International relations par excellence With the Irans pounding of Pakistani territory with rockets ( though not the first time), Pakistans all the borders except one with China are now under attack. Wow! what a performance in international relations. Pakistani ruling elite both military and civilian deserve an Oscar award on playing out for decades their phony patriotism and pseudo Islamism. I believe except for some Goddamned African proto-states, no other country in the world is surrounded all around by so many belligerent neighbors.It is not that the neighbors are against Pakistan due to their anti-Muslims sentiments. Had it been so, then Afghanistan and Iran, two Muslim states, wouldnt have been hostile to us, and by the same token China, a communist not friendly with it ( but China also stands with the US on our home-grown non-state actors involved in internal and trans-border terrorism). The regional hostility is to great extent a corollary of unrestrained authoritarian rules and the rulers consistent endeavor to turn the country into a US cats-paw in lieu of becoming the regional Chaudhry ( more so ever since we became a nuclear arsenal). But the US did make the country its cats paw but never supported Pakistan in Indo-Pak conflict or competition. True, Indias aim has also been to become the regional hegemon and that is why she has increased her defence budget massively by 30 percent and purchasing expensive military hardware. And so does China. But why should we emulate these countries only in terms of defence, why not in economic sector-- infrastructure, human development, trade, business, industry and technology ??? And why other states in the region of East Asia have not ruined their economies in search of amassing more arms and ammunition. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have increased investment in defence this year but then they can afford to do so given their burgeoning economies amid regional rivalries. They are not taking around a begging bowl in one hand but aiming their guns at own citizens and neighborly countries. So, it is in our utmost interest to invest in human resources, social development, physical infrastructures, sciences, services, industries and technology and above all in rule of law ( to attract more foreign capital and to protect the meagerly existing ones). To achieve that our elites need no be asked to do crash training in the contemporary history to unearth the secret of why all the formerly great powers and empires have massively reduced their defence expenditures and instead given more focus on social securities and human development. Indeed, the current debate and much acrimony in EU and USA is all about how to bear expenditure on social sector without causing so much deficits as to scuttle growth. For many decades EU hasnt seen any war ( Yugoslavian break-up and ethnic wars were internal and resulted from Titos artificially stitched statehood). And almost the entire Latin America and East Asia have turned peaceful ( notwithstanding the fact that international differences on territorial and political questions remain alive). But conflicts----internal, regional and international--continue to mar Muslim states--Middle East and South Asia. Why? it is because the the local dynastic, crony and criminally created elites continue to resist the sharing political power and national wealth and resources with their citizens. The theory of absolute and divine kingship continues to remain in force in varying forms and degrees in these countries. And that explains why Saudi Arabia and other sheikdoms put so much stress on a permanent marriage between state and religion. So the most important question for the enlightened and egalitarian masses of Muslim states is this---for how long can these unscrupulous and wicked rulers and elites be allowed to keep the millions of these people pereially hostage to their phony patriotism and Islamism. It goes without saying that religion and patriotism have been historically tested camouflages of the elites to hog for themselves all the states powers and wealth and keeping the people to live a life of utter agony, ignominy and ignorance. For instance, of our elites who will account for more than 50 thousand people killed in the ongoing war on terror? Or for those who have been allowed to die of dearth, disease and desolation during the last six decades of the Glory, called Pakistan??. Its time to think and act. Unless these hounds are removed from the seat of power and policy-making, there is little hope for us to ever see the real glory in the form of internal and regional peace, all round prosperity and universal happiness on every otherwise dismal face. We must remember, there is a promise that the modern civilization pledges to humanity and also there is a promise that the founding fathers of this ill-licked state made to the future generation. We have been denied of the both, thanks to this wicked elite!!
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:57:40 +0000
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