Sunday, November 01, 2009
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Anyhow, Hillary Clinton was brilliant in her presentations. She exuded charm as well as a seasoned politician’s grit to present her point of view in a forceful manner. It was a treat to watch her in action though there were moments when she had obvious difficulty in fielding a few difficult questions. Some of the points she made should make us think about why we are trapped in a deadly war within our own frontiers. After all, the army operation in South Waziristan – Rah-e-Nijat – is continuing and reports that insurgents could be fleeing to North Waziristan indicate that many more battles have yet to be fought.
As an aside, let me say that watching Hillary Clinton again made me sad to think how our leaders seem incapable of communicating their thoughts to the people and articulating the policies of the government or their respective parties in a rational and persuasive manner. This shortcoming is particularly pronounced in the present leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party.
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Naturally, we have at this time an onslaught of opinion on relations between the US and Pakistan, with some specific reference to the Kerry-Lugar Bill. Simultaneously, our bilateral relationship is being filtered through the on-going war on terror and the spate of bombings in Pakistan during the dreadful month of October. (Would November, that begins today, be less lethal?)
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Turning a new page would logically demand an ability to think and analyse the entire situation without being obsessed with positions that had been taken earlier. It is in this area – the capacity to learn from history and contemporary developments – that we tend to be very deficient. Whether the Americans can do this, with their think tanks and academic wisdom, should not concern us too much. We must define our own sense of destiny and this is a very critical moment in the life of our nation.
For instance, we need to look at some crucial issues that were also raised by the US Secretary of State
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Our present difficulties call for a serious – that is, without any jingoistic flourish – examination of the path that we have traversed so far.
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For instance, Hillary Clinton said in Lahore on Thursday that Pakistan could “take off like rocket” if ties with India normalise. This is definitely a very complex and emotive issue but, in the final analysis, we have to decide what is in our best national interest. The larger focus, however, was on how we have dealt with militants and religious extremists. The US Secretary of State has contended that the leadership of Al Qaeda was in Pakistan. She said: “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to”.
Be that as it may, and our authorities must have responded to such allegations in bilateral negotiations, the fact that parts of our tribal belt were controlled by the Taliban is certified by the present army operation in South Waziristan. In a larger context, the influence that religious extremism has had on our society is also a threat to the survival of Pakistan as a modern and democratic polity. Is this not time to locate the mainsprings of this militancy and devise strategies to promote liberal, progressive and democratic values?
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But there are bound to be far-reaching consequences of the existing – and increasing – degradation of our social sector. A number of reasons have combined to make the lives of a large number of our citizens intolerably difficult.
Let me conclude with a reference to the Global Gender Gap Report 2009 of the World Economic Forum, released this week. In a survey of 134 countries, Pakistan is placed at 132 – down from 127 in 2008. Only Chad and Yemen are lower than us in the context of equality between man and woman. There is little comfort in learning that India, at 114, is even lower than Bangladesh (94) and Nepal (110). Is this not something that our talk shows should be talking about?
The writer is a staff member. Email:
ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com