Is the Pakistan military digging its nation's grave?
[The Economist, U.K.]
Le Figaro, France
Pakistan's
Impending 'Collective Suicide'
"With
the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, we have reached
the culmination of the war on terror which began on September 11, 2001. … It's
unclear whether Pakistan, atomic bomb or not, will survive this new
ordeal."
With
the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, we have reached
the culmination of the war on terror which began on September 11, 2001. Still
harboring on its territory the two main leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden
and Ayman al-Zawahiri, it
isn't surprising that Pakistan has again taken center stage.
The
quick and apparently anxious way General Musharraf joined with the Americans
after September 11th indeed allowed Islamabad to avoid offering any clear
answer on the involvement of its army and secret services in the attack on New
York. Still later, the strategic nature of the country and the facilities
granted the FBI and CIA to hunt down the men of al-Qaeda - certainly offered
without pleasure - has continued to immunize Pakistan's military junta
vis-à-vis the United States. Still, behind the smiles of command, George W.
Bush has continued to strengthen cooperation with India for the purpose of
intimidating the Pakistani army. In turn, this decidedly unreliable army
high-handedly refused to accept Washington's offer of lifting the embargo on
F-16's in favor of an alliance with increasingly-friendly China.
America - not completely satisfied with the ambiguities of
Musharraf - and with the help of the Saudi monarchy, embarked on a new maneuver
to force the military to share power with the two major civilian parties: that
of Benazir Bhutto on the left and NawazSharif on the right. Whether it was Musharraf himself
that was the soul of the conspiracy against the return of the civilians, or
more likely, the fanatical praetorians in the ranks of the army and secret services, Musharraf has been gradually compelled to
follow their lead and cover for them. In any case, by this bloody crime, we are
confronted by a Pakistani Army that clearly and precisely refuses to share
power with the democratic forces in the country, and of course, refuses even
more clearly any historic compromise with India.
This
aggressive posture takes one back to the very matrix of Pakistan, present at
its founding in 1947 .
This country, the strangest on the planet, has enjoyed complete legitimacy; yet at the same time, a
profound illegitimacy. Total
legitimacy, in fact, that was based on the insurgency of the Muslim community
in British India, which saw itself intimidated and trampled under foot every
day by the indiscriminate use of universal suffrage by a Congress Party less
liberal than one would have believed.
The
inventor of the Pakistani option,
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, himself a Shiite
like the Bhuttos, in fact conceived the new state as rather
akin to pluralist India, but to be reconstructed as a totally independent
entity. In his mind, as in the case of the French Protestants at the end of the
religious wars [1562-1598 ], it was to
consolidate several regions that had a Muslim majority: the Indus Valley, East
Bengal, but also if it were possible, Haïdarabad in
the south and Kashmir in the north as “places of sanctuary,” which would have
in the long term created real parity between Muslims and Hindus in a reunified
South Asia. Benazir Bhutto and NawazSharif are now part of this lineage. Straight away,
the Pakistani army began playing an exaggerated role in pursuit of its new
ambitions. It was its refusal of electoral democracy that led the Awami League of Bangladesh to embark on the road to splitting the country
in 1971 .
The same military provocations could today lead to the same
insurrectional result in Punjab, especially in Sindh,
the stronghold of the Bhutto family. The ambition of the military, which is in
fact heavily subsidized by Saudi Wahhabism, has
gradually become incompatible with any proposed indo-centric liberalism.
Present in Mecca, where they retain the holy places; present for over 20 years
in Afghanistan where their Pashtunofficers oversaw the Taliban and continue to
do so now - even killing their own colleagues in recent ambushes in tribal Waziristan; and present in Kashmir, where they intimidate
and murder any idea of real autonomy. And ultimately, the Pakistani military
infiltrated the areas of weakness in post-Soviet Central Asia, pursuing a dream
that dates back to the Great Moghuls.
Or
to be more precise, the dream of Indian Islam, of which Pakistan is the last
heir. That dream collapsed in the 17th century due to the incompatible plans of
two opposing brothers: DaraShikoh, “the sage,” who wanted
equality for his Hindu subjects and so lost his life like Benazir
Bhutto; and Aurangzeb,
“the mad one,” whose religious fanaticism very directly opened the way to the
dissolution of the [Moghul Empire].
It's
unclear whether Pakistan, atomic bomb or not, will survive this new ordeal.
Paradoxically, its chances of survival are directly linked to victory for the
democrats and to a closer relationship with India. Anything else is collective
suicide.
[LATEST NEWSWIRE PHOTOS: Benazir Bhutto
