A deadly narrative

Political parties, security establishment and govt are on one page. Let us hope they don’t play the old games again

As one reflects on how extremist ideas have flourished in Pakistan over the past couple of decades, some of the narratives that went unquestioned have played a big role. The pace and intensity of extremist views in justification of violence and thinly veiled support of terrorism within the country and abroad have increased significantly with the American-led intervention in Afghanistan. The media during the past decade — every mode of it from print publications to the more glamorous and proliferating electronic channels — played a key role in giving space to extremist groups, their political fronts and sympathisers.

However, it will be unfair to put all the blame on the media for extremist narratives. True, a young media in search of influence, a role in society and the mesmerising attraction it created for itself in a society freshly liberated from the ‘one-channel-only’ policy of the state, placed itself on a wild horse — not exactly knowing anything about its vision or even its basic obligations towards society. The speed with which it rode through public opinion was dizzying for itself. With that, the state lost all control and the civil society, still young but growing, could offer very little resistance in the media. They were overpowered, intimidated and even slaughtered by groups engaged in terrorism.

Those in power, Pervez Musharraf and his allies and two successive party governments, did little or nothing in showing resolve or leadership to counter extremism and violent groups. Rather, for a very long time, those in powerful positions thought of violent, extremist groups as allies, supporters and part of the ‘grand strategy’ to win larger battles in the region. This created a deadly confusion over ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban — the latter being a euphemism for violent groups. Pakistan’s power groups — both state-based and those from the political stream had hardly any understanding of what long-term effects such tolerance of militant groups, and the tolerance of their narrative becoming dominant, will have on the rest of society. Frankly speaking, they didn’t care about what might happen to society and to the people. This is always the case when a society has no real say or power in selecting who rules over it.

Three narratives have gone largely ignored or inadequately countered. First, ‘these are our people’. This is what the sympathisers and apologists of extremist groups have been saying for decades. The impression that this carefully and socially sensitive phrase has created is that the Taliban are good people, they are well intentioned and are fighting for a good cause. This came in the background of the glorification of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Their capture of Swat was not enough to wake up anyone in power. It was the public flogging of a woman and horrific stories of public executions that finally moved the federal and provincial governments. Too much damage had already been done. Owning extremists and terrorists as ‘our people’ is equal to being with them. This must stop now.

The second narrative is that ‘our people cannot do this’ or that ‘Muslims cannot’ commit such terrible acts, like suicide bombings, attacks against minorities and other sects. The apologists shift the blame to ‘other’ countries, forces and agencies. Weaving conspiracy theories transfers the responsibility to invisible foreign hands. What about the Taliban or similar terror groups claiming responsibility for attacks against the security forces and the unsuspecting civilians getting along with their daily lives? The answer lies in the third narrative of the terror apologist — they are acting in self-defence. Finally, this is ‘not our war’ is yet another narrative that dominates. Such assertion is shocking when we see the terrorists not even sparing our children.

At last, the political parties, the security establishment and the government are on one page. Let us hope they don’t play the old games again.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd,  2015.

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