“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“Two recent news items emanating from the United States have begun to reverberate in Pakistan and give rise to speculation that growing American drone strikes and NATO helicopter attacks in that country may be the harbingers of far broader actions: Nothing less than the expansion of the West's war in Afghanistan into Pakistan with the ultimate goal of seizing the nation's nuclear weapons.”
Rick Rozoff (“New War Rumors: U.S. Plans To Seize Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal.” OpenEdNews: 10/15/2010).
| by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
( March 2, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Pakistan is a nation in captivity and colonial bondage and a victim of its own in-house vicious political paradigms generated by the few. Comparatively, Western democratic norms do hold some values of fairness, balance and open public dialogue, and accountability of moral and intellectual leadership attributes. In the pursuant political games, political leaders do claim credibility of having vision and new energies for change and something new to offer for public good. Ironically, Pakistani politics for too long is a hub of institutionalized corruption engulfed with multiple critical problems which the politicians created but power hungry human nature is unable to deal with them. Rational political approaches aspire for new ideas and new talents to enrich the political resources assuring the masses that political parties are open to listening, learning and change. Over half of a century, Pakistani politics more it changes - more it remains the same gruesome, terribly corrupt and authoritarian powerhouse of absolutism of the few. These few count the few military Generals, Bhutto family, Sahrif family, Chaudri of Gujrat and nothing else of political importance. The people of Pakistan view them as power hungry and mean and uneducated feudal lord who were patronized and used when needed by the British colonial system of political subjugation to rule the Muslim people of India. The meanness is deep rooted in their psyche that they see themselves as untouchable political class of Masters- neocolonial mindset who inherited politics of governance from the former British Master.
Dr. John Kozy a Professor of Philosophy and Logic and a retired US army officer (“The Tragedy of Being Human: A Mean Spirit- Capitalism as Disease: Spreading Governmental Tyranny and Gun Violence.” Information Clearing House: 2/27/2013) tells what is wrong with American social psyche but more in a systematic political context:
“I live in a sparsely populated, gated community that epitomizes this nation. With only a population of around 15,000, it boasts of 21 churches. Four of these are affiliated with the same protestant theological denomination; yet their congregations do not like one another well enough to worship together in the same building. Americans don’t live together; they merely live side by side. America’s Christians not only dislike non-Christians, they dislike each other too. In general, we are a mean spirited and spiteful people.”
This week political fire balls from Bangladesh are reminding the Pakistanis who they were and where they are. Under the current National Awami Party of former Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and his daughter Hussina Sheikh, the absolute ruler, one set of political indoctrination are demanding deaths to those who sided with the then Pakistan of the military dictators in 1970-1971. Bangladesh was planned by political conspiracies and created by the Indian military war against the then Pakistani rulers. Shamefully, the military Generals accomplice with ZA Bhutto surrendered to India and lost East wing where Muslim League was born and freedom of Pakistan nourished. Political nuisance kept the Pakistani people in darkness and they gave-in to those traitors who undermined their very existence - Yahya Khan and ZA Bhutto and his People Party. None were held accountable for their crimes against the people of Pakistan. The masses continue to live and enjoin the same fantasy. If there was any functional Law and political Responsibility it would have demanded justice to see General Yahya Khan and ZA Bhutto to face the firing squads. Strangely, the same treacherous and dead-conscience group of people rule Pakistan. There are more crises on the political horizon that the delusional nation failed to realize where it stands now in the contemporary global affairs. The political culture is full of killings of the innocents, death squads roaming around the country – war by all against all - the strategy imposed on the cruel rulers of Pakistan who claim to be following the democratic norms to enhance civic rights, liberty and life. The political tragedies have incapacitated the THINKING of the masses; neither they want to know the prevalent realities - what future catastrophic plans are in-waiting, nor they want to believe those who are warning them of the coming dreadful age to be inflicted by the same group of military run politics. Ironically, Pakistani masses are duped into another election as if it will undo the futuristic political mishaps. Pakistani corrupt politics appears to be copycat of the American political affairs as it is an ally of the US sponsored bogus War on Terrorism – a bogus War on Islam and a victim of the same.
John Kozy (“The Tragedy of Being Human: A Mean Spirit…”) asks – “How can a government that boasts of killing people in faraway places seriously lament the killing that takes place in its own cities?”
“Many more Americans were killed avenging 9-11 than were killed on that day. Revenge, a mean spirited activity, is more important than people’s lives. Humane people never take pride in killing. How can a nation that shrugs its shoulders over collateral killings in, say, Pakistan, bemoan the killings of bystanders in gangland crossfire or even those killed in their bedrooms during drive-by shootings?
How can a nation claim it values life while its police routinely get away with killing unarmed and often handicapped people by merely claiming a fear that their lives were in danger? How can a government not be tyrannical when it consists of true ideological believers who seek to impose their beliefs on everyone else? Tyrannical governments are made up of tyrannical people. “
There appears to be a Political CURSE on those now governing the nation through conspiracies and backdoor intrigues. Prevalent moral, psychological and political curse of the few egomaniac monsters premeditates all to zero sum game that Pakistani people aspire to look for. Once corruption comes into systematic societal thinking and practical domains and conditions which are conducive to political cruelty, insanity and moral and spiritual curse are established, the disease spreads with frightful rapidity. The federal governance, the assemblies, the Generals and the official infrastructures in Islamabad all reflect the sadistic outlook for worst tragedies to come. More and more a nation lost with moral and spiritual power of unity find itself strangulated by its inner generated conflicts of dark mindset and perverted priorities. What about situations where all is deliberately ruptured by insanity of the few, shattered apart, disintegrated to enrich few cruel monsters into extended governance - that is contemporary Pakistan?
