Revolution? You Kill My Guests I’ll Kill Yours

Guest post by temporal who blogs at Baithak

The sudden surge in violence after Musharraf resigned is significant and telling.The Fasadi Pakistani Talebans are exploiting the leadership vacuum and making inroads. The losers are the civilians, who face death unexpectedly, the army whose morale is sagging, and the fledgling civilian administration trying to rebuild democratic institutions.

There is a way out, but the political and military rulers and their Western backers have always ignored it: serious land reforms, the creation of a proper social infrastructure and the establishment of at least a dozen teacher-training universities to lay the basis for a proper educational system. Malaysia has done so. Why not Pakistan?Tariq Ali’s Way Out of Pakistan’s Impasse.

In response to above iFaqeer wrote:…who’s going to bell the cat? That’s the basic question…Pakistan’s headed for a revolution. The question is of what nature it will be and when it will happen. Today…the obvious option is scary…

Until recently my definition of revolution in the Pakistani context was: transfer of power from one un-elected representative to another.

But given the rise of religious militancy and extremism this definition is out the window. The revolution alluded to by iFaqeer will be unpredictable, chaotic and murderous.

I had heard this story growing up. The Pathans were very hospitable people and in one of their village they had a tradition. After sunset the villagers would head for the outskirts. If they found a tired hungry traveler headed in their direction they would jostle with each other for the privilege to play the host to the traveler. One evening, in the jostling between Badshah Khan and Peer Khan to play host to the lone traveler, the old Enfield rifle went off accidentally killing the traveler.

Said Badshah Khan to Peer Khan, “Khocha tum fik’r mut karo. Tum nay amara aik maimaan mara hum tumara dus maimaan maray ga.” (Don’t worry friend, you killed one guest of mine I will kill off ten of yours some day.)

Earlier today, near the entrance to a high security ordnance factory at Wah, suicide bombers killed 70 plus Pakistanis. [Death toll in Wah blasts climbs to 70]

Later on ARY TV, Maulvi Omar (not the one eyed Afghan Taliban leader) admitted responsibility for the suicide attack. He claimed that that suicide attack was in response to the government attacks in Bajaur and Kurram Agency. He also boasted that his forces were capable of carrying out attacks anywhere in Pakistan.

So in this political game, of killing guests the innocent Muslims are killed.

The Pakistan Army is at the receiving end and failing miserably. Like other classic armies, its Achilles heel is a sustained guerrilla fight. Their training and motivation becomes suspect and they open themselves up to ridicule. And with the fledgling civilian politicians bashing them openly, their morale suffers.

The Pakistani Talibans have the edge. Theirs is a guerrilla movement. They do not need planes and tanks and heavy artillery. They are mobile. They can disappear in the crowd. And they are armed with belief. Belief in their cause that may appear suspect and unfounded in western and Muslim scholarly eyes, but is unshakable and firm like K2.

Lessons learned fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan have been polished. They have also demonstrated formidable political savvy. The weak Gilani government, under pressure from the West, from their own people, is desperate to find a solution – any solution that may work. And when they open negotiations, these Taliban groups use the pauses to regroup and re arm. Ho Chi Minh would have chuckled.

With encouragement and support from the Indians and the Iranians, the Mayor of Kabul accuses the Pakistani Administration of being spineless. The Pakistani government bristles. They opened their homes and welcomed millions of Afghan refugees. They still play host to nearly three million of them. The embattled and lame duck US Administration leans on Pakistanis to do more.

The civilian government of Yusuf Raza Gilani, rife with infighting and intrigues, and plagued with incompetence and inexperience is rowing furiously with one oar. Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist disagrees:

The US, for its part, will need to adjust to a Pakistan in which anti-America sentiment could seriously undermine US interests. The US can best do this by offering Pakistan not the appearance of an alliance but the equality and mutual respect that constitutes the substance of one. Pakistan’s people have already demonstrated through the ballot that they reject the Taliban worldview, and the number of Pakistanis who died in terrorist attacks last year alone exceeds the number of Americans killed on 9/11. Pakistan should be allowed to determine how best to fight extremists on its soil. Pakistani solutions are likely to be slower and more cautious than US ones, but also, crucially, more sustained and popular, and therefore more effective in the long run. Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it – Mohsin Hamid.

Through ballot the people have turfed out the fundamentalists for now. But the key question is whether the people can withstand their bullets?

It is well to remember that for a short while after the lawlessness, mayhem and chaos in Afghanistan, following the Soviet withdrawal, the Afghanis did welcome Mullah Omar’s Talebans the first time around. Will it be repeated in Pakistan? Will there be a rural-urban divide? One embracing the neo-Talebans the other rejecting them?

The population is divided. If there is a retrogressive Fasadi Revolution the rural population I suspect would welcome it, much like the Afghans did. But I suspect the Fasadi would have a tougher fight on their hands in the urban centers. For they have learned what havoc the orthodox and rigid Talebans have caused in Afghanistan earlier.

Meanwhile, in this revolution to come expect murder and mayhem in the name of Allah the Merciful.