Honoring the
Hitler to Muslims
Just
when one feels that one has seen it
all, along comes unfathomable stuff.
Tsunamis and natural disasters can be
conveniently cast in the bag of the
inexplicable; it is when human beings
commit the incredible that the brain
is stressed to the max.
The premise that the sale of American
F-16s to Pakistan and warm promises
to India that it will be made into one
of the world’s greatest powers,
will promote stability in the region
again stresses out the frontal lobes.
Commonsense dictates that arming a power
makes that power more, not less, dangerous.
And it is perhaps the label used by
Condoleezza Rice that all this is being
done to ensure peace and stability that
insults the intelligence.
Whilst both India and Pakistan arm themselves
to the hilt there is now a warm and
fuzzy side to the relationship. Pakistani
actresses going over to dance and kiss
in Bollywood, Sikh worshippers coming
to Nankana Sahib in Lahore, cross-border
travel in Kashmir and cricket matches
on enemy soil are all worthwhile initiatives
and must continue. Actually the nuclear
powers should do the Japanese thing:
simultaneously demilitarize and devote
all their defense budgets to the education,
health and uplift of their poverty stricken
masses. I can be delusional too.
It is clear that the attention of the
masses is being diverted from the current
political pickle that Musharraf finds
himself in. These diversionary tactics
are the oldest game in the book and
cricket is almost opium to the masses
of the subcontinent. And yet even in
the hedonistic, there ought to be limits.
There are one billion Indians in the
world, why must we get ultra-chummy
with L. K. Advani, the former deputy
prime minister in the BJP government?
The Deccan Herald of March 22, 2005
reports clearly that “there is
ample evidence to prosecute Advani”
in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
And now with the resignation of party
chief Venkaiah Naidu, Advani, known
to be in the hawkish elements of the
Hindu nationalist party, is all primed
to take over.
Does the government of Pakistan have
no self-respect? The Bharatiya Janata
Party’s manifesto is “Akhand
Bharat” or United India and there
is evidence too that Advani was embroiled
in the murder of thousands of innocents
in Gujarat. Does the gravity of being
on the hawkish side of the staunchly
Hindu nationalist party not mean anything
to the foreign office of Pakistan? Chaudhry
Shujaat Hussain, head of the King’s
party the PML-Q and himself prime minister
briefly when the candidature of Shaukut
Aziz was being orchestrated, has invited
Advani to bless the temple of Lao in
Lahore in Advani’s upcoming visit
to Pakistan. This is not killing with
kindness, it is condoning a killer.
Sadly this blinkered approach is so
entrenched in our enslaved mentality
that the president of APPNA, Association
of Pakistani Physicians of North America,
went to the extent of awarding a plaque
of recognition to Advani in the recent
trip of some APPNA members to India.
The 30-plus-year old APPNA is the largest
democratic organization of the Pakistani
diaspora. Already Muslims are a younger,
more educated and wealthier subpopulation
in the Unites States. Pakistani physicians
are in the highest echelon of money
and education. And though APPNA is very
strong in its democratic underpinnings,
it has achieved little of its potential.
The feathers in its cap are its democratic
tradition and the APPNA SEHAT program,
which has achieved immunization rates
in adopted villages that exceed those
of the western world.
And yet for the wealth and education
that it possesses it commands little
clout. Some past APPNA presidents have
been truly altruistic, most have carried
the Brown Sahib mentality, spending
thousands of dollars on election campaigns
that yield them a photograph next to
the benefactor-in-chief, currently Musharraf.
And perhaps lucrative contracts and
to one a ministerial position, coveted
by him and eyed by other obsequious
types.
Pakistani overtures to India began last
year. APPNA overtures to Advani did
too. Dr. Hussain Malik together with
his advisers did a dry run to India
last year and instead of coordinating
the APPNA trip to India with API, the
Association of Physicians from India,
Malik decided to cozy up with the BJP.
Dr. Hussain Malik is not blessed with
personality, poise or the power of speech.
And his coterie is as competent as he
is. How he was elected is still baffling
to many. It is relegated to tireless
phone calls to the general membership,
making the axiom “perseverance
commands success” an essential
truism. Though the 15,000 or so Pakistani
physicians in the US have lived here
many years, they still suffer from the
Pakistani plague of personalities and
no processes.
