Economic rationality does not strike a chord with a public raised on a steady diet of emotional irrationality disguised in the garb of national security imperatives. In the weeks to come, Nato trucks will start rolling through Pakistan into Afghanistan. Dollars will roll into the coffers of the Pakistani exchequer and the Pakistani public will, once again, lambast the civilian government for giving in to American pressure and sacrificing national honour at the altar of the mighty dollar.
The foes of the government will make noise about submission to the Americans and elected democrats will end up paying the price for the rational choice to reopen the Nato supply lines. Nothing angers Pakistanis more than the realisation that our military might does not match up with our own inflated perceptions of our national strength. Any perceived signs of military weakness vis-à-vis other states ignites national passions across the motherland like no other national shortcoming. The media’s disproportionate focus on issues of national security, defined narrowly as military might, has taken the spotlight away from local development issues making them seem only slightly significant to the national interest.
As a result, we do not care about the economy or the dismal state of our social indicators compared with regional peers. We are not ashamed of being one of the last remaining exporters of the polio virus. We fail to recognise that the cost of climate change and associated natural disasters will be far more lethal to Pakistanis than India’s nuclear stockpile.
When we are not debating national security, constitutional issues that have no bearing on the life of the average citizen take up media space as if they were the next apocalyptic catastrophe that Pakistan must brace for. The amount of airtime dedicated to scrutiny or discussion of issues that actually make a difference to Pakistan’s citizens remains abysmally low.
With 2013 being election year, it would be a pity and disservice to democracy if public debate remained focused on drones or continued to drone on about Nato supply lines. What Pakistan needs is in-depth engagement with politicians and political parties on the small issues that television anchors do not have time for. The state of education, underutilised education budgets, mismanagement of municipal authorities and their funds, lack of clean drinking water, our negligence of climate change and associated natural disasters are issues that will not only impact the average citizen but are issues that should be at the forefront of national public debate. While writing about these matters in English dailies has its cathartic benefits, until and unless the mainstream electronic media take up these causes they will gain no traction in the hearts and minds of Pakistani people. Consequently, the establishment will see no cause to give these issues the attention they deserve.
It is time to divert attention from the macro to the micro and to define national security in its broader sense and realise that a child out of school is also a threat to national security, stability and progress. The priorities in public debate must switch to focus on issues other than bombs and contempt notices because how many children go to school and what kind of education they receive will eventually be a more powerful predictor of how successful we become as a nation.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (27)
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@Shahbaz Asif Tahir:
The same way the military deterred the May 2nd raid!
As pointed by some reader all that the author says has been said before. In the stew in which Pakistan is today only a raw optimist will believe that anything can be done to redeem the situation. It is not possible to stop a boulder hurtling down the mountain. But it is reasonable to predict its course and the destruction it would cause before coming to a halt. The Pakistani intellectual can use their assets to predict what course Pakistan will take before becoming a normal state.
Sehar I admire your courage and deep insight in to the dynamics which are currently impacting our beloved homeland.I believe that majority of Pakistanies are honest,hard working and generous people who are blessed with high level of endurance. However, their plight at this stage in time is heart breaking. I honestly do not know how ordinary children cope with extremely hot weather with no electricity, water and gas. I fully agree with your idea that our biggest threat does not come from outside but it lies within. lack of education and a poor health are our biggest enemies. I am sure you know that all big TV channels are owned by the rich so do not expect that any anchor would dare to focus on the day to day suffering of ordinary people.
@natasha:
We do not need to do our home work. It is rather the liberal secular mind set, confused by their own desires, that wishes to plunge Pakistan, into the hands of looters, and those who intend to destablize Pakistan. We need a system of justice, based on the eternal law of the Quran, and Sunnah, to swim through these difficult times. Those who blame the army, forget that the mastermind of the 1971 debacle, was ZAB, who refused to accept the reality of his defeat, to Shaikh Mujib ur Rahman, in the 1970 elections. You might like to read the true version, of the Hamood ur Rahman report, that blames Pakistan's eastern command of the army, but puts the main blame on ZAB, who refused to accept his defeat, and deceptively took over power, in 1971, causing humiliation to Pakistan. How ever Allah Subhana, punished him, along with the other stake holders, in this political deal, i.e Indira Gandhi, and Shaikh Mujib, with a humiliation, for all to see and take heed. The rest is history.
@Shahbaz Asif Tahir: Remember this is the mind set that is the true friend of Pakistan and not the military mind set. THE AGE AND TIME of military mind set is gone with kingdoms and colonial era.
@with love from India: Nice one. :)
A pretty much realistic analysis. What the author talks about here actually makes sense. Its not a surprise that sane opinions are mostly ridiculed.
fantastic article. we pakistanis indeed have a habit of living in fool's paradise i.e the next wave of floods is about a month away and our media is obsessed with some court cases which have no bearing on the life of the ordinary pakistani.
