| December 25, 2002 | Wednesday | Shawwal 20, 1423 |
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Pushed to the wall
A commendable initiative
THE nation will celebrate the Quaid-i-Azam’s birthday today with due reverence and pay its tribute to the memory of the country’s founder. Pakistan owes its creation to the leadership and vision of that singular man of thought and action. Mohammad Ali Jinnah lived through remarkable times — a tremendous period of upheaval and struggle in the history of the modern world. He saw two world wars and freedom’s triumph over the forces of fascism. He was part of the epic battle to end colonial domination and liberate Asia and Africa from the stifling hold of imperialism. He watched the rise of socialism with its promise of peace, justice and equality. It was inevitable that his political beliefs should have been shaped by these momentous events and to have led him unerringly to his commitment to democracy and liberal humanism. The Quaid tried, in the brief time he was given to run the affairs of Pakistan, to pass on this commitment as his legacy to the leadership and citizens of the new nation. Unfortunately, we have betrayed that legacy time and again.
It is easy to forget the unsettled and confused circumstances in which Pakistan was born, and to cavil at some of the decisions made when the Quaid was governor-general. But his personal incorruptibility and his belief in the supremacy of the will of the people were never in doubt. Throughout his career as a politician and as a legislator, his dedication to the rule of law and constitutionalism was unswerving. In the short span of five decades, we have managed to make a mockery of these values. No country ever wholly stagnates: we have progressed in many fields. We have become a nuclear power. Our economy has expanded. The cities of the Quaid’s days have grown beyond belief, and glittering new palaces have come up everywhere. But for years together we have functioned without the benefit of constitutional governance, and our destiny has been decided by a string of military rulers. Periods of representative rule have been perverted by the venality of a few politicians. Religion has been used not to promote peace, tolerance and harmony, but to turn many of us into self-righteous bigots preaching and practising hatred, envy and revenge.
Indeed, we have so emasculated the Quaid’s ideals that some people question whether they are any longer relevant as a frame of reference. But it would be a grievous mistake if we fell into the error of seeking to compromise further on his faith in democracy as the only course for Pakistan to follow. By our repeated deviations from universally accepted principles, we are often spoken of as an anachronism in today’s world moving towards political and social emancipation. We have just returned to some semblance of representative government after a three-year spell of yet another military intervention. But the question of military versus civilian supremacy remains unresolved. It confronts the state with a fundamental crisis that must be tackled. A national consensus is needed, based on the precepts of our founding fathers and the experience of the past half a century, on the direction in which we want to travel. Do we want to be a democratic and accommodating country or do we want to turn ourselves into a society with a garrison mentality — unable to give people the freedom to exercise their choice freely and without restriction? This question needs to be asked today by as many of us as have not lost all confidence in the future of Pakistan as a vibrant and mature country.
THE Palestinian Authority’s decision to postpone the election due next month was unavoidable. An election can be held when there is peace in the land and there is a government in place. Palestine has neither. The West Bank has been reoccupied, with Israeli troops murdering civilians, assassinating Palestinian leaders in targeted killings, and blowing up houses. As for a government, whatever semblance of authority the PA had at one time disappeared when Ariel Sharon reoccupied the West Bank, which, along with the Gaza Strip, constitutes what Donald Rumsfeld calls the “so-called occupied territories.” Not only that, Sharon waged a personal war on Yasser Arafat, destroyed all buildings in the PA housing complex, and confined him to his Ramallah office. An indication of Arafat’s status as a prisoner came when Israel refused him permission to visit Bethlehem on Christmas. There was even open talk of physically eliminating Arafat and replacing him with a person ready to do Israel’s bidding. This being the ground reality, one can understand why Arafat had no choice but to postpone the election.
Those indifferent to Arafat’s predicament are exactly the ones who lambast him most for holding back on reforms. Elections are one step towards initiating reforms and bringing new blood into the PA, but no one will queue up to vote in war-like conditions. If, therefore, elections had to be postponed, no one should be blamed more than the Sharon government, which has turned the occupied territories into war zones. Unless conditions of peace are restored, there can be no elections in Palestine. President Bush has been in the forefront of those attacking the person of Arafat. In fact, in his June 24 speech, he dwelt on the need for a PA leadership “not compromised by terror.” While it is a matter of opinion who is a mass murderer and a terrorist — Sharon or Arafat — the least Washington can do is to ensure an end to reoccupation of Gaza and the West Bank. It is only in conditions of political normality that elections can take place.
THE Second KaraFilm Festival, organized on a non-commercial basis by a group comprising young Karachi film-makers, cinema enthusiasts and volunteers, concluded in Karachi on Sunday after screening some 75 quality films culled from over 150 entries received from around the world. The films belonged to various genres, including feature, short feature and documentary. The stated aim of the film festival was a conscious effort on the part of the organizers to create “a (culturally) vibrant Karachi” by offering “a space for creativity to flourish” and reiterating a commitment to imaginative and purposive film-making. The top-of-the-line entries which bagged this year’s KaraFilm awards came from countries as diverse as New Zealand, Iran, Germany and Pakistan. Other participating countries included the US, UK, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Germany, France, Canada and Japan.
A number of seminars and talks with some of the participating directors, film-makers and script writers who were able to make it to Karachi, were held on the sidelines of the festival. The best part was that all the events were open to the general public, and people vociferously and freely expressed a myriad of opinions on the state of film-making in Pakistan, grilling some of the country’s top-notch commercial film directors. The encouraging message to emerge from the festival is that if an organized initiative is undertaken, things can get going on the cultural front in spite of the many odds and hurdles that a complete lack of official patronage entails. The festival is now travelling to Lahore and Islamabad with films some of which address very pertinent contemporary socio-political issues, including the human dimensions of the problems arising out of the 9/11 events.