Tuesday, April 28, 2009
There has been heartfelt outrage at the goings-on in Swat. The outrage and anger were and are necessary. A bunch of self-appointed mullahs forcing their will by an orgy of lethal violence on their own countrymen warrants repulsion. Thus the opprobrium is entirely deserved on those on which it is heaped. Talibanisation is no longer an abstract concept for Pakistanis, the self-proclaimed 'soldiers of religion', retained by deluded policy makers for 'strategic depth' and continuously flirted with by the religio-political class are proving to be as oppressive and brutal as their Afghan predecessors. Barring the Taliban sympathisers (JI, PTI et al), and the oddity of the PPP and ANP, self-proclaimed secularists, signing off on the deal, the condemnation has been universal. The president, the prime minister, the army chief, the judiciary, civil society, the MQM and even from the PML-N chief.
There is much breast-beating and punditry and parading of the same old excuses of foreign hands and one of the three As that is omnipresent as a reason. (Although one has to ask why would India or Russia wish to have a Caliphate installed in Pakistan?) If the readers of this newspaper and other media outlets are in anyway representative, than it appears that it has finally dawned on the population that there is a serious threat, not only to their way of life but very lives from these gangsters. It also indicates that, at least this constituency does not believe in Mr Sufi Mohammad's version of the religion. A line appears to have been drawn. On one side are obscurantist, violence and demagoguery (and their apologists who have never won their argument in a fair election). On the other side is the rest of Pakistan. All this could prove to be a catalyst for building a consensus about what kind of Pakistan should emerge, after the immediate crisis is diffused. Women have always suffered oppression in Pakistani society, but a vast majority seems to be saying, this far and no further; not even when you invoke religion to falsely justify such oppression. The brave stance of the Women Action Forum, in this regard, should be applauded.
The ideology of obscurantism thrives as others defer because the label of the religion is used as a political tool of subjugation. It is time that this stopped and the monopolisation of religion by all comers in the naked pursuit of power be challenged, without equivocation. At least in the minds of the thinking Pakistanis there should be absolutely no sympathy for this type of violence simply because the perpetrators associate themselves to religion. Similarly, apologists who claim one reason or another to rationalise wanton violence in pursuit of power must also be contested. A favourite argument of the apologists is always that it was the US that created these monsters or that this is the reaction of drone attacks and thus somehow justified. The former is akin to cutting your nose to spite your face and the latter highly dubious, in the case of the TNSM, and inherently perverse. Secondly, it is also important that those on side of humanity, tolerance and believers in the creed of live and let live do not allow the pursuit of the perfect to be the enemy of the good. This means that there has to be a consensus amongst those attempting to combat religious extremism and some compromise on the personal and political differences amongst them.
The government certainly should do more. For starters they should lay out and communicate what is the broad strategy for dealing with the current crisis? What exactly has been promised to the TNSM and how is it to be implemented? If there is no will or possibility of enforcing its writ in Swat and Malakand, the least the government should do is to negotiate a safe passage of refugees and help in their settlement in other parts of the country. The most important thing the government can do to strengthen tolerance and rule of law is to fulfil its manifesto promises of revival of the 1973 constitution and implementation of the charter of democracy. The reason regressive forces appear successful is because progressive elements of society can't seem to distinguish the wood from the trees and are too busy indulging in pursuit of the unobtainable at the cost of relinquishing the achievable.
The fight against obscurantism may yet require force but a more important battle is that of the minds. That is why it is important for the silent, peaceful majority of Pakistanis on the right side of the argument to set their differences aside and make their voices heard to reclaim their country and their religion from the regressive and obscurantist forces.
R Matif
London
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