Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The clear partisan nature of Pakistan today

Obama cannot ignore the clear partisan nature of Pakistan today; but will he act?

These notorious figures were believed to be enjoying the patronage of Pakistan intelligence agencies in the past and are allegedly involved in terrorist activities in India and in Pakistan. The reaction of the US government on these arrests seems to be positive. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly said that the Pakistani establishment has had historic ties with LeT although now it’s committed to fighting them. She accused that the group was not only involved in the Mumbai carnage but also moved in “the same circles” as Al Qaeda. But Condoleezza is the past; Obama is the present. And he has been mysteriously quiet on critical issues in Pakistan; and even has gone on to give a cryptic statement (post the Mumbai attacks), that if his country experiences such an attack, he would support an open attack on the perpetrating country.

Is that philosophy of his supposed to be promulgated by India now that Obama has come to power (given the fact that Bush has strong-armed India into muting their protests to diplomatic circles only)? Obama’s camp fails to clarify the same. “Pakistan is a different place now with a civilian government and an army leadership that is working in concert to try to bring an end to extremism within Pakistan,” Rice has been quoted as saying. But it must be kept in mind by Obama that what we are witnessing today in this part of the world is the logical outcome of decades of brainwashing of Pakistani youth through formal and informal education and it’s a lofty task to eradicate irrationalism from the minds of a considerable chunk of the people. According to The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan, a research study published in 2004 by Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an independent think tank based in Islamabad, “[Many say that] the classical religious education mixed with militancy is supposed to be the deadly mix giving rise to the narrow vision that breeds hate and irrationality resulting in the international jihad. This however is not entirely true. Madrassas are not the only institutions breeding hate, intolerance, a distorted world view, et al. The educational material in the government run schools do much more than madrassas. The textbooks tell lies, create hate, incite jihad and shahadat, and much more.” It further comments: “Over the years, it became apparent that it was in the interest of both the military and the theocrat to promote militarism in the society. This now gets reflected in the educational material.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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