations between New Delhi and Beijing will ensure that China stays neutral. If that is what we expect from our long-time allies, think what our enemies will choose to do.
The Pakistani people are highly demoralised since the start of this fateful war on terror. Our own citizens are being killed on both sides and all our allies are ditching us one by one. Pakistan used to show great respect for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia when he was the crown prince. But upon becoming the king, he first chose to visit India and be the guest of honour during its national day parade. Our friends in Riyadh claim that our overtures towards Israel have cost us the Saudi ire. But how can people overlook India’s strategic partnership with Israel and the general Islamophobia of the Indian establishment?
The bitter reality, my dear friends, is that morality is indeed not relevant in the international system. The only country relevant today is the one with power and promise. Pakistan, thanks partly to our establishment’s blind diplomatic somersaults, is seen on the world stage as a ‘nutter’. Today we are informed by our own government that extremism is the biggest threat to this country. But who invented this threat in the past? Not me or you sir, but our very own establishment. You certainly have to sleep in the bed that you have prepared. But the flipside of this natural justice is that it is the common citizen of this country carrying a green passport who has to face humiliation everywhere from Riyadh to Washington. There should be a limit to this humiliation especially when we, the citizens of this country, are helpless in the affairs of state.
God help us, we are in deep trouble. There is no window of hope left. When we talk of democratic governments, we recall people like Benazir, Nawaz Sharif and in NWFP Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Fazlur Rehman; when we think of autocrats we are faced with Zia and Musharraf. We are nice people with pure hearts and yet every time we get such a raw deal. Pakistani citizens have never meant any harm to India, but the Indian establishment, at best, wants us dead. We have fought again and again the American wars, but today colonial clowns like John Abizaid are insistent that Pakistan is destabilising the entire region. Same goes for Kabul. And now China and Saudi Arabia. Is there a way out?
The Musharraf regime would say that we should continue the blind appeasement of Washington. Did China not offer India nuclear support because the US did it first? But even if we become a colony of the US, and we have become something close already, there is no guarantee that we will find a safe future. Musharraf’s idea of safe future is his firm stay in power and liberty to use force against his own people. And then see the moral fibre of our religious opposition who did not resign from parliament over the Bajaur incident and is keen to resign and launch an agitation movement when the daughters and sisters of the nation are being offered some of their long-denied rights.
The only relevant option is the one that seems virtually impossible given our track record. We can only find salvation when we all unite and stand up to take control. Today if anyone tells the Baloch or the Pakhtuns that someone is waiting outside the borders to help them live freely, they should know they are being bluffed. We need to learn from the example of Bangladesh, which is still suffering owing to foreign hegemony. If today no great power is ready to help us, we should have the moral courage to stand up, introduce a truly democratic order without any exploitation, and try being a power ourselves.
If Israel and Japan can become so powerful despite having limited geographical resources, why cannot we? All we have to do is to drop our superficial approach to life, strive hard and dive deep down into the roots of basic questions of national power like that of wealth and capital formation. If we cannot migrate to a true democratic order and a knowledge-based society, we do not have any future at all.
The writer is a freelance columnist and media expert
[http://thepost.com.pk/Previuos.aspx?dtlid=70099&src=Farrukh%20Khan%20Pitafi&date=26/11/2006]
[http://thepost.com.pk/PrevColumns.aspx?src=Farrukh%20Khan%20Pitafi]
There is no doubt that the relationship thus far has stood the test of time, but in the changed global scenario the phrase ‘higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the Indian ocean’ sounds a bit hollow. And no doubt when it was stated this time during the Chinese president’s address to the Pakistani nation, most of us were not thrilled. The reason was the accompanying content and the general expectations. More than even any substantive measures, most of us were expecting something symbolic like an open civilian nuclear deal. In my eight years as a columnist, I have always been a vocal supporter of the Sino-Pak strategic alliance. But today I am compelled to rethink the idea of a strategic partnership. Strategic partners do not fraternise with your enemies. The fact remains that President Hu first went to India, where he signed a declaration in which he showed readiness for a nuclear deal, and then came to Pakistan. And here he emphasised that the priority of his government in providing support to Pakistan in the energy sector would be through conventional means.