Only 2000 are members of APPNA with
many disgruntled at the open show of
one-upmanship in APPNA meetings. One
has to grant though that the democratic
tradition has been maintained and its
bureaucracy is representative of this,
for all issues have to be approved by
vote in the executive council. The irony
is that such a potentially powerful
organization has failed to harness its
potential and strenuous efforts are
made to get elected to the offices of
president, secretary and treasurer,
but once elected the balloon goes suddenly
flat and personal agendas supercede
those of the larger aim of the organization.
Regardless, all decisions have to be
voted on through the executive council,
which besides the officers mentioned
has representation from the various
medical college alumni as well as the
different geographic areas of the United
States. This sole achievement of APPNA
has been totally tattered in the presidency
of Hussain Malik.
There was first talk of a visit by APPNA
members in March 2005 to Israel. Talk
about hedonism, every year there is
a visit to a faraway land on the pretext
of building bridges of goodwill. The
fact is that the powerful APPNA name
is used to get wined, dined and flattered.
The hosts have their own axes to grind,
be it sponsoring the annual summer meeting
or providing computer services. Very
interestingly the debate about Pakistan
recognizing Israel died last year, and
perhaps in tandem the past president
Dr. Omar Atiq and the current one Dr.
Hussain Malik deserted the option to
visit to Israel. Thank God for huge
mercies, for it would not be past Hussain
Malik to honor Sharon the sponsor of
the Sabra-Shatila massacre.
One is only as good as one’s advisers
are. Najma Heptullah is mother-in-law
to Dr. Rizwan Naeem an aide de camp
to Hussain Malik. For the purpose of
building bridges of understanding here
and in Pakistan, the trip should have
been coordinated by API, the Association
of Physicians from India. Instead Heptullah’s
services were used. For the Pakistani
mindset keeps it all in the family and
we could veritably copyright nepotism.
Heptullah has been a long-term Congress
Party member, and deputy speaker of
the house as well, yet recently she
did a volte face and joined the BJP.
For victory the BJP must garner the
Muslim vote in India. Politics can be
so shamelessly self-serving: a group
of powerful Pakistani-American doctors
being hosted by the BJP would look mighty
fine to the country’s Muslims.
And Mistress of Expediency Heptullah
when interviewed on television about
the Gujarat massacre had nothing to
say!
The issue at hand most importantly is
that Hussain Malik took with him a bagful
of plaques and distributed them to all
and sundry as one would mithai. It is
not exaggeration to say that Narendar
Modi and L. K. Advani are to Muslims
what Hitler was to the Jews. Is Advani
the only Indian out of a billion that
we can honor? The Indian Defense Minister,
Pranab Mukherjee must have been so totally
stunned at this plaque parade that he
forgot to stand to receive his, and
Malik walked over and presented it to
him whilst the latter still remained
seated.
Malik is a self-professed fan of Bollywood
flicks and was eager to mingle with
Ashwiriya Rai and Shahrukh Khan but
had to settle for Sunil Dutt and other
unknowns, and the plaque that could
have been given to the stunning Ashwiriya
may well have been brought back home
with sadness but to keep for sentimental
value anyway.
The plaque distribution was not voted
on or authorized through the executive
council of APPNA neither was the spur
of the moment adoption of a village
in India for provision of health services.
Perhaps the bottom line is that one
cannot teach an old dog new tricks,
and shoring up power is as Pakistani
as it gets. Hussain Malik is furiously
trying to ape his role model Musharraf.
Whilst the latter usurped power and
now goes through constitutional machinations
to hold on to it, Hussain Malik was
elected and is now engaged in a hectic
attempt to legalize his indiscretions
by the executive council of APPNA.
And yet as hedonistic, superficial and
short sighted APPNA members may be,
their collective conscience is not dead
yet. Perhaps the election of a supremely
incompetent man to the helm of a vital
national organization occurred so that
the constitution of APPNA could be amended
to allow for impeachment in face of
violation of office.
Whilst Musharraf will deface the constitution
and tenaciously hang on to power, Malik
will be impeached by the constitution
of APPNA for honoring the murderer of
Muslims and destroyer of the Babri Mosque.
God willing.
(Dr. Mahjabeen Islam is a physician
practicing in the Toledo Ohio; her email
address is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
