Sunday, December 22, 2024



By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

September 05 , 2014

March & Match

Independence 2014 has been soiled and roiled by agitation.

While the March was unfolding in Islamabad, the Pakistan cricket team – the only sport left in which Pakistan has retained an international presence – was unraveling in a Test match in Sri Lanka. Neither the March nor the match went satisfactorily.

The March slogans were plagiarized and recycled. “Freedom March” comes from the 1960’s US civil rights era; “Million Man March” is from the original Million Man March of October 16, 1995, spearheaded in Washington, DC, by Reverend Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam; “Naya Pakistan” was gleefully celebrated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto upon the bifurcation of the nation in 1971.

So what else is new? It is the same sorry spectacle of musical chairs.

The incumbents are no models of rectitude. Vendetta-driven posture toward Musharraf and repulsive family dominance have brought this humiliation on themselves.

But are the protesters any better? It is self-evident. This impasse has diminished all the principals. They may have already overreached, with their self-absorbed immersion in the “I” (mein), non-stop profanity, hate speech, uncouth behavior, and neo-fascist intolerance – not a good trailer for “New Pakistan.”

Federal government is fortunate: its foes have made it look good. It is a blight when the good lack conviction and the bad carry the passion.

Left to its own devices, is the general behavior of the public exemplified by self-restraint? Hovering above is the self-destructive dominance of hate in existing Pakistan society.

The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, also served in the Subcontinent as a Colonel from 1797 to 1805. His takeaway impression was of demeaning cruelty. With even greater insight, Babur had alluded to prevailing deficiencies of character nearly 300 years before. Fortunately, the soil was blessed with the self-corrective and cleansing presence of the Dervish, whose humility stood against greed and perfidy.

How many of the young know today that Pakistan is half of what it was, and what led to the bifurcation remains unexamined. It was sickening to see that that one of the negotiating planks in this current impasse has been “6 Points”. In 1971, “6 Points” left behind a truncated Pakistan.

The media is no nation-builder either, with its non-stop highlighting of abuse and agitation to the exclusion of far more pressing issues of governance and national cohesion. Intrigue and incitement create their own poisonous pressures and passions.

Coming back to cricket, the failed skipper has been assured that his job is secure through the World Cup of 2015. It is tantamount to rewarding failure by putting an individual above the objective of winning the World Cup.

While the public is being kept busy in the gutter politicking of non-issues, a giant has quietly departed from the mortal scene after hitting 100. Squash great Hashim Khan brought laurels to a toddler nation in 1951, when he became world champion. He did more to build national self-esteem than all the politicians and generals combined.

All the players seem to be fixated on their own interests. Missing from the scene is critical self-reflection.

 

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey

Tyranny of Today

Manipulating Language


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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