Ferguson & some lessons for us

Pakistanis have plenty to relate to the protests in terms of the injustices they face, both current and historical

Perhaps, one of the more galling aspects of the fallout from the anti-racism protests that emerged in the US following incidents of killings by white policemen in the cities of Ferguson, New York and elsewhere of unarmed African-American individuals, and later the decisions of US grand juries not to indict these officials, were the statements issued by China and North Korea, barely concealing their glee at the chaos as it unfurled. Blind to its atrocious human rights record, North Korea called the US “the graveyard of human rights” and China, barely keeping within its non-interference policy said “we [China and the US] can learn from each other” when it comes to human rights. There is an understandable reason for this schadenfreude: most countries do not like to be lectured on human rights abuses, especially by a country that continues to suffer from a poisonous history of slavery, oppression, segregation and racial inequality.

It is also perhaps, difficult for Pakistanis to relate to those tensions; Pakistan has neither a comparable history nor an analogous racial divide that could perhaps give shape to those tensions in the US. But Pakistanis not caring, or worse, taking satisfaction in the US’s troubles would be a grave moral and strategic error. First, we do not have to be black or American to empathise with the oppressed. Human rights, by definition, encompass all of mankind, and a violation of those rights anywhere is a violation everywhere.

Second, Pakistan (indeed, the entire subcontinent) has gone through centuries of oppression and subjugation under colonial masters. Our ancestors were also put on ships and transported across the world to unfamiliar lands in Africa and the Caribbean; we were also robbed of our dignity, wealth and livelihoods. We also lived under oppressive laws and that legacy of subjugation is still very much with us today, in our legal system and in our collective image of ourselves. Our own history compels us to extend our empathy to those who also continue to suffer. All of this also precludes the very real racial tension in Pakistani society. The emphasis on fairness — whether it is for marriage proposals or even job interviews — and our own disdain towards darker skinned individuals who live in this country, whether from abroad or our very own, ought to give us plenty to consider. Those racial tensions, as in America, also have socio-economic undercurrents.

There is also another aspect to the protests that Pakistanis would do well to consider: the rights and constraints of the police force. It is not safe to travel in cities late at night, not only because of criminals, but also because of police harassment. Arbitrary detention, arrests, and even killings, are routine in Pakistan, and especially after the Pakistan Protection Bill was passed by both the Senate and the National Assembly, codified by law. No, Pakistan’s police force is not ‘militarised’, they tend to be woefully ill-equipped, but that issue is mitigated by a wide array of para military law-enforcement agencies whose accountability is murky at best. ‘Encounters’ in which ‘suspects’ are killed by the police are hardly investigated at all, let alone effectively; the cries of the families of those killed, ignored. Citizens of this country have long become used to a corrupt, unaccountable police force that preys on the citizens it is appointed to protect and serve. Unsurprisingly, the poor suffer the most.

Pakistanis, then, have plenty to relate to the protests in terms of the injustices they face, both current and historical. And even if they did not, they should perhaps consider what it means to be allies, which Pakistanis admirably become when it comes to the rights of Palestinians or Kashmiris. Yes, of course we have our own troubles; there is plenty of persecution, terror and oppression to go around. But that should not limit our hearts to be open to ourselves alone. The world is more inter-connected than it ever was before, and as a consequence, it is a lot smaller. It is about time we thought of others in it.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.

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