Let’s dump America!

When people last decided to boycott American goods in 2004/05, it quickly died down.

Many a good Pakistani is weary of the US, which is seen as engaging in massively twisting Pakistan’s arm. American media reports on Pakistan’s military and nuclear programme anger many beyond imagination. Extreme rightwing forces such as the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) are keen to sever relations with the US. Although seemingly representing the interests of the middle class, these two parties use an extremely feudal method for assessing relationships. The divide between friend and foe in the context of state relations follows an extremely feudal ethos. Whoever is not my friend is my enemy. Such a notion defies the main principle for state relations, which is that states have permanent interests, not friends or foes.

However, since Khan sahib is getting popular by the day I am willing to stick to his feudal ethos of seeing states from the prism of friend or foe. The next indication of my support is to endorse his idea of dumping the US. Yee-haw, let’s break ties! We will not have any more of American bullying and as a show of our indignation let’s begin by boycotting American goods. Does that mean that I will have to now stand in front of the newly opened American fast-food joint in Islamabad, convincing the long queues of Pakistanis to not support the American economy? I am sure we will be able to convince them because the majority of people in the queue outside the place are probably not only PTI fans but are anti-US as well. My only fear is that someone will argue that the joint is actually supporting the local economy.

Or there will be those like the gent with the long beard and five children that I once tried to stop from going into Pizza Hut. He smiled and gestured towards his stomach, reminding me of his real needs and interests. This was an incident from 2004/05 when numerous liberals from Islamabad would lineup in front of American eateries in the city and convince people to boycott American products in protest against Washington’s attack on Iraq. The idea of economic sanctions did work temporarily and we could see replacements for Coke and Pepsi. But then it all died down. It seems that, like the rest of the Muslim world, we could not get rid of our dependence on these drinks.

Historically, one of the most effective forms of protest is economic boycott. Gandhi’s movement against the British or Mandela’s movement against apartheid in South Africa could not have taken off had they not used the method of economic boycott. Nothing hurts even a big state than what has an impact on its economy. Seems tough not to have a chilled can of Coke or Pepsi after standing in the sun in an anti-US protest?

We can certainly break ties with the US and stop asking Washington or European capitals for trade quotas and also ask our great Chinese friends to stop dumping their goods into our market. After all, nothing will work better in weaning us off of American money than improving our earning capacity, especially our trade balance. It will also make a lot of sense for Islamabad to convince Beijing to start giving us grants instead of soft loans. We don’t want the treatment given by the US. We have honour and we won’t accept any free goodies from enemies, only from friends.

In a future meeting with the Chinese government, our officials should insist on Chinese companies not adding the huge fat into the cost of their military equipment. It is only infidel enemies from the West that get into the business of offering kickbacks. Last but not the least, we will insist on Beijing breaking off from India. Since China has a rivalry with India and so do we, it makes perfect sense for Beijing to disengage with India. An enemy is an enemy. It’s true that India is a huge market and China is keen to have a share of this market, including India’s expanding civil-nuclear market. But then what is money in face of honour? An enemy, after all, is an enemy and should be treated as one. We, in fact, promise to expand our economic potential so that the Chinese business and industry don’t miss what they have lost in the Indian market.

Did I just hear someone say Pakistan should improve trade ties with India to escape American arm-twisting? What blasphemy!



Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2011.