Crisp khaki, black hole
By Shekhar Gupta
The Indian Express | December 3, 2005
http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=83160
>From the debris of the Pak army's miserable quake relief efforts,
rises the question: where are the politicians?
NATO's earthquake relief effort in Pakistan did not even involve a
thousand personnel. It is now winding up, completing its tight lease
of 90 days in what is a most politically sensitive region. Departing
Nato officials, influential news channels tell us, have issued
warnings of impending catastrophe, death from cold, injuries and
diseases as the work of relief is still far from complete. You read
the Pakistani press and you still learn there are plenty of areas
where the government has not reached. People are dying for want of
shelter or medicine. In many places Lashkar or Jaish militants are
still the only symbols of any "authority". On the same international
news channels, appeals are issued by all kinds of people from
celebrities to UN bodies for earthquake relief contributions. This,
after $5.9 billion has already been committed in assistance as against
the Pakistan government's initial estimate of the $5.2 billion needed
for relief and reconstruction. It is nobody's intention to grudge
Pakistan, and particularly the victims of the horrible earthquake, any
amount of relief. But, nearly three months after the event, time has
now come to raise a few questions on the quality of relief work so far
carried out. You ask any Pakistani and he will tell you heroic stories
of the work done by NGOs, religious charities, even lone individuals,
students, doctors, housewives, who left everything and joined relief
efforts. But equally, you would hear stories of official ineptitude,
of insensitivity, inefficiency and confusion. Oddly, very few still
dare to point the finger where it must be pointed: at the Pakistani
army and administration largely run by it. This is not one Indian
hawk's criticism of Pakistan or its military establishment. This is an
attempt to underline some questions many liberal Pakistanis have now
begun to raise, though still cautiously. It is a case of civilian
democracy versus army rule and how one system, with all its flaws, is
always better than the other. And this fact shows up nowhere more
starkly than in a disaster. Pakistan is no tiny, resourceless,
powerless banana republic.
It is the world's sixth most populous country. Its economy is back to
growing in the seven to eight per cent range. Through most of its
history it has enjoyed per capita income higher than India's. The
earthquake, though severe, was confined to one region, leaving more
than 98 per cent of its population unaffected and practically all its
government structure unencumbered. Yet, why was its first instinct to
throw up its hand and ask for international aid? True, many consider
India's policy of not seeking foreign help in natural disasters
cussed. But faced with their first natural disaster of a considerable
size, the Pakistani establishment threw up its arms far too easily.
Disaster is when most civilian governments around the world call out
for the armies to help. Armies are more efficient, organised and
resourceful. In India, whether it is a flood, earthquake or tsunami,
the arrival of army contingents is greeted with confidence and relief.
What went wrong in Pakistan's case? Why did it begin to look so
helpless and all at sixes and sevens so early in the day? Was it
because it was short of resources or experience, or because its army
did not know what to do in the absence of established
politico-bureaucratic civil structures of governance? Pakistan, after
all, has the fifth largest armed force in the world, with nearly a
million men in active service, besides nearly a half million
reservists. It's fielding nearly 3000 tanks and nuclear weapons. It
also has the most extensive network of establishments and
infrastructure on that side of Kashmir. While its units also suffered
gravely in the quake there needs to be some serious questioning of its
performance in relief work if, three months later, Nato and the UN
still have to keep warning of an impending disaster.
To put it simply, POK is one of the most heavily militarised zones in
the whole world. It's no faraway basket case in sub-Saharan Africa.
And the military controlling it is extremely well-reputed,
professional and efficient. It has given a good account of itself
against a larger adversary for nearly six decades. Its ingenuity and
enterprise are underlined by the way it has manned its side of the
Siachen ridge-line. As also by the way it put one past India by
smuggling about a brigade of troops, even artillery pieces, way across
the LoC in Kargil, just the other day. Nobody in the Indian army ever
takes the Pakistani adversary lightly.
So what went wrong in this case? Why did they need to swallow their
pride and let Nato crawl all over their most sensitive territories and
to also paint it so prominently on international television screens?
Did they really deserve the humiliation of the same foreign helpers
predicting disaster when they leave? This is the kind of language UN
organisations and NGO busybodies use while talking of HIV-AIDS in
Botswana. The failure of the Pakistani relief machinery is the failure
of its army, and you could argue it is the lowest point in its history
after the defeat in Bangladesh. It is sad for a fine, professional
fighting force which is much sought after by the UN for peace-keeping
operations, along with India's, given their reputation for discipline,
professionalism, and courage under fire.
The problem is not so much either with the commitment or ability of
the Pakistani army as with its role in the power structure which has
led to a weakening of the civil structure. Civil bureaucracy leans
much too heavily on the army and the one missing piece in the equation
is the politician. Howsoever you may hate them, it is the politician,
the MP, the MLA, the local activists even if from the opposition who
provide that vital link between the state machinery and the people,
particularly in a disaster situation.
Ask the men of the Indian army and navy who were involved in tsunami
relief. They speak glowingly of Jayalalithaa's government. She, her
ministers and MLAs were out and helping. And her officials at the
district level did stellar work. Without all that, India's armed
forces would have looked as inept and ineffective as Pakistan's now.
In modern societies, governance is a business, for, of and by the
politicians and the civil bureaucracies answerable to them. In
Pakistan those two vital elements were missing.
Now recall for a moment what Musharraf's response was in the immediate
aftermath of the quake. He appeared in public in full military livery,
talked about "C 130" transport teams and "M 17" helicopters being
ready for help. It was a professional soldier's response. And that is
where the plot was lost. Because he did not figure disaster relief and
management are among the most complex challenges of governance. An
effective response requires a multi-layered civil government structure
that is then helped along by the armies. An army, howsoever large,
resourceful and politically dominant, can never be a substitute for
this "bloody civilian mess", to use an expression you'd hear often in
army messes not just in Pakistan, but around the world, even in India
and the US where the armies know exactly how long they belong in the
power structure and where they can never even imagine changing any of
that. Contempt for civilian structures is an essential part of the
soldier's faith. In a democracy, it remains merely an internal, clubby
lament. In a system like Pakistan's, it leads to disasters or could
compound one.
That is exactly what has happened in PoK after the quake. It is time
the people of Pakistan who have put up with so many years of army rule
particularly the last six without one public protest began to ask
some of these questions. They have a fine army. But a large, powerful,
talented and ambitious state like theirs, which claims nuclear
weapons, leadership of the Ummah and equality with India, deserves
more than just that. The disaster of earthquake relief should
underline their urgent need for a return to "civilianism". Write to
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