Attacks
on Critics of Government
By Husain Haqqani
Visiting Scholar
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC
A new website, clearly sponsored
by one of Pakistan's cloak and dagger outfits,
called IslamabadPost.com, has attacked my patriotism
in a recent posting titled ' Husain Haqqani’s
Anti-Pakistan Froth: How Could Pakistani Governments
Have Employed Such People?' As the article is
likely to reverberate among Pakistanis on the
Internet, I request that you post my riposte on
your esteemed website.
The entire attack on me is based on a comment
of mine in my syndicated column, published in
The Nation (Pakistan), Gulf News, and South Asia
Tribune, among others. The unnamed author of the
IslamabadPost.com attack has chosen an article
by a former Indian official to suggest a similarity
between my thoughts and the former Indian official's
views, which is somehow supposed to prove my lack
of patriotism. One wonders whether when next time
General Musharraf expresses identity of views
with India's leaders we should think of him as
unpatriotic?
The site lists no one by name as its editor and
the link titled 'editorial board' only invites
"professionals" to join it. Almost all
the original postings on the website are anonymous.
Others are lifted from other Pakistani newspapers.
One author whose pieces have been repeated frequently
has published articles in some Pakistani newspapers
but has never been seen by any well-known Pakistani
journalist in person. After exchanging a few e-mails
with me, he described me as his friend in an article
in The News, so I assume he does not consider
me a traitor. How can a super-patriot be the friend
of a traitor?
The anonymity of the writers of the website suggests
that it is the product of those who operate in
the shadows, who have yet to understand the value
of freedom of speech and ideas. This community
has described many Pakistanis as unpatriotic over
the years, beginning with Maulvi Fazlul Haq --
the man who moved the Pakistan Resolution in 1940.
At a time when Pakistanis are discovering freedom
of expression and are beginning to openly debate
various options for their beloved country, the
emergence of a cloak and dagger operation to discredit
those who dissent from the present regime is not
a positive development. Pakistani surfers of the
Internet should be cautioned against the prospect
of character assassination campaigns through the
new website against independent Pakistani scholars
and writers.
I am proud to be a Pakistani and love my country
as much as any other compatriot. I have a different
view, however, of what love of Pakistan requires
than those who feel supporting the Pakistani establishment's
worldview is the only form of patriotism. I also
do not think any individual or group of individuals
has the exclusive right to define patriotism and
then to impugn the patriotism of those who do
not conform to their definition of patriotic conduct.
The immediate motive of the attack against me
is revealed in the words: " Mr. Haqqani’s
latest endeavor to put his own country down is
a book he is preparing to release in the US that
uses the three ingredients of Islam, Pakistan,
and the country’s armed forces, which are
the usual anti-Pakistan stereotypes common in
the western media." Obviously, some people
are scared at the prospect of embarrassment likely
to be caused by a scholarly book analyzing the
role of Pakistan's permanent institutions of state
in the country's development -- even before they
have read the book. I wonder why writing honestly
about Pakistan's history amounts to "putting
down" my country if all the actions I am
writing about were not?
For the record, my book is being published in
Pakistan and the US simultaneously just as all
my writings are published at home and abroad at
the same time. Unlike the bosses of the shadowy
persons attacking me, I do not write different
things for different audiences.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
