http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\05\15\story_15-5-2011_pg3_4
Sunday, May 15, 2011
COMMENT: The other Pakistan -Lal Khan
The crisis of the system is not going to abate. Any stability, respite
for the masses or prosperity in society is a utopia, considering the severity
of the socio-economic crisis and its prospects of continuous decline in the
times ahead
The ferocity with which the 'international community' and world media
have demonised, ridiculed and condemned the Pakistani state has baffled the
ruling elite. The stinging attacks on the ISI and the establishment by the
imperialist think tanks and intelligentsia are unprecedented. A 'failed state',
'most dangerous place in the world', 'breathtakingly duplicitous',
'treacherous' are some of the words used to describe the Pakistani state. The
Economist wrote in its latest edition, "If it were located anywhere else,
Pakistan - which also has the world's worst record on nuclear proliferation -
might be treated as a rogue state."
All this may be partially or even totally true for Pakistan's elite, its
ruling classes and its distraught state apparatus. But the reality is that
whatever state we have in Pakistan, it is the making of the imperialists
themselves. There is no doubt that the historically belated and economically
weak ruling classes were forced to rely on imperialism and coalesce with the
remnants of feudalism right from the inception of the country.
Hence they slavishly followed the US dictates in the post-World War II
period when British imperialism was in rapid decline. The imperialists
intervened directly in the formation of the economic, political and foreign
policies of the country. From 1947 onwards, almost every government till today
has served American interests. Some of the senior cabinet ministers, generals,
diplomats and selected civil servants have often reported directly to
Washington, circumventing their own respective chains of command.
During Jinnah's lifetime, Feroze Khan Noon, the pro-British Muslim League
leader and later prime minister, submitted a crude 'confidential referendum' to
the State Department under George C Marshall, which said, "The mussalmans in
Pakistan are against communism...If the USA helps Pakistan to become a strong
and independent country...then the people of Pakistan will fight to the last
man against communism..."
The US has been involved in regime changes right from the beginning. When
martial law was first imposed in 1958, the US National Security Council gave
full backing to the new military regime. The fully endorsed statement read,
"Pakistan has been replaced by a relatively stable military regime...the
present political situation should be conducive to the furtherance of US
objectives..." General Ayub Khan responded in his speech in the first cabinet
meeting, "As far as you are concerned, there is only one embassy that matters
in the country: the American embassy."
In the late 1970s, with the worsening crisis, General Ziaul Haq's brutal
dictatorship became the lynchpin of the US strategy. That was the reason why
Washington gave a green signal to Bhutto's execution and turned a blind eye to
Pakistan's nuclear programme. The cunning Zia understood this and instructed
the then ISI chief General Akhtar Abdul Rehman: "The water in Afghanistan must
be made to boil at the right temperature."
However, this is not the first time that the Americans have fallen out
with the Pakistan Army. When Zia was trying to go too far in Afghanistan and
was contemplating flying the crescent and star Islamic flag over the Central
Asian states, he became a liability for his masters and what happened next is
an open secret.
Although the Islamic fundamentalist methodology was part of US strategy
for some time, it was boosted by the ideological formulation given to it by
Samuel P Huntington. In the summer of 1993, he wrote an article in Foreign
Affairs titled 'The clash of civilisations'. He argued that henceforth culture,
not politics or economics, would dominate and divide the world. Huntington
concluded on a sinister note: "The world is not one. Civilisations unite and
divide mankind...blood and belief are what people identify with and they will
fight and die for." It was precisely this reactionary theory that Osama bin
Laden had pursued and led him to carry out such brutalities. He framed and
fought his jihad on the 'clash of civilisations'. Some serious strategists of
imperialism are worried that after the elimination of Osama there might be need
to further invigorate this contradiction to suppress the real contradiction in
society, class.
The right wing in Pakistan has raised a hue and cry to defend the army
with hyped up anti-American rhetoric in talk shows and the print media. First,
anti-imperialism is not necessarily anti-Americanism. After all, the American
workers and youth are also the victims of US imperialism. The American
proletariat will play a decisive role in the socialist transformation of
society. In a certain sense, they will be the vanguard of the world proletariat.
At the same time, the Americans can neither trust nor abandon the
Pakistan Army. As the crisis exacerbates, conflicts surface between them, but
are reconciled after a while by the desperate needs of the exploitative
capitalist system. Any genuine anti-imperialist struggle has to be linked to
the overthrow of capitalism in Pakistan or any other country. The religious
fundamentalists and the right wing are the most ardent adherents of this cruel
system.
Pakistan today, economically, socially, politically and morally, is in a
worse state than ever before. This is the result of the extreme rottenness of
Pakistani capitalism. This is the Pakistan of the subservient elite who rule
and own this country. But there is another Pakistan. The Pakistan of 180
million - the workers, the peasants and the youth, who are exploited, deprived,
brutalised and made to suffer by this very elite and the state. These working
masses are disgusted by the venality of Pakistan's ruling class and
imperialists. They detest the fundamentalist terror and imperialist slaughter.
There was no mass mourning, nor any celebrations at the death of Osama bin
Laden in Pakistan.
As the corrupt stooges of imperialism are at the helm of affairs, their
infighting is intensifying for a greater share in the plunder. The
imperialists, who are already squeezing the blood and sweat of this 'other'
Pakistan, want even more. They want their political and military elites to be
even more subservient. But in the lust for more, sometimes even the dog bites
the master's hand. The crisis of the system is not going to abate. Any
stability, respite for the masses or prosperity in society is a utopia,
considering the severity of the socio-economic crisis and its prospects of
continuous decline in the times ahead.
This misery, poverty and destitution are not the destiny of the toilers
of this land. The only salvation is for the 'other' Pakistan to rise as their
predecessors did in 1968-69. They have a historic pledge to redeem. They have
to complete an unfinished revolution. And arise they will, sooner rather than
later.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International
Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at
[email protected]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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