Pakistan facing the fate of Iraq

It would have been better if Bill Clinton had sent Monica Lewinsky instead of coming himself to act as India's mouthpiece, says a Pakistan daily

It is interesting to note how the Pakistani Press is trying to live down the hard reality of President Clinton's resounding indictment of the uncivilised ways of its military regime not only by a tough talk with General Musharraf but also a direct telecast to its people virtually endorsing India's stand on its ceaseless violent mischief in Kashmir and even threatening to isolate it further in the comity of nations. No wonder, some of its sober commentators realise that their country faces the fate of Iraq if it does not climb down from its high pedestal of making Kashmir a nuclear flash point to force American intervention after the dare-devil Kargil misadventure.

Anyway, before misadventure Bill Clinton's decision to oblige Pakistan by a stopover even for a few hours in the teeth of Indian opposition, was being considered a great diplomatic victory, eulogised even by the BBC as a defeat for India. But after the event, it has proved a boon for India.

In any case, it was being described as a unique achievement of the Pakistani lobby in USA, apart from that of Ms Malecha Lodhi, the over-smart Paki ambassador in Washington. Some half a dozen names of Pakistanis in USA were mentioned in the press as deserving special credit for materialising the visit and rebuffing the Indians. However, now after the visit, a columnist has said that it would have been better if Clinton had sent his ‘famous’ girl friend Monica Lewinsky for a week or so instead of coming himself. For, that would have enthused Pakistanis much more to come out in milling crowds to welcome and enjoy her sight.

He should send her even now, say the cynical, if he wants to undo some of the huge damage done to US-Pakistan relations by his unashamed role as India's mouthpiece in Pakistan. For, he has been virtually uttering dire threats to Pakistan's very existence if it did not come to civilised path vis-a-vis India, failing which it could reduce itself to a Pariah like Iraq. For, Iraq too was a monster of American creation by generous supply of arms in its six year war with Iran. Moreover, like Pakistan, it was even allowed to build up its nuclear infrastructure which the US-propelled UN Security Council is now trying to smash. It is doing in Kashmir and Afghanistan what Saddam Hussain did in Kuwait.

In any case, Pakistan's old trick of projecting Kashmir issue as dire threat to peace in South Asia and repeated dangling of its nuclear arsenal to blackmail its oldest ally has boomeranged badly.

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Incidentally, much of the credit for Clinton’s 5-day sentimental trip to India is being given to American-Indians who are acknowledged to have done much more powerful lobbying than the Pakistanis living there to bring about a sea-change in American attitude towards India.

In this context, it is interesting to note what Ms Bapsi Sidhwa, the Pakistani author of the Ice-Candy Man, now settled in Houston, USA as a professor (discussed in this column last week) has to say about the relative influence of the Indian and Pakistani migrants in USA. In an essay entitled Why do I write? Sidhwa, who divides her time between America and Pakistan, is quite critical of "the strident chauvinism of these American Hindus" who are full of enthusiasm for doing their patriotic duty to India. They are much more nationalistic than even the Hindus in India, she says.Interestingly, the JNU historian Mushirul Hasan too has criticised even great writers like Nirad Chaudhuri (now deceased) and V.S. Naipaul for describing Hindu militancy as a creative force and necessary corrective to ‘grinding down of India’ by Islamic invaders. They don't understand the reality in India, says Hasan in his column in Indian Express (Nov 27, 1999).

Sidhwa says, the Pakistani migrants are also no less active on behalf of their country, but, as she puts it, they are much less influential because of their ‘ineptitude’ in doing so. It makes them more of absurd Islamic zealots, bringing up their children as fundamentalists looking inwards and lost in obscure rites. As a result, she says the virus of Hindu-Muslim rivalry and India-Pakistan hostility is brought even to USA, which must be combated.

Meanwhile, a report in The Independent of Britain has graphically described Clinton's visit to Islamabad as one under a pall of tight security and secrecy, in a people-less vacuum. Says the British daily in this context, "as Clinton stepped out from his decoy plane in Pakistan's capital, it was a city without people in a country without a voice. There was something almost sinister about President Clinton's cortege, his long sleek limousine swishing at a speed of 60 miles per hour down the empty autobahn... it was like a scene from On the Beach when the American submariners discover an undamaged San Francisco whose population has already died of radiation sickness." It further says that the Americans were so fearful of terrorist attacks on their President that "the most powerful man on earth slunk in an unmarked plane after his personal plane (bearing US mark) had landed at Islamabad military airport with a cargo of FBI men (detectives of US intelligence bureau)."

