Track 3
On July 1st and 2nd, THE NEWS, with the support of UNDP and CIDA, held a SOUTH ASIA MEDIA SEMINAR for “a free, fair and vibrant media” in the MARRIOTT in Islamabad. Print and electronic media persons in a good number from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal took part in the event at the end of which a draft resolution outlining the objectives of a “South Asian Free Media Association” (SAFMA) was approved, with only one dissenting voice and that also not on the thrust of the declaration but adjusting a couple of phrases here and there. Bhutan and Maldives are far behind the others in development both of the print and electronic media, as such their absence was not felt. One must note that the representation from Pakistan was not as broad-based as it should have been, one would have been far more satisfied if the other big newspaper Groups had participated. The 3-member Committee for Pakistan in SAFMA is thus not really representative of the majority of the print-media.
This excellent initiative by the private sector embraced the one true medium that reaches out to almost the entire population of South Asia. Because it was organised by the private sector, it was done efficiently and in a non-imposing manner. Probably the only other criticism one can hurl at it is that there were too many speakers giving too long speeches, most of them repetitive. In their anxiousness to accommodate everybody, particularly the foreign delegates, an overwhelming number of whom were Indian, the organisers bent over backwards. The format could well have been modified to give a clutch of 5-6 speakers five minutes each and keep 20 minutes in every hour open for discussions by all the participants, giving a 15 minutes tea-break every second hour.
It was a pleasure to hear Indian media-persons such as Kuldip Nayar, Bhabani Sen Gupta, Prem Shanker Jha, Barkha Dutt, Seema Mustafa etc give their opinion freely and frankly. Since very few eminent editors and columnists from the Pakistani print media took part, the opportunity for active inter-action on both the personal and professional planes was lost. We do not have anyone worth the name in the electronic media, the private sector being non-existent in Pakistan. This was also an excellent opportunity for a captive audience of the Indian media to hear the mainstream voice of Pakistan. One hopes that those of us who were there were able to get our message across. One assumes that the Indians heard us loud and clear, that Kashmir was the core to the solution as much as it is core to all the problems between India and Pakistan.
Pervez Musharraf got his message across to the assembled Indian media-men in no uncertain language in a 90-minute “question and answer” Concluding Session. Both blunt and conciliatory, he came across well. Doubts that the Indians had about his having horns on his head must have been dispelled. Pakistan’s military ruler disarmed the hard core of the Indian media by his candour and probably undid Kargil’s fallout in the psyche of the Indian media to a great extent. When the Indian media-persons report back to the mass Indian population, the Indian Government and the intelligentsia will be hard put to sustain the anti-Pakistan propaganda. To put it bluntly Pervez Musharraf charmed them, putting forth Pakistan’s case in such a forthright and frank manner that it was the consensus among those assembled that it cut the heart out of the Indian Government’s anti-Pakistan diatribe. My personal chemistry with Pervez Musharraf may be nothing to write home about but one must note objectively that from time to time he performs well when it is needed. Be that as it may, in the national context one can say that he did us, as a nation and the Army as an institution, proud.
One remembers the “ping-pong diplomacy” that heralded Kissinger’s secret visit to China in July 1971 and opened up US-China relationship. By taking this private sector initiative, Mir Shakilur Rahman’s News/Jang Group has managed a number of things viz (1) deflected the media, if not the diplomatic, thrust of India’s anti-Pakistan propaganda, particularly after Kargil, at least within India (2) in one fell swoop got a broad mass of the Indian media to see that there is very little of the hatred in Pakistan towards India portrayed by the Indian government (3) got Pakistan’s viewpoint on Kashmir far more credibility than is presently being dished out by the official media, particularly PTV and (4) made it increasingly difficult as a consequence for the Indian Government to continue to refuse constructive dialogue with Pervez Musharraf’s Government.
The normal overt dialogue between the Government (Track 1) is at a standstill. The part overt-part covert dialogue between the two countries through government intermediaries, intellectuals, etc (Track 2) has also faltered, if not come to a complete stop. Out of the blue and certainly not by design, but by the force of those who are the prime exponents of articulating public opinion, a third channel of communication, Track 3, has opened up to us. This TRACK is far more important than imaginable because it reaches beyond what is churned out by the credibility-lacking propaganda of the official government machinery on both sides. Because of what is carried back by the India media-persons there will be broad mass public acceptance in the Indian population, the Indian Government will be hard put to ward off dialogue. In that sense, this new initiative, Track 3, takes on greater connotations than “ping-pong” did for the US and China. There is an opportunity here and one can only pray that the momentum to emancipate South Asia from the built-in hatred that surrounds us does not pass. Track 3 may well take us down a roller-coaster ride to eventual peace in the region. That road will be hard and difficult, who will take up the challenge?
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