Flogging a dead horse

The Sex Pistols' final album--a compilation of their greatest hits and misses, was released in 1980 without their permission and was titled "Flogging a Dead Horse". Its opening track is the legendary and definitive punk rock anthem, "Anarchy in the UK". When asked in 1977 about how the Sex Pistols managed to generate the kind of following that their guttural disregard for authority was stimulating, vocalist Johnny Rotten deadpanned, "I don't understand it. All we're trying to do is destroy everything."

Rotten would have loved Pakistan in the 21st century. Pakistan may have loved Rotten back. After all, this is a country and people that have loved and endured all other kinds of rotten. Johnny would have been the most honest in a long line of demonic sociopaths that have been able to exert their will over large numbers of Pakistanis. The incompetence with which they have governed over the decades is more unforgiveable than their sociopathy.

It is important not to cut incompetence any slack. Pakistan's sufi core lends itself to a suicidal degree of leniency for incompetence. So intent are the momins of the Sufiland on coming together with the One that Pakistani culture seeks to deflate and deflect any and all critical reasoning and accountability into the dustbin of live-and-let-live forgiveness. It is this forgiveness that can explain, if anything can, the repeated failures of officialdom to do its job.

Having become so used to drone attacks and suicide bombs in FATA, we've stopped analyzing them. What's to analyze. We don't like terrorists. We don't like drones. We have to live with both. Now the only newsworthy loss of life is when it occurs outside of FATA. And thus came the Punjab.

There were anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 worshippers in the Chakwal mosque where a human bomb exploded on Sunday. One version of events credits guards for their ability to intercept the bomb and limit fatalities. Another might question how the bomb got that close in the first place, to a clear and present target for the limitless bloodlust of terrorists.

Eight members of the FC were killed by a suicide bomber in Islamabad on Saturday.

The interior minister's response to the FC attack was existentialist to boot. He answered journalists' questions with a slam dunk mind teaser, suggesting that "suicide bombings" could not be deterred because, after all, how do you stop a suicide bomber? One news report cited the minister as having said that "it was not possible to apprehend a person who is bent upon to kill himself".

Indeed. It is not possible to save a state that is bent upon to kill itself either. Terrorism is, as has been repeated ad nauseaum by this country's leaders since 9/11, the gravest threat to Pakistan. That the war on terror is our war. Well what a way to show it. Handing the protectors of the protectors of the people bamboo sticks. And what will these enlightened moderate and revenge of democracy bamboo sticks be going up against? Suicide bombers, and the most sophisticated and potent anti-personnel weaponry that the Pakistani state has ever had to contend with.

Then there is the Chand Bibi video. The Times of India reports on Monday evening that the young lady said to be the victim of a brutal flogging by the Swati Taliban has recorded a formal statement insisting that the incident never took place. This comes like a bolt of lightening from the sky, a modern day miracle of the Divine Deity. The revelation will surely prevent the introspection that an authentic video may have provoked. It will surely provide a massive injection of energy and vitality to a dying (but ever so slowly) culture of conspiracy theorizing away every demon this nation has cultivated. The apologists for the Taliban are unrepentant even now, arguing the technicalities of Islamic law in a context that is more akin to jahilliya than it is to any kind of rule of law. The nationalists can't seem to get past Pakistan's image, forgetting that Pakistan was not on the verge of being elected homecoming queen before this incident, it will not suffer any more than its women have suffered for so long, so valiantly, and so silently.

This silence too is a pillar of the overarching culture of forgiveness. Forgiveness for incompetence in governance, with guards armed with bamboo sticks fighting against Al Qaeda. Forgiveness for a culture of dehumanizing women to the point that the video's authenticity itself can be questioned, but the possibility of its contents actually taking place in this country cannot.

Forgiveness also for military leaders, who had to protect the national interest by burying the constitution alive. Forgiveness also for the democrats for taking full advantage and leaving no stone unturned in abusing their legitimacy and the privileges that it affords. Forgiveness not only at the spiritual level, but also in legislation, as ordained by the afore-forgiven military leaders. And a lucrative forgiveness at that, where the democrats get to keep the change.

In this tsunami of affectionate Sufi forgiveness, where and what does this land of forgiveness find unforgiveable? Mukhtaran Mai's brother and whatever mischief he got up to was entirely unforgiveable. Chand Bibi, or whoever she is, and her alleged indiscretions in Swat too, unforgiveable. Pakistan's list of enemies grows by the minute, depending on who's making the list. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Shiv Sena, the Northern Alliance, Avigdor Lieberman, Lashkar-e-Taiba. This is rather convenient. Like Satan, or a really good jazz band, or long-lasting bubble gum, Pakistan is a canvas--you can put whatever adjectives you please on the list, add new acronyms at pleasure, everything fits.

Everything fits except introspection. Like Johnny Rotten, we don't understand it. All we're trying to do is destroy everything.



The writer is an independent political economist.