Yes! this is exactly what i wanted to listen from some journalist or a writer. All the parties and TV anchors have their focus on international issues and not on the local and most critical issues in Pakistan. What we need to hear is the action plans to improve education, increase economic stability, pure drinking water, healthy environment and elimination of corruption and extremism.
@with love from India:
This is simply our business, why we have such gratitude, for the Pakistan army. As an Indian, you, or your country, has no say in our internal affairs. It is best advisable that you rather worry, about your own issues, and lay off our back yard.
@Shahbaz Asif Tahir:
Could you tell me how many times Pakistan was attacked from the East?
It was India that has been attacked by Pakistan at least 4 times by regular army from the west.
What will India do to conquer ungovernable Pakistan?
author does not seem to believe implementation of laws is important for people. Education in a lawless society will only produce smarter crooks and criminals. Pakistan needs laws, security and education all together, not this but not that. Writer appears to have wasted her amreeki taleem.
@Kanwal:
The armed forces, only get what is needed to maintain a credible deterrence,against our perpetual, perennial, enemy on the eastern border. We Pakistanis, are forced to eat grass, since massive amounts of looted and plundered money of our country, is sitting in the Swiss, and other banks of Zardari, Sharifs, and several others, who support these thieves. Wake up since the truth is well visible, for all to see.
@antanu:
You are doing the same to John B what you are accusing him of.
Back to the topic, Pakistan,since 1970, has been taking all steps backwards to instability and more mayhem. Forty-years is a long period and situation has gone from worse to worst in Pakistan. The most recent being imprisonment of Dr Afridi in Tribal court. Pakistan is yet to take a step in the right direction.
You online name appears to be Indian but many of your posts have a tendency to criticize those who criticize Pakistan hard liners.
okay, but we have the largest wimax network in the world, why don't you focus on that?
@Shahbaz Asif Tahir
Do you know army has never won a war in history?
"It is time to divert attention from the macro to the micro and to define national security in its broader sense.." Since when did 'broader' mean moving from macro to micro?
Secondly, how much rationality does it require to see that focusing on particular problems without seeing them in the context where there are deep and widespread problems on the general level is a silly approach? When your house is on fire, do you pay attention to cleaning a dusty corner of your room?
Education is one of the main challenges in our society (and not as 'small' as the writer thinks), but even this issue is better solved by improving government at the top, which means replacing corruption and incompetence with honest and competent leadership.
As for bombs, let a drone visit your neighborhood and then talk about how serious an issue it is.
@Shahbaz Asif Tahir: why pakistanis are so obsessed with military.. Army generals are the people who ruined your country. They work as puppet in the hands of US and on the other hand fuel hatred among people against West. Zia was a "pitthu" of US $ and at the same time imposed a distorted version of Islam in the country, the crop of which you are sowing today in terms of sectarian violence, incompetent govts, terrorist attack. You throw them and then again you want to give the power to rule the country. I really pity your thought!
Author is very correct in reminding media that they need to focus on basic problem of masses which is poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Instead media and people are wasting time and energy on memogate, mehrangate, NRO, contempt cases, etc etc etc.
What a confused mish-mash of cartoon logic! This reads like a (bad!) high school essay!
Dear author... I think much of what you said has already been said before by others... And those who want to pick sides have already done so... Now is the time to implement what you want pakistanis to think... Just see above, you put in so much effort to write this piece and the first comment you got was from a jihadi dropout... Too late unfortunately...
Sehar - Good article. I think you have hit the nail on the head. As a nation, we certainly need to straighten out our priorities. I will go one step further, which is to say that since media responds to demand, it can still talk to the themes of national honor but tie them to the structural factors of how nations with honor live by focusing on education, taxes, tolerance, etc.
@Shahbaz Asif Tahir "to undermine the Pakistan military". We, the common Pakistanis, are rather sick of eating air and grass. We are also tired of seeing our beautiful lands and majority of the already-meagre budget going into stregnthening a military which has ALWAYS lost wars, ALWAYS stopped democracy from working, and has ALWAYS increased the militancy in the country. So i would rephrase your sentence as : "to undermine Military's Pakistan".
Shahbaz
These secularists ultimately come around to one agenda - weaken Pakistan's resolve to fight and win against its enemies by undercutting Islam and Pakistani army that fights for both Pakistan and Islam.
Pakistani army should realize that fighting against these secularists has become as important as fighting against external enemies.
Nice wish list. But if PAK just started thinking about talking this wish list, when will she start implementing this wish list, and when will she achieve the stated goals and when will she become as a nation?
It will take two generations or at least 10 governments to bring out the change in PAK. That is a fairly long period of turmoil. Lot of things could go wrong, even if PAK is already on right course.
The author uses deceptive tactics in her writing, to undermine the Pakistan military, and promote the seculaized agenda, of the typical liberal mindset. This liberal mindset, no matter what it does, will never be able to counter the resolve and committment of every sincere Muslim, from Pakistan, to support our military, which is the 6th largest, and throughly professional to deter any aggression, against the beloved motherland.