Taken in by propaganda

The fake WikiLeaks story published in several major dailies should have aroused suspicions. I fell for it.

The fake WikiLeaks story published in several major dailies, including this one, on December 9, praising Pakistani generals while blasting their Indian counterparts, should have aroused suspicions among the more worldly. Instead, I fell for it. If several responsible national dailies had the news on the front page in banner headlines, I reckoned, the provenance was beyond doubt. That’s my excuse but not the reason, which was not pausing to reflect.

There were clues that something was amiss. For example, those making comparisons between Pakistani and Indian generals were American personnel based in Delhi who could not have possibly had the opportunity of interacting with our generals sufficiently to make a comparison or discover their wondrous qualities. How then could they have reported so confidently? And the other claim that while we did have ISI sleuths in India, they were not really doing anything sinister but collecting information, is something that the Americans could not have possibly known unless they were monitoring them!

The other allegations of Karzai being the head honcho of drug smugglers and Indian Army atrocities in Kashmir and Indian machinations in Waziristan and Balochistan because they contained a large element of truth, were easier overlooked.

Perhaps, subconsciously, I did ask myself why anyone should pedal such lies if he would be instantaneously exposed. The leaked cables are in the possession of at least five reputed international dailies and hence a lie would be discovered in a matter of seconds — in fact, only as long as it takes to type a name and to press the ‘search’ button.

The irony is that the praise heaped on General Kayani was unnecessary. He is doing well by all accounts. And there is no reason why he should be viewed in a better light than his Indian counterpart. Who cares and what solace is that to the public? Besides, the roles of Kayani and his Indian counterpart in their respective countries are very different. Nor is their skill as commanders relevant at the moment, considering that war is not about to break out.

In other words, what we had were pointless lies in a document that would be exposed as such, the very moment that it was revealed. Worse, as it would fall like most lies it would take down a lot of the truth with it. It was about as good an example of mindless and counterproductive propaganda as any.

Nothing that emerges from sources that have been traditionally associated with such antics will wash easily any more. The claim that the entire WikiLeaks cables are a CIA conspiracy has already been rubbished by most serious analysts. Patriotism and paranoia can, when mixed, form a lethal brew. A noble devotion should not lead to moral lunacy.

Strange as it may sound, honesty often is the best policy although it is often viewed as a somewhat dangerous commodity in this country. Here, we speak the truth not so much as we should but as much as we dare. We seem to believe that nothing good can emerge of the truth. “Actually the public likes nothing better than the truth,” said Sukarno of Indonesia, and proceeded to explain to the audience of over 100,000 people as to why he had kept them waiting in the boiling sun for two hours to hear him speak. “Forget the reason you have been given. I will tell you why I was late”, he said, pointing to a rather comely girl on the stage. The crowd rent the air with cheers.

No man or institution, it was once said, can wear two faces for any considerable period, one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. Some of us have reached such a pass. Honesty should not be based on policy but policy should be based on honesty. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but surely not their own facts. The best propaganda in today’s world is not in lying through the teeth but spinning the truth to one’s advantage. Those who pedalled this blatantly faked document, therefore, did their own reputation and Pakistan’s credibility no good.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.