Arresting the 'doom' machaley instinct

The writer advises governments, donors and NGOs on public policy

It was only seven weeks ago that Pakistan was serenaded by a moment whose seductive power was among the most unparalleled ones in the country's history. How is it possible that Pakistan has gone from sixty to almost zero with such speed? After all, this is no rubber dinghy, this boat, it's a nuclear aircraft carrier. This baby should have a fair bit of momentum.

Yet any momentum that Pakistan does have in terms of simply ploughing through the current crisis and coming out on the other side — not necessarily better or worse — but in one piece seems to have dissipated into thin air.

The national discourse on justice is now centred around the speed and efficiency of the Taliban's "system" of justice — a ridiculous notion that never deserved a millimetre of ink, but has instead had encyclopaedic tomes written about it.

In less than seven weeks, this South Asian bastion of both press freedom, and of an electric and organic civil society capable of bringing the military, the US government and the might of the PPP machine to its knees, has itself been brought to its knees by the Muslim Khan bag of rhetorical gifts, and political tricks.

Of course, Muslim Khan has not been alone. Every pink-blooded Pakistan liberal worth the name has been singing a marsiya about the country falling into the hands of the wretched Taliban. Ah, this poor country, such a piece of tin it must be to fall so far, so fast, so furiously.

Indeed, the institutions that would inoculate a country from this kind of a takeover do not in fact inspire confidence. But that has nothing to do with the weaknesses of the judiciary, the alleged yellow tinge of the press, or even the unwillingness of the Pakistani military and intelligence forces to take on their little Frankenstein in Swat. So while this country may not be a piece of tin, it is also not an iceberg made of titanium.

One thing that is clear is that the nervousness, or joy — depending on how far to either pole you are — of the Taliban's advances is, bringing out the opportunistic best in people. Right wing apologists keep finding new ways to defend the Taliban, insisting that we look at the larger context of class warfare and how "we made them do it". Besides, the trouble isn't with slaughtering people in town squares. It is how we hold the knife that's important. Mullah, please!

Meanwhile far away, in another part of town, uber-liberals and their friends are gathered round. The number one contender for new Lux Style Awards' category should be "Shrillest and Most Depressing Prognosis of the Imminent Foreclosure of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan". There would be dozens of candidates. From the op-ed pages, to the radio, the television and all around the world — the walls are closing in on this Glorious Liberal Garden of Eden. Pinkie, please!

One institution that this kind of polarity demonstrates that we do not have in Pakistan is the institution of conversation. There is no conversation between the far right, and the far not right. Oops. Let's try that again. There is no conversation between Pakistani liberals and Pakistani conservatives. Except that doesn't work either. Pakistani liberals are a reasonably well-defined sliver of the population. But conservatives, if we are to call them that, don't call themselves that. This should serve as a great indication of the depth of trouble this country might really be in. In Pakistan, we don't even have mutually recognizable and acceptable terms by which we can refer to "the other side".

This stratification, or mutual apartheid is quite suffocating. It allows each polar end of the country's articulators to speak with unbridled energy and passion, and unfortunately, sometimes, hatefulness, about the other side. This is not always of course, accidental. Opportunism is driving many speeches, articles and agendas in the aftermath of Swat. Secularists now see one of the largest openings for purging Pakistan of the irrational discourse that radical readings of religion have imposed on the country. Religious folks now see a chance to slip in advocacy of a tamer, more humane religion in Pakistan, being able to point to the Taliban as the natural consequence to the denial of religiosity in public life (yes, really!).

The point is not whether the Fashionistas against Talibanization brigade are more right or wrong than the Salaam Brother and Salaam Sister Kind of Against Talibanization brigade. The point is that it seems strange and dangerously naïve to hope for any route out of this existential nightmare that Pakistan finds itself in, without a serious and sincere conversation between the ends of the spectrum in Pakistan. And this of course, of all the conversations, is not the one that needs to be moderated by the JUIs and MQMs — but rather by the lawyers, journalists, doctors, accountants, and yes, hair-dressers, and designers, and musicians and artists too. The reason is simple. The drama and theatre of politics actually drives a larger and more uncompromising wedge between the poles. Society however, is coming apart at the seams. It needs some stitching.

Enlightened and moderate Pakistan will have to come to grips with Pakistanis who prefer listening to any one of Jinnah's speeches in which he underscores Muslim identity as being distinct and worthy of special state sanction and protection. And fundo Pakistan will have to come to grips with any one of Jinnah's speeches in which he forcefully argued for a state machine in which religion was not a discriminatory factor in decision-making.

Enlightened and moderate Pakistan will have to embrace women that want to cover up (though not literally), not because they are backward or oppressed, but because many, many of them are in fact their version of the liberated, and committed to ideas that others might not understand or like.

Fundo Pakistan will have to develop a sense of humour about being called fundo. And it will have to understand that folks are not only irritated when they are told what to wear, and how to wear it. Sometimes they are outright offended. But beyond what people wear are larger issues. There is too much inconsistency. On one hand fundo Pakistan is all for the state to endorse and institutionalize punitive action against individual behaviour (like flogging) in the name of religion. On the other fundo Pakistan's preferred approach to dealing with the Taliban (guilty of much worse than what gets you flogged in Swat — murder, theft, and kidnapping) is to sit them down and negotiate with them. This kind of ambivalence has got to go.

More than anything else, liberal and conservative, left and right, moderate and fundo, will all have to learn to sit together and enjoy a meal. Find common ground with each other, and invariably with the "mortal enemy" too — Hindu India loves cricket just as much as Inzi Bhai, and Wahhabi Saudis makes some of the best friend chicken in the universe. Find anything, but let's be human beings and people — before we become either God's or Jean Paul Sartre's chosen people.

We must eventually live in hope, rather than in fear. It is most certainly true, that the Taliban phenomenon has caused genuine confusion among Pakistan's largely religiously illiterate, but deeply committed Muslims. Moral clarity, unfortunately, is a luxury that not every Pakistani enjoys. The path to salvation from the satanic cult of these fascist Flintstones that make no distinction between gradations of infidelity — is to engage with, rather than condemn each other. It is a lot easier to be a rabble-rousing Taliban-sympathizer on Facebook than it is to get down and dirty the homeboys from Malakand and Nangarhar.

Predictions of doom and the bleakness of analysis are not necessarily untrue or unfounded. But they are certainly self-defeating. It is not dishonest to broker conversation, nor disingenuous to invest in hope.



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