The war of an idea

It’s the politicians, stupid. It’s the Americans, stupid. It’s the religious right, stupid. It’s the establishment, stupid.

It is so difficult to make any sense of what is happening to Pakistan or perhaps it’s so easy to make sense of it that we just missed the obvious in our efforts to complicate the issue. Salmaan Taseer’s assassination may be one in a series of political murders that have roots deeper than anyone is willing to dig, but like a big Punjabi Banyan tree the roots are also aerial and visible for all to see. The reaction to his assassination is perhaps as terrible as the murder itself. We keep talking about how Pakistan has changed and while we were talking, the changeling jumped right out and bit us.

Economists and doomsayers tell us we are as bad as sub-Saharan Africa and we argue back and talk of a deep-rooted culture, a more advanced economy, megacities and the like. Yet we are no better than the missionaries in Africa who can pack stadiums to sell salvation. There is no hope on earth, but the price for a bowl of gruel is your salvation. Is Pakistan today no better? Is there no hope? Can you buy a soul for a little money and the promise of heaven? Or is it even worse than that, all the souls have been converted. They are ready to die if called upon. Ready to die for an idea. A notion.

It started a long time ago. We needed an ideological enemy so we fashioned our neighbour into one. We taught generations of Pakistanis suspicion and, in doing so, we skewed all our priorities and taught them how to hate. We spent all our money, then borrowed more and spent that too on fattening up the military. We shunned any kind of useful education and busied ourselves with the task of bringing ourselves to our knees. In all this self-loathing, we subverted the political process and dismantled institutions. Not stopping to think of the consequences, or what it was that we were doing to ourselves. Each time we would come under attack, we would just build the wall around us higher and stronger. The rest of the world was outside and, deluded, we continued defying the odds.

But once the wall is penetrated, we are left reeling from the shock that there is a thought that we cannot identify with. It terrifies people, prompts them to take cover behind what they think is safe and pious rhetoric. All the while allowing the new thinking to advance and occupy more space. Fear has overcome us, cowed down by fear we have started to fall in line with its ideology. It has shown us its cowardly face in the reaction to Salmaan Taseer’s assassination. Where people, for fear of invoking the wrath of the religious right, fall short of condemning the taking of a life.

Years of neglect and dependence on a benign tradition where everything has been left to God’s will. All we have focused on is building a national security state, where the citizens’ most basic needs are ignored, where there is no education, health or other basic civic services and the only thing that is growing is the population. Can you expect any other reaction? A burgeoning population, bursting at the seams, searching desperately for a share of the meagre and dwindling resources, turns to the state for answers and gets none. The only people engaging are the clerics and their influence is growing. It started with a holy war against the external infidel; today that infidel is you and me.

Salmaan Taseer died for many things, for a poor Christian woman who is languishing in a filthy jail for taking water out of a well. For being himself — an outspoken and fearless man. For an idea — the same idea that is being fought over today in the media and on the streets.

The genie, they say, is out of the bottle. The question everyone asks is: Who let the genie out and who gets the three wishes? As they say, it’s a no-brainer.

It’s the military, stupid.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2011.