Why categorise institutional credibility and draw comparisons?
KARACHI: This is with reference to Air Vice Marshal (r) Shahzad Chaudhry's article, "Can we change our ‘hate’ mindset?" (November 1). The writer refers to surveys that overwhelmingly establish the army as the most credible entity in the country. Why categorise institutional credibility and draw comparisons? It is the army’s human resource that does not share common ground with other institutions. From recruitment, selection, training to service years and eventual retirement there exists a distinct filtration process where the best are rewarded and the second best weeded out at appropriate stages. Indebted is the army to the system that runs this institution.
Other state-run institutions are not so lucky or powerful. The hate mindset (army specific) is thus the natural reaction of a majority that refuses to live under its eclipsed assertiveness and authority. Despite the human resource being drawn from the same nursery, under one system, it harnesses and performs while under another it struggles to deliver. Until other institutions are also respected and tolerated in the same manner as the army is, with all its mistakes, the huge gap that separates the army and other institutions will continue to exist. And with it, the hate mindset.
Lt-col (r) Muhammad Ali Ehsan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2010.
