Fires of Hate

MARCH 2000 - I think one of the earliest statements the Chief Executive made on taking over Pakistan, talked about the need for peace and our willingness to start a dialogue with our old enemy across the divide. But as the weeks have rolled on, that stance has changed more and more into one of belligerence. Around the time the army had taken over the country once again, there were a group of visiting Indian journalists who expressed great anxiety over the change here and in support of their point of view said they regarded our army chief as the man behind the Kargil operation and one who would wage war rather than peace. Therefore, with his background, they were not expecting any move from us to initiate peace in the subcontinent. My contention was that the very first statements coming out of Islamabad had been precisely in the direction of peace. The men of the Indian press looked me in the eye and concentrated instead on the fruit trifle they were eating.

Since then, the stand in Islamabad has got tougher and tougher and peace, that extremely endangered species, stands virtually eliminated. The Chief Executive makes at least four statements a week promising the Indians dire consequences. The Indians do the same. If the noises Pakistan is making are not enough to heat up the pot, the Indians have broken all records with a 28% increase in their defence (offence?) budget. Living in either of the two countries, what more can one ask for ? As for a great century ahead of our two nations, there is little hope but a lot of aggravation ahead. Today, we are drowned in questions for which we have no answers. The people, on both sides, don’t want war and destruction, but then no one ever asks them. Both here and in India, it’s the politicians who talk and get nowhere other than extending the fear, the uncertainty and the status quo. In our case, the situation is even more complex because we have for at least half our existence, the armed forces who have their own power agenda. Peace is not a welcome visitor on these shores and the fires of hate burn bright.

There are far too many experts on either side who write for and against the very concept of peaceful coexistence. One hardly even qualifies to be on the outer fringes of these expert groups, but it seems obvious even to those of us not very gifted in the upper storey, that the chances of peace, flowing to the common people from the visionary policies of politicians, are just about as bright as getting water out of a stone. Likewise, no army command here or across the border will ever like things to settle down. If there is no war or the threat of war, there will be no need to squander billions on maintaining armed forces on either side. We all know that neither side will let a situation arise where they can disband their respective armies and tell everyone to go home, till the land and raise harvests of bounty for their people. Instead, an air of fear hangs over either land. The nuclear blasts which should have finally acted as the great deterrent, have simply raised the stakes on both sides. The Indian budget bonanza, for which the poor Indian people will pay by receiving less drinking water, less education and less medical aid, is an infected stake that’s been driven into the side of the Pakistani nation. The answer will be in equal and sad measure, because if they arm themselves, so will we and both of us will stand, our fangs bared at one another as other nations swiftly pass us by. Within both countries, there have been people who have been bravely trying to make sanity prevail but their efforts seem futile against the mountains of hatred and prejudice which rise above both countries.

I don’t think it needs a visionary to work out where our interest lie and that of our neighbours, the pipe dreams of planting the Pakistan flag on the Red Fort and becoming Asia’s one and only Super Power notwithstanding. Both countries have self-inflicted ideas of grandeur. There is not enough food to feed their people, yet both are trigger happy with nuclear devices and fanciful boasts. Generation after generation has passed on, helpless to make a real difference. Today, the collective intellectual leadership on either side must take a deep, long look at the mirror and square up to reality. Governments and bureaucrats whether in suits or hobnailed boots will not let peace prevail for obvious reasons. At the end of the day, and in our case it may be the end of another century, it will be the common people on both sides who will have paid the price many times over to watch the antics of two roosters neither of which has the power to eliminate the other. Of course the thorn in our side is Kashmir and on that we are ready to continue our policies, but both countries should do some real soul searching over this fifty year old war, if soul searching is indeed possible. Most people believe that there is no solution for Kashmir other than some kind of a miracle that will make India see sense, give us the vision to let the Kashmiris decide where they want to go and with whom, if anybody. Hoping for Bill Clinton to call the two leaders to a table and ask them to stop fighting is wishful. It will simply not happen. Countries don’t hand over thousands of square miles to one another because somebody tells them to. Bill Clinton cannot force anything here unless the two nations are seriously about settling differences.

Meanwhile we live on dreams of potential. We have tremendous potential for everything. Our people are naturally gifted and talented and even hard working. We can make anything happen and we are the inheritors of the world’s greatest cultures and civilisations, but all that is rooted either in the past or too far ahead in the future. The past is a fuzzy memory unable to do anything for us. The future is too distant to mean anything. The present is what we have and we don’t really have it. All we have is poverty, disease, illiteracy, over-population and crime. As for peace, banish the thought.