2,500 years ago, when Alexander the Great defeated Raja Porus on the plains of Punjab, he asked the shackled king how he should treat him. “As a king would treat a king,” was the response. So impressed was Alexander, as the legend goes, that he released Raja Porus and gave back his kingdom - Surrender of Porus to Alexander, 1865 engraving by Alonzo Chappel
New Wounds, Old Mindset
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
When the Prime Minister spoke in 2019 before a large Pakistani audience in Washington, DC, he elicited the loudest applause when he threatened to deny AC and home-cooked meals to the jailed and ailing former Prime Minister.
2,500 years ago, when Alexander the Great defeated Raja Porus on the plains of Punjab, he asked the shackled king how he should treat him. “As a king would treat a king,” was the response. So impressed was Alexander, as the legend goes, that he released Raja Porus and gave back his kingdom.
45 years ago, when Zia was bent on executing Bhutto, the upright former PAF chief, Air Marshal Rahim Khan, to his enduring credit, urged General Zia not to do so, warning him of the dangerous repercussions for the country.
So, what is new? Not much. The pattern of humiliating ousted leaders and glorifying the sitting continues unabated. Facts may change but the mindset remains the same. Petty vindictiveness seems to be embedded. In Punjab, in power, the ruler is a god. Out of power, he is a dog.
In 1969, Ayub Khan vacated the presidency amidst shouts of “kutta, kutta.”
In 1979, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, via the outcome of tainted legal proceedings, was hung by his handpicked Army chief. In 1999, Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by his handpicked COAS. Out of uniform, the same COAS has, in effect, was banished.
A few years ago, over a dinner table discussion in Washington, a visiting distinguished teacher from Lahore told me that she is appalled that her young students don’t know what happened in 1971 – the year that changed the national ethos – or of the Dacca debacle of December 16, 1971. Nor do they have a clue that Bangladesh was once East Pakistan or that East Pakistan was once an integral part of Pakistan.
So, the inflammatory hate speech continues, along with a punitive attitude towards political opponents, side by side with tall claims of achievement. More or less, the mindset remains unchanged and unchallenged, whether in or out of government. It deepens old wounds while creating new ones. And, more significantly, it devalues national life by accelerating divisions.
Predictably, the nation reaps a bitter harvest of vengeance, vendetta, and vindictiveness. The same sycophants, the same deep pockets, and the same soothsayers, with the same stale male faces, continue to encircle the throne until its temporary occupant runs out of juice. Then, the parasites regroup, seeking fresh prey.
The slogan of change becomes a mirage. And the sloganeers deploy it to dupe and distract from the harder task of providing sound governance and sustainable security. The beneficiaries of the status quo ensure that the system stays the same.
Gloating triumphalism seldom works. Importantly, it flouts the Islamic code of chivalry, which impressed Richard the Lion Heart during the Crusades. Traveling around England, one finds that “Saracen” (a Muslim during the Crusades period) continues to resonate through the naming of pubs, bicycles, sports teams, and even armored personnel carriers used by the British Army.
The 2009 movie, “Invictus,” depicts how Nelson Mandela refused to take revenge against his Afrikaner tormentors, thereby averting a bloody transition from South African apartheid.
They say that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. But in Pakistan, there is one caveat and a cautionary tale. Here, the tables do indeed turn.
