Intolerance
Abdul Sattar Edhi has been described as the “Mother Teresa” of Pakistan, a well-deserved epithet for an outstanding person, yet for sheer organisational achievement in single-minded help to the destitute, the dying and the dead, he surpasses the old lady in Calcutta by miles. For many he is a Pakistani icon of sorts, the charitable service he provides has become so all-pervasive that we have started to take this for granted. Charity is essentially a one-way street and while Edhi has not demanded any gratitude for his work, he has been harassed enough recently to make an impassioned outburst against the prevailing situation in Sindh. Of great concern to those who admire him has been his threat to re-migrate to India. While Edhi could not be expected to know much about the internal situation in India, particularly in Punjab and Kashmir, he has inadvertently given an opening to Indian propaganda that they will delightedly exploit. Whatever may be the situation in Sindh today it is far better than in the Indian States bordering Pakistan, our media does not go to any lengths to portray the real environment of insecurity within India, unfortunately the Indian media blows any situation within Pakistan way out of proportion.
However, Maulana Edhi has a valid point in being bitter about the vicissitudes visited upon his people and one would do well to sit up and take note of the level of intolerance prevailing within the country and in Sindh in particular. While alarm bells have been going off in the Province for some time, Edhi’s lament is the grandfather of all chimes and must be taken note by the powers that be. Intolerance based on scanty knowledge, basic insecurity, motivated greed and inferiority complexes are bedevilling our society, if individuals in senior position are immature and/or lacking the capacity not only of decisive action but also the capacity to absorb, to be tolerant, then we are damned as a nation, the nation being only as good as the leaders it possesses, the leaders being symbolic of the democratic will of the masses and the critical appointees being chosen by the democratic leaders being a reflection of the system they wish to foster in the future.
During the past several years journalists have been a target of intimidation by myopic, ill-educated individuals and while we have had a “Prague spring” of sorts for the past few years, never more so than under Ms Benazir, the wind is now changing very subtly against the concept of a Free Press. Freedom of thought is translated in an environment of Press unadulterated freedom into independent schools of opinion, each variation secure in the knowledge that theirs must be the correct stance and in that self-confidence is born toleration, even respect for the other’s view point. Every journalist has a God-given right of opinion, whether he is correct or wrong is not a debatable issue except when facts are misrepresented. Many critics of journalistic tracts do not care to distinguish between fact and opinion, this causes criticism to be unbalanced and without merit. When sensible thought is lost on the individual platform, the ill-informed turn to the last refuge of any scoundrel, patriotism. By casting doubt on the loyalties of individuals they hold aloft a patriotic barometer for the individual to be measured against, in their ignorance they cannot comprehend that mature thought does not cause aspersion, inferiority complex does. This forces the toleration level to a new low in human consideration, the character assassination of an individual on crass selfish motive of self-interest. Whenever democratic government prevails, toleration is the essence of its survival, the capacity to absorb taunts and taints without retaliating in kind and often. However this is better said than done, human beings seldom remain within the parameters that they expect others to follow.
Returning to Sindh, the basic problem is economic. As the new Sindhis has multiplied they have become the masters of the major urban areas, the ethnic Sindhis have faded into a new form of serfdom in the rural areas, the helplessness of receiving education without the availability of jobs, those available being in the urban areas and only open to the urban based new Sindhis. This ethnic divide has been compounded within the Province by age-old curse of the professional dacoit leaving their customary rural beaten path and resorting to sophisticated crime perpetuated on the urban areas and residents thereof but not to the exclusion of their predominance in the rural areas. A combination of ethnic bitterness and lawlessness seem to have hit Edhi’s hide and skin collection effort at a most inopportune moment, drawing an even more inopportune comment, Murphy’s Law at its singular best.
There is a measure of failure here, government inaction that simply cannot be quantified. While we have been very critical about the failure of the Benazir Government to cope with the Sindh situation, matters have deteriorated during the Nawaz Sharif Government in the rural areas much more in the last year. Our self-congratulations about urban peace in Sindh over the past year has had a rude awakening in the internecine quarrel within MQM. While theorists will doubtless analyse over the cause of dissension and the catalysts that forced such an early confrontation, intolerance tends to ultimately breed upon itself. Years of practicing intolerance towards other ethnic communities does eventually rebound upon oneself, that is the price one has to pay for this attribute. The MQM have chosen to go “hammer and tongs” at each other in a fratricidal conflict that bodes no good for the continued unity of thought and purpose within the MQM. In their hour of need, the MQM finds itself alone, the proforma support of the Government present but not available for effective utilisation. The MQM does not need guns for arbitration, it needs judicious counsel. Without dialogue, the confrontation will have a bloody end with unlimited damage to the MQM philosophy and continued future prosperity. As much as democracy is espoused as basic to their ideology, the lack of free dialogue between the warring parties tend to be symptomatic with dictatorship. To refuse to talk to each other is the height of intolerance, civilized conversation is the essence of civilization as we know it. To turn to armed confrontation and torture of one’s opponents violates the norms of civilized behaviour, MQM must take note of this aberration within their ranks. Violence has an unusual penchant to travel a full circle.
Dialogue is the need of the hour, dialogue based on a bedrock of tolerance. There is no future for the Province in military action against the lawless unless those who are entrusted with the voice of the masses do not simultaneously take political action to mitigate the excess that must be a side-effect of any military moves. Intolerance has bred a state of anarchy exceeding such limits that there is need for the Army to restore the rule of law in Sindh, it will be a sad day if such action is not tempered with maturity designed to alleviate the sufferings of the population, not alienate them. The buck therefore will keep being passed between the political forces and the military hierarchy, both of whom will have to show tremendous maturity and tolerance, the political forces among themselves in supersession of their tacit understanding with the military. However the ultimate buck will come to rest on the desk of the highest political leadership and that is as it should be, any political government must be responsible for its governance (or non-governance as the case may be).
Since most of the military action has to be in the rural areas, the plan must be according to well-thought out analysis without any modicum of self-glorification. The military leaders right down the hierarchy have to remain even-tempered and cool in crisis situations, they must not be seen to be short-tempered, immature or suffering from inferiority complexes. They have to be able to absorb insults and ingratitude even as they go about their task in the supreme national interest. Their approach to recalcitrants must be fatherly, the recalcitrants must be disciplined but with care, if that is at all possible, no mercy being shown to abductors and murderers. Their intelligence has to be superb, in the absence of cohesive information from the civil and police forces, care must be ensured that it is reliable.
Nawaz Sharif has created economic history in 180 days, his political scorecard in those 180 days is one of roller coaster confusion, having its ups and downs, mostly downs. His Grand Coalition of anti-Benazir forces is coming apart at the seams, he is in trouble even in his home base, Punjab, what to talk about Balochistan. Eventually the Sindh situation brought down Ms Benazir in tandem with purported corruption, the deadly duo-some might well strike again. Whatever may be the cause of her downfall, Ms Benazir represented this country’s democratic aspirations, if Nawaz Sharif should also fall, democracy will become a sham. Nawaz Sharif must not be complacent about the situation and let it slide into a political abyss. He must make his moves now, not leave things to rhetoric and to lip service. Whatever actions he takes, whatever route he chooses, his greatest endeavour should be to bring down the wall of intolerance that is like a dark shadow over the future of Sindh and thus Pakistan.
Nationhood cannot be experimented with, simplistic formulas are best avoided when the social fabric degenerates as it is tending to do in Sindh today. Politicians have to rise above their egos and make individual sacrifices for the integrity of the nation as a whole, failure would entail intolerable consequences.
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