Pakistan has lost the operational capacity to endure any more emergencies.
Its essential energies of positive thinking and productivity and national resources were wasted by the stupid and corrupt rulers. The nation has LOST too much over the fifty years: East Pakistan, rationale for Kashmir, public institutions of originality of THINKING and ACTION, opportunities to have educated people to lead the 21st century development of Pakistan. The Generals and the military sponsored so called politicians have sucked out the positive energies of the nation, leaving behind a skeleton under the IMF debts of $70. Billions or so without any accountability.
How to change the worst into workable best? In a knowledge-driven 21st century global culture of change and human development and given the abundant resources of Pakistani’s educated classes enriched with proactive visions, intellects and zeal, lot of ills can be diagnosed into workable solutions only if people with positive THINKING and dedicated energies were engaged in an organized scheme of things to pursue such vital national priorities. Volatile issues demand urgent care and cure, not national curse to those who claim to be the political linchpin of the country. Many divide exist between what is said officially by the PPP run crime- riddled administration and what the thinking masses experience in daily despairs, social, economic misfortunes and political horrors, street bloodbaths and foreign drone attacks, killing of the civilians, non productive commerce and trade, nothing moves in any rational direction to make their survival come true - a gruesome portrayal of so called democracy at work. The in-house tragedy of vices and ruins so apparent, rather than finding solutions within the political activism, some smart guys find convenient sidetracks to approach the Supreme Court - a self-serving practice to avoid politically generated solutions to a naïve and lost sense of reality. Legal judgments do not change the human character or bring societal revolution nor determine the destiny of people or pave ways for sustainable societal change and development. History as a learning medium of knowledge is ignored; obsessive and on-going curse of the few feebleminded distorts the spirit of optimism.
Foreigners will not help Pakistan; their plans are working to disintegrate Pakistan. Nation’s own future is at stake. Andrew Gavin Marshall “Imperial Eye on Pakistan- Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1 (Global Research: 5/30/2011) states that “in December of 2000, the CIA released a report of global trends to the year 2015, which stated that by 2015, “The war in Afghanistan is inherently related to the situation in Pakistan……….Pakistan will be more fractious, isolated, and dependent on international financial assistance.”[1] Further, it was predicted, Pakistan:
Will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction. Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties.”
John Kozy (“The Tragedy of Being Human: A Mean Spirit…”) wonders “Why then would those in other nations look up to America and want to emulate its culture of meanness? Why aren’t they revolted by it? Why won’t they simply stop being led by their noses?
“There can only be one answer. The meanness has not only afflicted America, it has afflicted others too. The primeval miasma transcends national borders. That is the tragedy of being human. Unless the meanness that pervades human societies can be ameliorated, no human society will ever be worthy of being called a force for good in the world. The violence in America, or anywhere else, will never be substantially reduced until the reduction of meanness itself, not its various means, becomes the object of human action.”
Western industrialized world has adapted the phenomenon of Change as way of thinking and living. Islam subscribes to change as a precept of life. But ignorant and selfish rulers denied Islam its rightful place in Pakistani politics. Pakistan desperately needs a navigational change to return to its original roots of participatory democracy and a new foreign policy disconnecting its coercive partnership with the US-British led bogus War on Terrorism. As of now, FORCE is needed to bring Change – a REVULSION against the feudal lords operated system of institutionalized corruption. Change will come if educated and honest people of vision and new generation are encouraged to lead the nation. To CHANGE Pakistan and rebuild its foundation and a sustainable future, a non-partisan government of national unity under new leadership should be the immediate consideration and political action replacing the corrupt Zardari regime, and ceasing the confrontational strategy in Waziristan and Baluchistan and the US drone attacks and demanding immediate withdrawal of the American and British forces from Afghanistan. This will facilitate breathing space and provide timeframe to develop a new constitution, new political institutions and indeed honest, intelligent and credible leadership for the future.
The corrupt institutionalized politics denies participation to educated, honest and intelligent Pakistanis. The nation has not learned any lesson from its own blood soaked tragedies. Ironically, dead Bhuttos, Zardari and Sharifs are reportedly again candidates for re-election. Nowhere in the civilized world are criminals allowed to stand in political elections. Have the Pakistani people gone that much down the drain in thoughts and wisdom? The Pakistani nation must see the Mirror – look at itself straight, candidly and with fullest sense of moral, intellectual and political accountability: who they were, where they are and where they are heading to? Or the Nation stands no chance for the recourse or coming out of the deadly political stunts of the few, time killing legal battles and the historical graveyards. If the nation was not complacent in all of these sadistic misfortunes, the Generals, Bhuttos, Zardaris and Sharifs could never have come into power and to molestate the moral, intellectual and spiritual culture and values of Islamic Pakistan. None of these political monsters have made any positive contributions toward a genuine functional democracy nor do they have any knowledge of it. History has a defined role and the present and future generations must give credence to these developments and learn to be aware of the future in waiting, and how best to make a navigational change to ensure independence and integrity of Pakistan.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012).