This episode should effectively highlight the diplomatic dire straits we have landed in. It is not an exaggeration when we say that Pakistan for long has been a loyal ally of Beijing. If we have benefitted from the relationship, we have also done a lot. It then appears a case of a broken family where one brother becomes very rich and then realises that in the new rich club the nemesis of his poor brother is not, after all, his own enemy. We all now know what will happen if India someday chooses to attack us. The budding relations between New Delhi and Beijing will ensure that China stays neutral. If that is what we expect from our long-time allies, think what our enemies will choose to do.
The Pakistani people are highly demoralised since the start of this fateful war on terror. Our own citizens are being killed on both sides and all our allies are ditching us one by one. Pakistan used to show great respect for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia when he was the crown prince. But upon becoming the king, he first chose to visit India and be the guest of honour during its national day parade. Our friends in Riyadh claim that our overtures towards Israel have cost us the Saudi ire. But how can people overlook India’s strategic partnership with Israel and the general Islamophobia of the Indian establishment?
The bitter reality, my dear friends, is that morality is indeed not relevant in the international system. The only country relevant today is the one with power and promise. Pakistan, thanks partly to our establishment’s blind diplomatic somersaults, is seen on the world stage as a ‘nutter’. Today we are informed by our own government that extremism is the biggest threat to this country. But who invented this threat in the past? Not me or you sir, but our very own establishment. You certainly have to sleep in the bed that you have prepared. But the flipside of this natural justice is that it is the common citizen of this country carrying a green passport who has to face humiliation everywhere from Riyadh to Washington. There should be a limit to this humiliation especially when we, the citizens of this country, are helpless in the affairs of state.
God help us, we are in deep trouble. There is no window of hope left. When we talk of democratic governments, we recall people like Benazir, Nawaz Sharif and in NWFP Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Fazlur Rehman; when we think of autocrats we are faced with Zia and Musharraf. We are nice people with pure hearts and yet every time we get such a raw deal. Pakistani citizens have never meant any harm to India, but the Indian establishment, at best, wants us dead. We have fought again and again the American wars, but today colonial clowns like John Abizaid are insistent that Pakistan is destabilising the entire region. Same goes for Kabul. And now China and Saudi Arabia. Is there a way out?
The Musharraf regime would say that we should continue the blind appeasement of Washington. Did China not offer India nuclear support because the US did it first? But even if we become a colony of the US, and we have become something close already, there is no guarantee that we will find a safe future. Musharraf’s idea of safe future is his firm stay in power and liberty to use force against his own people. And then see the moral fibre of our religious opposition who did not resign from parliament over the Bajaur incident and is keen to resign and launch an agitation movement when the daughters and sisters of the nation are being offered some of their long-denied rights.
The only relevant option is the one that seems virtually impossible given our track record. We can only find salvation when we all unite and stand up to take control. Today if anyone tells the Baloch or the Pakhtuns that someone is waiting outside the borders to help them live freely, they should know they are being bluffed. We need to learn from the example of Bangladesh, which is still suffering owing to foreign hegemony. If today no great power is ready to help us, we should have the moral courage to stand up, introduce a truly democratic order without any exploitation, and try being a power ourselves.
If Israel and Japan can become so powerful despite having limited geographical resources, why cannot we? All we have to do is to drop our superficial approach to life, strive hard and dive deep down into the roots of basic questions of national power like that of wealth and capital formation. If we cannot migrate to a true democratic order and a knowledge-based society, we do not have any future at all.
The writer is a freelance columnist and media expert
[http://thepost.com.pk/Previuos.aspx?dtlid=70099&src=Farrukh%20Khan%20Pitafi&date=26/11/2006]
[http://thepost.com.pk/PrevColumns.aspx?src=Farrukh%20Khan%20Pitafi]