Saying Sorry
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
In politics, as in real life, there is a huge problem in admitting mistakes. It goes to judgment and this is where the human tendency is not to concede, but to conceal, even when mistakes are revealed. Saying sorry is an aberration.
It was therefore a rare departure from this precedent and pattern when Obama apologized to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) for the atrocity committed by US forces on its hospital operated in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Perhaps Obama could do so because he admittedly is now ‘liberated’ from the shackles of reelection.
One of the reasons why Japanese-Chinese rancor continues to fester in international politics is Japan’s dismissive treatment of the horrific Rape of Nanking in 1937.
A senior Pakistani politician who, with the help of aides, was attempting to write his autobiography once asked my input. I took a cursory glance at the draft manuscript and asked where in it was there an admission of mistakes made in the public sphere? His immediate startled riposte was, “But what will the public say?”
Persisting with errors ensures repetition of mistakes.
A notable example in American life is that of Malcolm X, who after returning from Mecca after Hajj, experienced epiphany and rejected racial exclusivity, seeing unity in common humanity.
In Burma, Nobel Laureate recipient Aung San Suu Kyi has yet to utter a single word of empathy or contrition for the inhumane treatment by the Burmese Buddhist majority against its Muslim minority.
From Bangladeshi perspective, Pakistan may not have adequately apologized for 1971. True. But did Bangladesh do so for its own enduring mistreatment of Bihari inhabitants? Has Pakistan apologized for abandoning its Pakistani citizens left stranded in former East Pakistan? Yet, the indomitable Majid Nizami did continuously carry a plea under the banner of Nawa-i-Waqt publications to help the stranded Biharis.
The sterling example that stands tall is that of South African leader F W de Klerk. De Klerk was a product of apartheid and a beneficiary of that system. Yet, in a remarkable turnaround, he changed course and accosted his own Afrikaner community, telling them to their faces 25 years ago that apartheid was wrong. After releasing Nelson Mandela from prison, he appealed to the conscience and pragmatic self-interest of white South Africans and was able, after a tremendous effort of feat of persuasion, to win through referendum a mandate to end apartheid. Convincing his own constituency about its unsustainability, and making them aware of dire alternatives, he succeeded in negotiating a peaceful end to the system of apartheid, and by doing so, bequeathed to all South Africans a legacy of change and hope.
Today, South African skipper Hashim Amla is an inspiring emblem of post-apartheid healing.
Contemporary examples of course-correction are right here in our midst. Germany did it recently; a country that created refugees 70 years ago became a haven for refugees in 2015.
Nations, cultures, and societies who do not voluntarily rectify the errors of their ways leave the doors open for outsiders to do so, often with brutal results. Saying sorry can avert many a disaster, as de Klerk proved.
Back to Pakistanlink Homepage
