When bad men combine…

When Marx spoke of the withering away of the state, he envisaged society progressing to a higher stage – a sort of classless utopia. When Pakistanis speak of their state withering away, they mean the opposite – a step towards anarchy and eventual disintegration. That’s very much the chatter as every day brings yet more tidings of the collapse of the state.

Far from being herded, terrorists are running free, dispersing and hiding, as a diminished state struggles to cope. Outwitted and actually made to look witless, we appear increasingly like a failed state. Large parts of the country are no go areas, even for the military. Operations are announced and then cancelled on some pretext or another. It seems we have lost our fear of God and acquired a fear of the enemy. Why else would we be tolerating the nest of murderers and criminals in North Waziristan? While the enemy perfects the art of murder, we look on helplessly, as if we were born to be victims. Yesterday it was Bashir Bilour – whose turn is it today?

We only get serious about security after certain installations have been attacked. We are now digging a trench around Peshawar airport to guard against explosives-laden vehicles. It’s like bolting the stable door after the horse has fled. Anyone would have known Peshawar airport was an inviting and obvious target because ‘it is used by jet-fighters and gunship helicopters that carry out aerial strikes against the militants’ but somehow that thought escaped us, even though reports had been circulating of an imminent attack. We did not think about the possibility of such an attack even after the attacks on the Mehran and Kamra bases. ‘Lord, what fools these mortals are’. We were lucky five of the terrorists blew themselves up by accident or else they would have been inside the base wreaking havoc on brand new Chinese supplied fighter aircraft. To be told that the police in Peshawar fought bravely is no consolation. Of course they did; they fought heroically, in fact. But being brave, or being prepared to die, is not the point. That’s a risk all who join the armed forces and the police must take.

Similarly, it never occurred to us to provide armed protection to women health workers of the polio immunisation programme when performing their duties even though we knew, and were constantly reminded, that extremists consider the anti-polio campaign a ‘conspiracy against Islam’. What more of a warning was needed? Just imagine: we protect Qaim Ali Shah with over a dozen police mobiles but cannot spare a single gunman to protect brave women health workers preventing the spread of a deadly virus.

We also seem to care more for machines than human beings. Those wanting to disable fighter jets are pursued vigorously but not so murderers. Why else have countless attacks on members of the Shia community in Quetta not resulted in arrests although, as everybody knows, a virulently anti-Shia organisation has its headquarters not far from there? Unless dispelled, suspicions of this nature will morph into the belief that the government and the enemy are in collusion and that there will be hell to pay. A preview of hell exists right here on earth for the Hazara Shias in Quetta. And it is spreading – the Bohra community of Karachi may be next.

Is the government aware that well organised political and media campaigns by terrorist organisations can blur the line of responsibility between their acts and that of the military, thereby enabling them to use collateral damage and suffering as political weapons of war. In areas of Swat, for instance, damage to property was blamed on the military and cleverly exploited to show it in a bad light. If so, what’s our counter narrative?

And is the government fully aware that success depends on the efficiency of our intelligence apparatus to discover where terrorists are holed up and on the capability of our security forces to act on the information? That’s hardly evident because these institutions remain badly organised and poorly led, much like most government departments. Unless our pool of intelligence gatherers and analysis capabilities are vastly augmented and improved, many brave men like Bashir Bilour will be felled.

Besides issuing condolatory statements and offering monetary compensation for those injured and killed in terrorist attacks, what is our officialdom really doing? Take the interior minister, whose head is mostly buried in the sand. His version of openness consists mostly of manipulation of facts – the lie direct has to be avoided but the lie circumstantial is acceptable.

Fools are in a terribly overwhelming majority in Pakistan. Why else would the erstwhile former prime minister advise his countrymen to leave the country if they could not hack it anymore? What sort of a message does that send? Many are taking his advice, at least those who can afford it. But instead of blaming their leaders they are cursing fate, which is absurd.

Events are not a matter of chance, and things don’t just happen. We know why we are in this mess; we know who is behind this mess and we must draw from within ourselves to be rid of them. Instead, there are many who prefer flight to fight, forgetting that ‘cowards die many times before their deaths’.

Of course, that is not to say we can just pick up people, brand them as terrorists and then make them disappear. Bending the law is not the answer. The government must establish its moral authority. No institution should have absolute or unfettered authority to do what it wishes. Indeed, the courts have a duty to push back against authority when it overreaches or else we can forget about living up to democracy’s ideals. Let me hasten to add that I don’t believe this government set out to deliberately violate the laws. As someone said, it’s just that having seen the ‘do it but don’t get caught’ cynicism in action they simply aren’t bothered to stop it. More likely, they can’t because – like in most dysfunctional states – those involved won’t listen.

But let’s forget about this regime which has in any case shot its bolt. Let’s instead look ahead. We know, for instance, how much more dogs are animated when they hunt in a pack than when they pursue the game apart. Had we not experienced this phenomenon ourselves, we might be at a loss to understand it but now that we do why not benefit from it. Presenting a united front will demonstrate a sort of national esprit de corps; and hopefully enthuse our generals, raise our morale and, correspondingly, weaken the enemy’s resolve. Perhaps, therefore, it’s time to consider a national government similar to the war time coalition the British had in the Second World War. The fact is that ‘bad men have combined; and now the good must associate’ or else catastrophe beckons.

Dejected with the current mess, a fellow columnist wrote, “there is no party or leader on the horizon who is ready to shake us out of this hopeless situation”. So what? Even if we did find someone to lead us into the Promised Land there will be another man waiting to lead us out again. But people and parties who work together can succeed where one man may not. Let’s, therefore, go with whoever the elections throw up, and insist they unite. If nothing else, several heads are better than one when it comes to finding a fix for our problems. And if they too fail? Well, let’s stop shaving.

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com