April 03, 2015
Discord and Division
With the Senate 2015 process over and its Chairman picked, it is time to step back, pause, take a deep breath, and reassess.
The arguments being offered to endorse the selection of the Chairman center on his being the architect of the 18 th Amendment, presenting it somehow as a good thing for the Federation. But is it? Under the hijab of greater autonomy to provinces, it nourishes more ethnic resentments and is a pathway to more provinces. Inadvertently, it may be doing the task of those who would like to see the fragmenting and marginalization of national solidarity. In effect, the 18 th Amendment repudiates the founding ideology of Pakistan.
A rudimentary reading of the spread of Islam beyond Arabia clearly suggests that its appeal to the wider world was owed to its breaking the shackles of tribalism through the message of social justice and equality. A tribal creed remains restricted to its own tribal territory. It is of no use to nation-building.
Pakistan today is mired in tribalism, sectarianism, and provincialism. In other words, hate. And those who foment division and discord are making hay while the sun is setting. Just because everyone thinks that something is a good idea doesn’t necessarily make it so. Just because pork is widely consumed in many parts of the world doesn’t make it hygienic. The Adventist Church bars pork.
100 years ago, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan warned about the perils of balkanization. His warning remains relevant.
Last summer, I took a trip to Kosovo. There, in the heart of Europe, I visited the Muslim town of Gjakova. One could see the elegant minarets of Ottoman period mosques. Gjakova was the site of Serbian attempts in 1999 to massacre and destroy the Kosovar Albanians and their heritage.
2015 is also the 20 th anniversary of the genocidal massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica, which was declared a UN safe haven under the custody of Dutch troops. The UN troops from Holland fled when the Serbs encircled Srebrenica. The guardians abandoned their wards who were entrusted to their care. This didn’t happen during the time of Hulagu Khan in 1258.
Much earlier, I was fortunate to visit Sarajevo when it was an exemplary model of coexistence, pluralism, and Muslim heritage.
It hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. It was Tito, the leader of unified Yugoslavia, who had tamped down destructive divisions and sought inclusion. After his death, provincialism ran amok and led to the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia into many parts.
Provincialism is another form of inflaming petty resentments. And there is no time for pettiness now in Pakistan.
Politicians who cannot deliver the hard yards of governance instead exaggerate victimhood and a sense of inequity to justify their rule. Discord is fitna. It represents a constant threat within.
Basking in victimhood is a recipe for perpetual underachievement. But this is the political culture that is being entrenched, without comprehending the folly of its far-reaching implications.
Historic memories are notoriously short and suffer from selective amnesia. Too many today may need to have their recollections refreshed by the calamity of 1971.
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