Slapping around the subservient republic

Of all the things that drives reasonable, patriotic Pakistanis up the wall with frustration, perhaps none is so potent as the seemingly complete lack of the Pakistani republic’s will to react. It doesn’t really matter who comes along, winds up and takes a shot at Pakistan, the Pakistani republic has an almost unceasing capacity to continue to be brutalised by all manner of oppressors. Pakistan is fast becoming that country that you just walk up to and slap, at will, because you know it won’t hit back.

The military has been able to distinguish itself in this regard over the last several months by launching Operation Zarb-e-Azb. For many simple-minded democrats, this was a great step forward for our country, because finally, we would cut off the umbilical cord of some of the nasty groups that comprise the TTP. Less simple-minded folks of course, knew back in June 2014, when Zarb-e-Azb began, that a military operation was a start, but it was no turn-key solution.

Pakistan’s illicit relations with violent extremists did not begin in the mountains, they began in committee rooms. The long and nasty breakup may begin in the mountains, but termination will have to take place in the very committee rooms in which relations were first consummated. This means that decision-makers will have to decide to take on the language of violent extremists. It means that leaders will have to lead. It means that we will have to leave behind the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in favour of telescopes and a world-beating astronomy division at the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

It means we will have to leave behind Ghazi Ilm Din, in favour of rule of law, and a rejection of vigilantism. It means we will have to embrace straight lines, and reason, and stop trying to take that complicated, winding road whose destination and direction we are uncertain of, but whose origins are rooted in the irresistible orthodoxies of who we are supposed to be. The sad fact is that we are supposed to be who we are. And what we are is on fire. We need to put out the fire, not douse ourselves in more petrol.

Are we there yet? It sure doesn’t look like it. Have we even begun the journey? Are we still at the very, very beginning of this journey? A lot of us are beginning to wonder whether we are not just deluding ourselves into believing that we have begun the journey, out of a fear of accepting that we may never actual get going.

Can the Pakistani republic continue to seek a resolution to the Kashmir dispute by allowing the Jamaatud Dawah and Jaish-e-Muhammad to be the principal spokespersons for this country’s point of view? Are they better at international diplomacy than Sir Zafarullah Khan? Or Jamsheed Marker? Or Maleeha Lodhi?

Can the Pakistani republic continue to seek martial glory on September 6 by allowing the Difa-e-Pakistan Council to be the principal glorifiers of our military prowess? Do their activists have more courage than our lance naiks, or our havaldaars, or our Subedaars, or our captains, or our colonels, or our brigadiers and generals? Can the Difa-e-Pakistan Council fly a plane like Cecil Chaudhry could? Can the maulanas at the Difa-e-Pakistan Council prepare defensive formations for strategic assets the way General Kidwai did?

There seems to be some sort of inferiority complex that has seeped into the consciousness of the Pakistani republic and its officials, elected and unelected.

Judges now feel they need to pay their dues to the overarching religiosity of our public discourse, not realising that the so-called scholars and religious activists they are scared of are neither scholars, nor religious, they are serial entrepreneurs. They have identified a market failure and they are profiting from the rents that accrue to those that dare to exploit. The market failure is simple, the supply of rule of law runs short of the demand for it. A simple appeal to the faith is all it takes to stop rule of law in its tracks. This problem will not disappear because we are dropping explosives from F-16s or because Uncle Sam is drone-striking the nastier elements of the TTP with Hellfire.

This is a social problem that requires moral leadership. The Pakistani paradigm is incredibly statist. This is a fact we often don’t realise. The linear, predictable, straitjacket nation-state is one of the only constructs that can tame the beast of chaos and disorder that is the natural consequence of the vast economic, social, political, ethnic and religious diversity that was bequeathed to us by the All India Muslim League.

Some countries can afford a much higher degree of disorder and chaos, because they are physically and ethnically more coherent than other countries. Pakistan has never had and will never have such luck. Unless the Pakistani republic behaves properly, this country is going to continue slipping and sliding perilously.

What does proper behaviour look like? For starters, it means that the federating units must enjoy the kind of bounded autonomy that is practised in a country like Canada, or India – both post-British federal states, both incredibly diverse, both with many of the same challenges that Pakistan faces today.

But the republic’s behaviour goes beyond the conceptual clarity it must demonstrate on federalism. It must, above all other considerations, act like a republic. This means it must demonstrate fear of no one. If there is one issue that a republic cannot allow any wiggle room on, it is this.

The republic, and in this case, an Islamic republic, alhamdolillah, cannot be scared of its enemies, and it cannot be scared of its friends. Most of all however, the republic cannot be scared of its subjects.

This has three simple implications.

First, Pakistan must never be scared of its enemies. It must not fear India. It must not fear Fazlullah, Al-Qaeda, Isis or any other individuals or groups that have an explicit anti-Pakistan agenda. Pakistan must deal with these enemies as they deal with us. If they send us flowers, we must send back flowers. If they send us coffins, we must send back coffins. If we do not have the capacity to compete with our enemies, we must develop that capacity in a manner that benefits us today, tomorrow and for the conceivable space we know as the long-term future.

Second, Pakistan must never be scared of its friends. ‘Friends’ as a concept is different from the ‘self’. Friends will frequently act in self-interest with little worry about the implications of such actions for their friends. We have many such ‘friends’. Our friends from China, our friends from Saudi Arabia, our friends from Iran, our friends from the United States and of course, our blossoming new friends from places like the IMF, or places like Russia. With all such actors, who may not intend to hurt us, but would not hesitate to do so if it was in their interest, we must always, always, always exercise great caution and pay great attention.

Third, and most importantly, Pakistan must never be scared of Pakistanis. It doesn’t matter how many people they can bring out of the streets, it doesn’t matter how long their beards are, and it doesn’t matter what they did for us in the 1990s. The only thing that matters is that the republic stands above the individual. It stands alone as a sacred vessel, in our case, a sacred Islamic vessel, alhamdolillah.

The republic, once it decides, rightly or wrongly, that one is guilty of murder in the first degree, must then act in accordance with the republic’s own imperatives. A republic cannot allow individuals to stand above the republic. The list of individuals that stand above the republic in Pakistan is long and growing. Through the NRO, dozens of names of politicians were added to it. We recently added Gen Musharraf’s name to it. Now it seems we have added Mumtaz Qadri’s. A republic cannot allow individuals to stand above the republic. If it does, it simply becomes the country that you just walk up to and slap, at will, because you know it won’t hit back.

The writer is an analyst and commentator.

www.mosharrafzaidi.com