Chinese historic lesson and national character-building

Big walls are not the protectors but the national character with loyalty is the real national protector in all odd situations including in blocking the criminal activities through rule of law. We have been building tall walls of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and PPO etc. against the corruption and malpractices but we have so far failed and these high walls of accountability could not stand in front of mighty corruption and other crimes. Why - a question and response is built in the true story of the Chinese system, evolved through centuries with a great lesson to the world. Let us recall the history of China with its ancient history and the Chinese decided to live in peace free of alien attacks, hence they made the Great Wall of China with a lot of resources with the view that this wall will protect them and they thought no one could climb it due to its height and it will provide the security to people of China.

The Chinese were invaded thrice, first 100 years the presence of this wall and every time despite the high wall it became a big national issue and concern as to how the enemy could climb up so high to attack. The enemy infantry did not require to penetrate or climbing up over the wall, because they found an easy way every time and bribed the guards on duty and the doors were all opened for the enemy and these guards sold their country and national character for few pennies. The dignity of their nation was sold to the enemy, enabling them to invade their own country via easy access to the main locked gates. The Chinese thought to make a high wall to protect themselves but they forgot the guards/soldiers standing on the vital points, who were more important than the high wall and the Chinese had actually forgotten the character-building of the watch wall-guards.

There is no doubt that the Great Wall has become a powerful symbol of the country’s enduring strength and spirit, but it has been a good reminder to the Chinese of the superiority of human character than the walls and it is a lesson for the whole world not only in the field of defence but in security, economy and law enforcement. This is what the Chinese learned later that it is a solid character that is more important than the high wall to protect from internal and external intruders.

The wisdom of the Chinese which the Chinese realised much later that the best defence against the enemy is not a fortified wall, but a solid national character. Thus, the building of human character comes before the building of anything else. Pakistan has built high walls of NAB against corruption but it did not work as this is not the NAB wall or long stick but we need to devise the laws and the SOPs for national character building which should be embedded with hate against corruption and other crimes. The fear of law must be there as we are losing our national strength because of noncompliance with the law.

William Shakespeare stated “The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves” and it very true even now. We need to make ourselves crime free-thinking and respect for the law as I always change yourself and your nation will change itself automatically. Wetland leads you to water and national character leads the nation to success. We need to build strong laws to protect our people and lead them the way to success. We need a stronger social justice system and it is unfortunate to quote the following and it should alarming for the parliament and higher judiciary and the ministry of law.

Our Justice system has the honour of standing at 120th position in the WJP of Law Index 2020 out of 128 countries even we stand lower than Congo. It is not the fault of the judiciary but it is the fault of our social justice system and the whole society, the government and we all including the parliamentarians are responsible for this international index. It looks that our present justice system has failed to provide justice. I, myself became victim once as DG FIA and we law enforcer and politician and intelligence agencies are responsible for it and I will raise in the parliament too. Even most recently I experience unimaginable pressure on our judicial system. I experience few odd disappointing judicial encounters faced by me being a senior law enforcer and former interior minister and thrice elected senator which I plan to bring to the supreme judicial council with evidence for the purpose to bring good change. I will have an open debate on it as to what I saw and felt the change from social to social justice with the plugging in of electronic intelligence changing the fibre of natural justice. I will surprise many about the dark path of our social justice system and come up with a law. Author note: Opinions expressed are solely my own and not necessarily to reflect the views or opinions of my party.

The writer is former interior minister of Pakistan, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Chairman of Think Tank "Global Eye". He is the author of four books and his fifth book is about to get published. He can be reached at: rmalik1212@gmail.com , Twitter @Senrehmanmalik