An Ever-Spinning
Wheel
By Shireen M. Mazari
Being away in my village
over the Eid week is always a restful experience
but also one which brings a different perspective
to national issues. While Islamabad was abuzz with
issues relating to the independence of the judiciary,
presidential elections and the NRO, in the village
(the last bit of southern Punjab) no one seemed
to be particularly pushed about any of these issues.
As someone pointed out, their issues have remained
the same despite political changes in Islamabad.
There is the major issue of health services, of
education, of natural gas and electricity, of neglect
of the agricultural sector, crime and the terror
of criminal gangs supported by some local politicians.
In addition, the absolute absence of development
money coming from the district is another issue
as is the control of the local administration by
the district government. So far there has been no
accountability of the funds put at the disposal
of either the previous district nazim or the present
one.
Regardless of who has or is in power, things have
not changed much in these parts. While the family
does what it can in terms of education and health,
the big issue is why should Pakistani citizens in
these rural areas have to be dependent on the largesse,
goodwill or charity of individuals? Is it not their
right as citizens to have access to the same basic
facilities -- meager though they may be -- that
their urban counterparts have access to? Yet, despite
handing over countless fact sheets and data to get
the provincial government to move on education and
health, beyond a sympathetic hearing nothing moves.
As for agriculture, we had a bumper wheat crop and
the hoarders created a wheat shortage nationwide.
Who will bring them to book? The sugar crop looks
good too but who will control the sugar barons?
Who will ensure that southern Punjab gets its share
of water rather than it being diverted to the more
politically sensitive lobbies of Sindh? It is no
wonder then that at least in the area around my
village no one lays great store by any change of
political face. In any case, we all seem to be caught
in a cyclical merry-go-round which offers nothing
new -- just more of the same. It is the same pattern
that repeats itself at the national level also,
but in our rural area the exuberance for change
is long dead since there is now a feeling that "change"
is simply a repeat of the past. That is why, unlike
in the urban areas, and perhaps the rural areas
of Sindh, Ms Bhutto's return has not yet become
a topic for discussion in our part of southern Punjab.
In fact, as Ms Bhutto returns, barring some last
minute rethink, beyond the throngs galvanized by
local leaders to welcome her back one cannot but
feel entrapped in the "no beginning and no
ending" model of Pakistani politics. We go
around in circles, "like an ever-spinning wheel,
never ending or beginning" -- to borrow from
an English pop song -- with no new starts and no
old closures. Despite constitutional changes, military
coups and visible corruption, the story remains
unchanged in terms of the main players. Pakistan
has over 160 people, but we cannot shake off the
limited and familial construct of our political
leadership. The Sharifs were expected to bring in
new, middle class, entrepreneurial and professional
blood but they also got sucked into the old construct.
So we have continued to have the same pattern post-1971--
electoral politics with a face-off between the Sharifs
and Bhutto-Zardari, military takeovers and/or interim
setups and back to the same electoral pattern again
with nothing new or afresh to take the country truly
forward. As for the other political parties, they
have been unable to move beyond the "balancer"
role at the national level. What happens to the
committed souls who manage to galvanize the nation's
spirit for particular causes? Why and where to they
disappear?
With Ms Bhutto's return, the nightmare of carpetbaggers
from the old "Pinky" crowd -- with a few
new opportunist additions -- is already beginning
to haunt many who saw the nation and its resources
being treated as a personal fiefdom to be pillaged
and plundered at will. Only this time it will be
worse because they will have the sponsorship of
powerful external players like the US and the UK.
Perhaps the biggest nightmare is going to be the
US private security personnel that are reportedly
going to be accompanying Ms Bhutto. The havoc that
US private security firms can cause should be studied
carefully by the Pakistani nation and information
is available abundantly in the case of some US security
firms such as Combat Support Associates and Blackwater
USA. The latter, especially, has unleashed its murderous
personnel on to the innocent Iraqi populace. They
have killed unarmed Iraqi civilians by the hundreds
and the cases are well-documented but they are all
immune from Iraqi laws. Will Ms Bhutto's private
US security personnel also be immune from Pakistani
laws?
The issue is important because the last thing Pakistan
needs right now is to have the US introduce private
security personnel -- effectively mercenaries --
into the war on terror in this region. Yet, given
Ms Bhutto's commitment to effectively give the US
open access to Pakistan -- what little is still
being denied them -- the private US security personnel
may be the opening desired by the US to bring in
the mercenary factor into the war on terror in Pakistan.
Perhaps the US factor is the only new input into
our never changing political wheel. While the US
has always influenced certain of our political elites,
never before has the US tried so brazenly to engineer
our political milieu. Can the US factor alter the
national dynamics and liberate us from the 'no beginning-no
ending' pattern of politics? Will our people be
up to the challenge of rejecting the 'Made in the
USA' model of politics and political leadership
and look for a truly national leadership ensconced
in indigenous values and traditions? Or will we
continue to accept the US as the puppet string-pullers?
There are critical domestic and external issues
impinging on our choice as a nation. There is the
increasingly costly and debilitating US-designed
war on terror; there is our relationship with India
now enshrined in dialogue but which requires us
to reject the Indian model of dialogue based on
a Cold War model; there is our whole worldview to
be redefined in a truly global rather than a Washington-focused
prism; and, most importantly, there is the issue
of a holistic national reconciliation through truth
and tolerance for 'the other' as well as an embracing
of our rich national diversity.
As a beginning, breaking with the ever-spinning
political wheel of the past requires a self-confidence
and assuredness in ourselves as Pakistanis. Only
in this sense is the Pakistani nation truly at an
important political crossroad today.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. Courtesy The News)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
