The writer is a former ambassador of Pakistan to Senegal, Greece and Yemen
Societies and cultures progress through a fermentation and cross-fertilisation of ideas and aesthetics. In today’s world, a society cannot afford to become reclusive. Contacts with foreign cultures would result in the amelioration of defects marring our own society. In my opinion, the alteration of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the most salutary example in modern times of induced change for the better.
Mankind is moving towards the actualisation of universal values and ideals. Foremost amongst these is commitment to truth. Just look dispassionately and see whether or not such a commitment prevails amongst our masses. The answer would be in the negative. Despite the odium of colonialism, British rule in the subcontinent had a number of positive aspects. It bequeathed to us the immensely important legacy of the rule of law, modern jurisprudence, valuable legal concepts, a strong administrative structure, constitutionalism, sound management and business practices, an extensive railways and canals network, modern medicine and an effective air force, navy and army. In the long sweep of history, the balance between the advantages and the drawbacks of colonial rule would be hard to evaluate.
In its basic fundamentals, Western civilisation rests upon sustained, logic-based reasoning and thought. Its underlying strength is bolstered by its great institutions of learning . These have attained immense strides in furthering knowledge, critical thought and path-breaking discoveries. The West has reached outer space, as well as plunged the depths of subatomic particles and matter.
Many of us, who have been fortunate enough to study in their citadels of learning, are in a good position to utilise the knowledge and skills thus gained in bettering our own country. The benefits of this learning and the impact it has on our progress cannot be quantified. It would not be too far-fetched to say that without this exposure to Western knowledge, our functioning as a state and economy would not be possible. Although few in relative numbers, the men and women educated on elite Western lines keep industry, banking and other vital national institutions functioning. No monetary price can be put on such national gains.
It is essential that we build a modern, progressive and tolerant country. We need to develop open-mindedness and inculcate rational and sustained thought processes over and above our traditional predilection for poetry and aphorism. Rigid and dogmatic minds cannot lead to salutary progress and development. We must shun xenophobia.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (15)
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@Hella: Dear Hella, Most of the people writing in appear to have a full dose of bitterness inside them, and blame Pakistan for all the woes of the world. I understand that the big measure of happiness for the average person is bound to affluence, and one could hardly say that affluence abounds in the Sub-continent, However, the Sub-continent has done very well since Independence arrived. I recall when I was studying economics shortly after Independence, that the Sub-continent became a subject for study, and it was concluded that it would never get off the ground. An economic disaster had been inherited from the British Raj, and India/Pakistan was having grave difficulties even feeding itself. Since then the economies of both have dramatically improved, although Islamabad will never be another Paris, and I doubt that Pakistan will ever get close to the current Western affluence. However, Western affluence is not what it used to be and is slowly going down. That is not much comfort to a person in Pakistani doing it tough, but what is the alternative. I quite often suggest that Pakistan should stop being a US puppet and get out of being on a continual war footing, but always get howled down by the multitude. Instead of continually complaining Pakistanis should start supporting stalwarts such as IK, reduce the military budget and get the country working on a more satisfactory level. However, if the people writing in are any example I have a bad feeling that continual warfare will be a fact of life for many years to come. IK should stop wasting his time and buy a property in Paris.
@Sexton Blake, So when are you walking the talk and relocating to Pakistan, to change the status quo? or is the debt-ridden West still a far better place to live in, then Pakistan.
Xenophobia?
Pakistan?
Nah!
Ask all the Chechens, Uighurs, Arabs and Timbaktu guys who are honoured guests in Pakistan.
Your never going to impact Pakistan's tendency for xenophobia without leadership. Your political leadership likes to blame the boogeyman for many of Pakistan's problems and Sharif won't even confront the extremist over something as mundane as YouTube. Heck - you still haven't digested the fact that you aided and abetted OBL and labeled Meshud as a martyr/
It is amusing to be criticized by so many people who do not submit off-setting data to refute what I have written. Perhaps the fact that the world is in such a mess is due to these deluded experts passively accepting the Status Quo.