The above mentioned novel On the Beach later adapted for a cinematic film, it may be pointed out, depicts a dismal people-less world after a nuclear war. The author Neville Schute imagines in it that only Australia in the southern hemisphere has escaped undamaged from the nuclear exchanges, probably because he himself belonged to Australia. But there too the population is passing through a fatalistic state of mind. For, they are certain that the radio active dust settling on it after the nuclear war would soon poison everything, leading to a more horrible sickness and death for everyone. In any case, while the whole population have been wiped out from the rest of the world, the surviving Australians too are supposed to die one to all within six months. So, the Government has arranged to distribute ‘death pills’ for those who want to die immediately instead of facing radiation sickness later, beginning with vomiting etc.

As a result, there are long queues at booths for distribution of death pills for instant death seekers. Thus instantly there are long queues at booths for distribution of death pills. There is no economic activity as all transportation, has come to standstill for lack of petrol in Australia and destruction of oil import sources in the northern hemisphere. There are stationary, useless vehicles everywhere and the people wander listlessly.

In such a situation, an American submarine roaming under the sea has touched Australia and leaves for American West coast with the crew and some others. However as they arrive in San Francisco, they find it cleansed of all human population due to nuclear radiation, while all buildings are standing intact. So, according to the British daily, such was the scene of complete desolation as Clinton arrived in Islamabad—where people were ordered to remain indoors. This was in marked contrast to the euphoric scenes wherever the American President went in India.

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Meanwhile, it is interesting to note the cynical stance in Pakistan's colourful Urdu press at the American establishment's about-turn in the decades long US-Pakistan special relationship.

According to an eminent columnist of Daily Jang of Karachi, despite the fact that Clinton had a soft corner for Pakistan like Nixon earlier, it was wrong to feel jubilant and "think ourselves as the victors of the world" by his decision to spend a few hours in Pakistan in the teeth of Indian diplomatic pressure. There was some reason for satisfaction, but the Pakistanis should have understood that White House had described this trip "primarily an Indian trip", to emphasise their warming up relations with India. This, it says, will increase India's obduracy on Kashmir. For, the biggest roadblock in the way of the solution of the core issue to the satisfaction of Pakistan is "Indian obduracy" and there is no change in it. India's even louder insistence that any serious discussion to change Indian stand or accept outside mediation is out of the question—and President Clintons endorsement of it— is expression of his as virtual helplessness over meaningful intervention without India's approval. Which means, it says, Pakistan will have to live with India's hostility for a long time so that it will have to solve the problem with its own ‘muscle power’. Tensions will continue and even an armed confrontation cannot be ruled out in the near future. This would mean an additional burden on Pakistan's economy, which is dubbed as an unproductive, ‘medieval economy’, says the writer.

Further: "Pakistan has been given a bad image in the world as fountainhead of terrorism because of Indian propaganda. It is a considered to be sponsor of a number of Jehadi groups out to violate the sanctity of geographical boundaries not merely in Kashmir but in a number of countries of the world as it has no respect for democratic norms. It poses threat even to America. Clinton may profess a love for people of Pakistan for historical reasons (of cold war cooperation) but the American administration may think differently as it did not cooperate even with President Nixon wholeheartedly to save East Pakistan in 1971, despite his famous "tilt".

The columnist goes on to sny that with the coming of BJP to power, no positive response should be expected from India. Congress had desisted from nuclear explosions after 1974. But BJP went ahead to put more pressure on Pakistan. The US too is tilting towards India. Clinton has even offered a seat to it in Security Council if it carries out UN resolutions on Kashmir. And now even the latter stand is changed as the 1948 UN resolutions are considered out of date. This is regarded as an improvement in India's international status by the eminent columnist of the Pakistani daily. This, he says, is not an ordinary stance.

In the end, the columnist says that "it is Pakistan's misfortune that it has to compete in everything with an India which is not at all our friend. It has thrust an arms race on us. This imposes serious burden and liabilities on Pakistan, including in terms of substantial improvement in its internal strength to be somewhere near it in competition for global market."