His comparisons with insurgencies in Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland are untenable.
ISLAMABAD: In his article of October 15 “Dialogue with the Taliban”, Rasul Bakhsh Rais has supported the non-starter APC initiative on dialogue with the militants. He has taken a middle position between the two sides. The writer, in his infinite judgment, extols the TTP as rational in its “self-interest”. His comparisons with insurgencies in Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland are untenable because the situation in Pakistan is not comparable with any other country in the world.
The APC resolution to hold a state dialogue with armed opponents is irrational and impractical because the Taliban want to write a new constitution. Can we afford another constitution at this stage? If anything, the proposed dialogue with the Taliban is a carefully laid pro-militant trap into which the state has allowed itself to be sucked into.
Education and good governance, for example, are other long-term alternatives which can pull the state out of its current morass of paralysis. We need to change the extremist mindset of society which is now a breeding ground for militancy. Secondly, good governance means leadership by example. If our leaders do not live simple lives, they are unfit for the complex business of running the state.
Pakistan is fighting for its survival. Before we change the mindset of militants, our rulers must change their own traditional gimmickry. We need intellectuals who can call a spade a spade. Our political leadership is clueless. Intellectuals can fill the vacuum if they have the courage to “corrupt the youth of the town” in the glorious tradition of Socrates. If we cannot overhaul our education system, we are destined to sink deeper into darkness.
BA Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2013.
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