VIEW: Rip van Winkle in Washington! —Naeem Tahir

The political right got moral, financial and material support, culminating in promoting jihad in Afghanistan. The groups of moderates, progressives, and the Left were left out as untouchables

This time ‘Rip van Winkle’ has
not woken up in the Catskill Mountains of New York as the fairytale goes. He has now woken up in Washington DC because of a ‘Dumb Shahzad’ from New York. I am not referring to the author of the fairytale, Mr Washington Irving. I am referring to a distinguished correspondent of The Washington Post. He has woken up to notice that there is a “jihadi network among the elite” in Pakistan and elsewhere.

If our new Rip van Winkle (as the friendly Americans may like to call him) opens his eyes wider, he may find that the ‘network’ is also beyond Pakistan. The shock came to Rip van Winkle from one Dumb Shahzad who made a failed terrorist attempt to blow up a vehicle in Times Square. This failure in the dangerous ‘activity’ game was the best thing that could have happened. New York police did an appropriate job and Dumb Shahzad was promptly apprehended while attempting to escape.

Then the story unfolded. Dumb Shahzad is the son of a retired air force officer. He had sympathisers in a leading catering company of Islamabad through a well-educated ‘US qualified’ person, and there were other links. It was also noted that the halo of connections included individuals of American, Pakistani and other origins. It is, indeed, a very sad story. Those who suffer most as a consequence are Pakistanis and the most irritated and shocked are the members of the US government.

Let us admit that, as a free nation, it is the prime responsibility of the people of Pakistan and its leaderships to develop a nation with the mindset of moderation. Our failure should be admitted. Let this be made clear that the Americans, perceived to be a friendly nation for a long time, also failed in areas where they could have helped.

Pakistan achieved its freedom in 1947 and the key address of Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, clearly identified the direction for the Constituent Assembly to follow. Let us recall that key message: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”

In the same speech, the great leader pointed out other important actions that needed to be taken, e.g. against corruption, bribery, black marketing, nepotism, jobbery, religious and ethnic discrimination, and he stressed the importance of support to the poor. In the years after demise of Quaid-e-Azam, none of his advices was to be followed and the state was to be made ‘religious’ instead of a ‘nation’ state.

So Rip van Winkle needs to understand that the process of moving towards the extreme right has been going on since then. Also, if any encouragement has been given by the decision makers in Washington, it has been given to the elements of extreme right, not moderates or leftists in Pakistan. The support also came to the establishment, which has been predominantly rightist. Was it so because of the fear of communism? Was it because of the phobia perpetuated by McCarthyism?

It is too late to determine the reasons because the damage has been done. For a long time our armed forces have been taught to defend the country, because it is a citadel of Islam not just because of a nation’s right to freedom. The political right got moral, financial and material support, culminating in promoting jihad in Afghanistan. The groups of moderates, progressives, and the Left were left out as untouchables. A social imbalance continued and rightist elite emerged. For this, Pakistani people are responsible but the Western powers have some share of responsibility too, as this new nation looked towards them for support and direction.

Now where is the justification for the ‘surprise’ that our Rip van Winkle in Washington has expressed? Has the present state of affairs not been arrived at with its covert and overt collusion with our extreme right? I repeat that the prime responsibility of building a moderate society is of the Pakistanis themselves, but looking at the ground realities of the need for international support, I also understand the inherent weakness of our decision makers to compromise for the sake of security and financial viability.

Now that our friend Rip van Winkle in Washington has tasted the bitter fruit of history, it is important that the strategy is reviewed immediately. The only way forward for Pakistan is to encourage moderation, progressive thought and tolerance. The nations do that by promoting quality education, visual and performing arts, preserving cultural heritage, improving technical and scientific skills, supporting equality in gender, cast and creed, and so on. To me, it seems that we all need to ‘do more’, much more in fact. The support committed by the world must determine these priorities. Otherwise the frustration will continue to generate anger, which will continue to be destructive for us and the world. The anger has little opportunity to sublimate and become constructive energy. As one of the concerned persons, I feel that the failed ‘activity’ of Dumb Shahzad should be read as a message for an improved strategy and better employment of indigenous and borrowed resources toward more constructive ends.

If, by any chance, the Dumb Shahzad incident has been ‘manufactured’ like some others, for Pakistan’s arm-twisting, and to force it to take immediate action against North Waziristan Taliban groups, then the intent is not right. Pakistan’s armed forces and the government must decide the timing. Priority must be given to consolidation of gains from operations Rah-e-Rast and Rah-e-Nijat before taking the next step.

Naeem Tahir is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor. He can be reached at naeemtahir37@gmail.com