Fearing A Second Abandonment
By Mohsin Hamid
It may be hard, with bearded rioters filling their televisions, for Westerners to see Pakistan as a bride left at the altar. But that is how many Pakistanis view their relationship with the fickle West, and they have good reason to do so.
In the 1980s, when Pakistan signed up as America’s ally in the West’s last war in Afghanistan, the war against the Soviets, Pakistan was rewarded with billions of dollars of military hardware and economic aid. But Pakistan paid a price: heroin flooded our cities, kalashnikovs became common on our streets, and young boys were left trained for jihad instead of university.
When the Soviets were defeated, Pakistan did not share in the long-awaited peace dividend. Although the country was making its transition from dictatorship to democracy, aid began to dwindle and the rhetoric of Western governments became increasingly unfriendly. Pakistan was left with training camps for religious guerrillas, a mountain of debt, two million Afghan refugees, and little else.
Certainly, Pakistan’s own leaders bear much of the blame for what happened. Corrupt, ineffectual, and often deeply hypocritical, the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif tried to go both forward and backward at once, burnishing their religious credentials while hoping to attract Western investors.
But, at the same time, our Western allies did recoil from us with unseemly haste once their war was won. They began treating Pakistan like an impoverished Muslim nation with no oil to export. But Pakistan had been this all along. To ignore a girl’s hairy moles the night before, when one’s need is strong, and then to shame her for them in the morning, well, as the Texans say, that’s not real nice.
It is not surprising that most Pakistanis do not support America’s bombardment of Afghanistan. The Afghans are a poor, Muslim people, neighbours on the brink of starvation and devastated by war. America has shown itself to be untrustworthy, a superpower that uses its values as a scabbard for its sword. Avenging the horrible deaths of thousands by putting millions more at risk is an act deeply lacking in compassion, and one unlikely to reduce the hatred that makes America unsafe.
Yet, forced to decide whether to back their government in a showdown with our own religious extremists, most Pakistanis are clear about the future they desire. They do not want a medieval theocracy. They want jobs and access to the markets and knowledge and entertainment of the wider world.
What many in the West do not realize is that Pakistan is a land where satellite dishes are not uncommon, where teenagers who have never been to America manage to smuggle in bits and pieces of American accents. In the decade of democracy that lasted through the nineties, religious parties never captured more than a few percent of the vote.
But when the economy is stagnant, democracy has sputtered out, and growing numbers of young people find themselves ill-equipped for a workforce that they in any case lack the right connections to enter, then the appeal of an Islamist ideology that challenges these injustices grows strong.
Pakistan is making a dangerous gamble by confronting its religious right. The country is betting that it will not be torn in two, that its leader will not be assassinated, that it will not be plunged into anarchy and violence. My friends tell me they secretly hope that something good comes from this conflict, that the extremists in Pakistan fail this test. Because then our country will be able to progress without the fear that has held us back.
Now that Pakistan has taken this risk, the country needs the West to stand firm beside it. Not by providing weaponry. Not even by rescheduling debt, though that, of course, will help. Mainly what Pakistan needs is the openness that comes when fear recedes, but Pakistan needs that openness now, when the West is still fearful. Pakistanis need jobs. We need access to purchasers for our goods, investors in our industries. With these things come greater growth and stability, which then become self-reinforcing. Pakistan needs a partnership to start this process, a coming together for the long term. Without it, the three million people who swell our population each year will sink deeper into poverty, and the ideologies that appeal to memories of a better past will gain appeal.
As your television fills with hundreds of angry young Pakistani men burning American flags and effigies of George Bush, look at the background. There you will see Pepsi signs and shuttered windows. And behind the windows, know that there are millions of people who are expressing their hope by staying home, by refusing to join the crowds. And remember that those millions pray for a safe and prosperous life in the modern world, and fear above all else the possible consequences of a second abandonment.
(From: The Guardian) |