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Postmaster General
Military Professional
Join Date: 08-20-03
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Irfan Husain opines thus:
Quote:
Prodding the peacemakers
By Irfan Husain
IF a lasting peace between India and Pakistan seems like a mirage, let us not forget how far the two countries have travelled since those tension-laden days when their respective armies stood eyeball-to-eyeball along the border, and talk of a nuclear holocaust featured widely in the world media.
And just six years ago, hundreds of soldiers from both sides laid down their lives as a result of the misadventure in Kargil. Against this backdrop of hatred, misunderstanding and national pride, it is a wonder that they are talking at all. And not just talking: several concrete measures have resulted from their efforts to put an end to an era of confrontation and conflict.
So is the glass half full, or half empty? Clearly, much needs to be done. But we need to acknowledge that much has been done. Expectations for a rapid breakthrough may have been dashed, but the building blocks for a peaceful subcontinent are being slowly and steadily moved into place.
Steps like a limited bus service between the two halves of Kashmir, the return of prisoners, a slight relaxation in travel restrictions, limited trade and a possible settlement of the Siachen dispute might seem minor when viewed on their own. But taken together, they do provide grounds for cautious optimism. And in the context of our volatile region, that’s saying a lot.
However, despite the gradual thaw in relations, Kashmir remains the hurdle nobody seems in a hurry to jump over. Pakistan, of course, maintains that substantial progress can only be made once Kashmir is resolved, while India says we should move ahead in other areas like trade and travel and continue talking about Kashmir.
Frankly, I see nothing wrong with the latter scenario. For far too long, the Kashmir tail has been wagging the dog. I am reminded of the Sinbad story in which an old man asks the intrepid sailor to carry him, and then refuses to loosen his grip. The fate of well over a billion people is hostage to this single issue.
A couple of months ago, I attended a seminar in Colombo to which participants from India, Pakistan and both sides of Kashmir had been invited. A participant from Indian Kashmir suggested to me that Kashmiris should be involved in the peace talks between India and Pakistan. “Fine,” I replied, “but which Kashmiris?” One Azad Kashmiri said in his presentation that Pakistan “had paid a very high price for Kashmir.” In my intervention, I said that as a Pakistani, I agreed with him, but I didn’t want to continue paying this price any more. To my surprise and amusement, he interrupted and exclaimed: “But you have to go on paying!”
The fact is that by and large, most people are fed up with the whole Kashmir dispute, and wish it would just go away. It has stunted economic growth, warped the political process, at least in Pakistan, and consigned our region to the backwaters of the global economy. India is clawing its way back, but Pakistan teeters on the brink, despite the hype emanating from Islamabad.
A fortnight ago, a group of us ‘senior’ journalists met a federal minister at lunch, and brought up some of these issues. His view was that for the peace process to advance, there should be greater public pressure. The problem is that in a quasi-dictatorship like ours, decisions are taken arbitrarily, without reference to elected representatives or the people. But for whatever it’s worth, here are a few suggestions:
a) Why can’t the two governments allow the free import and export of newspapers, magazines and books from each other? How is security endangered if Indians and Pakistanis read what’s happening next door? Many misconceptions would be removed by this simple, risk-free step. After all, those who want to can still read each other’s publications on the Internet. I regularly get scores of e-mails from Indian readers every week.
b) A couple of years ago, President Musharraf announced that ‘religious tourists’ would be encouraged to travel back and forth. According to one newspaper report, when a meeting was convened in Islamabad by our tourism ministry to work out the modalities, our spooks put their collective foot down on the grounds that such a step would erode the ‘two-nation theory’. So how about revisiting the president’s decision?
c) Why not encourage student exchanges? Surely national security would not be threatened by school and college students travelling to each other’s countries, and seeing for themselves how much we have in common.
d) The prime minister recently said to the BBC that trade between the two countries is contingent on progress on Kashmir. Surely trade takes place when both sides stand to gain, and not to award one party for good behaviour. In our case, both sides can benefit enormously. Tying trade to Kashmir is actually saying we will continue paying higher prices for goods imported from Japan, Europe and America unless we get our way over Kashmir.
e) According to my friends in very senior positions in the foreign office, our high commission in New Delhi is mostly staffed with officers hostile to the very idea of normal relations with India. Surely their agenda should be to make friends and encourage Indians to travel to Pakistan instead of making it as hard as possible.
f) Cultural exchanges are very popular on both sides of the border. Pop groups, classical musicians and singers and artists should be invited to perform and display their works freely. This flow of creative talent would show people our close cultural affinity.
I am not hopeful this wish-list will find favour in Islamabad, or, indeed, in New Delhi. The bureaucracies in both capitals are too fixated in their half-century old ideas to think outside the box. And to a great extent, politicians and generals are captive to this moribund mindset.
But as the Dylan song says, ‘the times, they are a-changin’. The pressures of globalization are sweeping away the cobwebs of rigid minds. We have already slipped far behind the rest of the world. When it comes to innovation, new ideas and increased productivity, Pakistan is the last place anybody thinks of. And yet, many of our countrymen excel when they move abroad.
We have the talent, clearly, but so far we have lacked the will and the imagination. To unshackle our minds, we must move away from past conflicts.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/mazdak.htm
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