Shahzad Chaudhry, a defence analyst and retired air-vice marshal from the Pakistan Air Force, continues to state the case for Pakistan in The Express Tribune.
*“I have often urged us, as a nation, to look beyond the distortions in our ideological foundations and carve a newer identity, more in line with the needs of the 21st century. Also, that it is okay for a nation to be seen evolving with time, maturing both its moorings as well as its promise. Ideological anchoring need not be based on religion alone. Each era must of essence have newer ideals and aspirations for a nation.”*
Mr Chaudhry says that the world has moved on from deep ideological associations in the political or the economic sense and has gradually evolved towards a more pragmatic, global cosmopolitan culture. There is now a wider definition of an ‘international’ character in all things — political, economic, social, cuisine and even music.
*“Every nation dons both an international and a national garb; that is how it remains entwined into a global culture. This is what makes each relevant to others. Combined ownership and shared stakes trigger complementary associations. Syria, Libya, Iran and North Korea have always existed beyond the global pale or on the fringes. As troubles ferment and become entrenched there, the world at large sits by seeing these entities unravel.”*
Mr Chaudhry further insists that Pakistan must not see itself being categorised in such a league because even sham associations with anachronistic ideological moorings are suspect in current times, and while the USA may seem to be an unyielding hegemon in this association, it will do Pakistan well to remember that nations such as China, India and Indonesia are happily becoming a part of the future world with newer anchorings of their own. Sovereignty has a newer meaning, which includes ensuring that no action of a nation endangers and pollutes this international society of nations. Along with association comes responsibility.
*“India is experiencing the pangs of such redefinition and re-examination of its former ways,” he continues. “To become an eligible player for the super-league, it must change itself. Anna Hazare leads such an internal effort to mend India’s ways. Establishments by design are status-quo and resistant to change. A political system, too, is dogmatic when it is established and
acquires inertial attributes unyielding to any minor prods. This is where the Anna Hazares of the world and their mass movements become handy. In India, the political system is being hallenged. Not only that, corruption as a trend — enriching the rich and impoverishing further the poor — needs to be stemmed with punitive laws, pushing the politicians to rise above the self to politics of service and duty, rather than use democracy only for electoral ends and a means to power and pelf.”*
He sees the uneasy detente that has emerged from the diplomatic stand-off between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai incident. Both seeming incapable of another physical stand-off, let alone a war or a skirmish, resorted to simmer, sulk and silence in that order.
“Our targets vary,” he says, “to some it is a moment of redemption from an inexorably deviant military, to others it is the opportunity of a lifetime to shun modernity and re-embrace religious idealism. The political system in Pakistan, steeped in patronage and exploitation, as much a reflection of the political tradition across the border. However, on the other hand it continues to remain eclipsed thanks to this societal divide and its diverse endeavours. India is likely to gain from this internal convulsion while a diffused effort in Pakistan is likely to go to waste, losing the historicity of an opportune moment without a mend of its structural decay. The question is, where lie dormant our Hazares?”*