@Shabbar: Dear Shabbar, I am not inventing the US financial figures Go to the US debt clock. It shows that US unfunded liabilities, which Washington is admitting to are well over $125 trillion. Niall Ferguson, from the firm Silver Doctors, states that total US unfunded liabilities are in excess of $238 trillion. You cannot fight perpetual wars, maintain over 1,000 military bases bases/installations, amongst other unaffordable outlays, and still have money in the bank. It does not give me any pleasure to report the bad news, but the US economy is getting scarier by the day. You should realize that any entity approaching bankruptcy appears quite normal until it eventually closes its doors. Fortunately for America the dollar is a world currency, which enables the US to keep borrowing in one way or another, which gets it out of trouble. Whether the US can maintain its privileged position only time will tell. Obviously ET is not a platform for full accounting systems, but the figures given may help you to understand that the US economy is not as robust as we would like. If anybody can produce a different authenticated account I will be happy to be proven wrong.
@Sexton Blake: where did you get these numbers. " unfunded liabilities are over $225 trillion dollars". Total World GDP is about 80 trillion. So I think you need to recheck you accounting.
@Sexton Blake: I am sure US/UK/west are dying to import you to run their economies for them.Off course you have more knowledge of US than US itself. 100 million on food program?That is about 33% of Us population. The maximum unemployment rate even in worst times in US is 10% or less. You figure out the rest.
Our country was born of xenophobia. What is the two nation theory? Xenophobia. You cannot cure our nation of this mental disease unless you make them accept that our country was made for all the wrong reasons. Ataturk did not glory the theocratic past of Turkey, he spit on it.
@Ahmad: Dear AHMAD, You wrote a very well written account. However, are the Western countries doing as well as you suggest? For example, British foreign debt is 436 % of GDP. The US total debt is over $60 trillion dollar, unfunded liabilities are over $225 trillion dollars, and its percentage of debt to GDP is 345%. The major European countries are not doing that well either. Germany is at the top of the heap, but her debt is 176% of GDP. I have not had any experience of life in Pakistan lately, so I will have to take your word for how bad it is. However, keep in mind that nearly 100 million people in the US are on food programs, and the British people, as a whole, are not doing that well either. In India 500 million people are on the breadline, and another 500 million Indians are just getting by. Without trying to sound xenophobic, and in spite of the fact that Pakistan could do a lot better, do Pakistanis really need the British or some other idiot leaders to help Pakistan run itself? I will not go into other aspects of how inept and dangerous the British/US Governments are becoming. However, it is my opinion that Pakistan will be much be better off looking after itself once her leaders take the plunge and stop supporting foreign interests in their ridiculous never ending wars.
You can't have equality if you don't believe everyone is equal. Absent massive cultural reform, pakistani society will continue to sink into a self made abyss of intolerance, hatred and violence, chasing an imagined religious utopia by increasingly fanatic means as the solution to all problems while continuing to blame and despise "the other" when problems persist and the utopia fails to materialize.
Well written Sir! I've often thought that we are so prejudiced that we judge everything by which race, country or religion is behind the actual concept, process or the result. You speak about some of the achievements of British colonialism, but it was never going to be good enough or acceptable to the indigenous people as the rulers were of another race and even worse, were non Muslims. Who, in their right minds can reasonably argue that the colonialists would not have done a better job of things than the bafoons that have replaced them since their departure. It is difficult to believe that Pakistan would be in this abject state if the British had been still running the affairs of the country. Prime example is the transformation that the Brits brought to the mostly barren wastelands of Australia, Canada and the USA etc. But we had to kick them out because they were white, foreigners and kafirs. So why do we all want to migrate to the UK and USA. What would most Pakistanis do if these countries opened the gates and welcomed them into the lands of the very foreigners and infidels that we fought and struggled to rid of from our land - the land which is now in such dire strait and seems God-forsaken. Is it really acceptable that the country has been brought to it's knees by the indigenous rulers, and that most people are without the most basic essentials of life. One day the world will treat all humans on their merit, but alas, if we had only shunned xenophobia centuries ago. And that applies to all the races, not just people of the sub- continent.
Under different circumstance I might cry, but hogwash rarely does it. Well written though.