Condoleezza Rice’s ‘mission’

CENTRAL Asia is now the focus of America’s drive to “spread democracy” the world over. In Astana for talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Ms Condoleezza Rice said the region’s economic development must go hand in hand with democratization. This was in sharp contrast to the Kazakh president’s views that economic development must have priority over democracy. The US secretary of state is now in Dushanbe where she is having talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmanov. Before flying to Astana, she had similar talks with Kyrghyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev in Bishkek. Regrettably, the break-up of the Soviet Union has made no difference to the people of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Caucasia as far as democratic freedoms are concerned. With the exception of Asker Akayev, who abdicated following a bloody crackdown in Osh in March this year, other Central Asian states are still ruled with an iron fist by Soviet-era leaders.

Cast in the Stalinist mould, these leaders hold elections marked by fraud and harassment of opposition leaders. President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan especially has been merciless with the opposition. Torture is practised routinely and cases have come to light of dissidents being burnt with boiling water. The most unfortunate aspect of Mr Karimov’s policies has been to exploit the bogey of a threat from Islamic fundamentalism to crush opposition. International rights bodies confirm that many of those languishing in jail or persecuted by the Uzbek government have no relationship with the Taliban or other extremist groups. Recently, Mr Karimov asked the US to wind up its base in his country. This had nothing to do with his desire to please Russia or China but was prompted by his anger over the US (and European) criticism of his autocratic policies. The specific purpose of Ms Rice’s tour has been to press the Central Asian leaders to liberalize their regimes and undertake political reforms. But, as history shows, America has always sacrificed democratic considerations at the altar of geopolitics. During the Cold War, some of the world’s worst dictators enjoyed America’s total support if they happened to be anti-communist. In the Muslim world, the US hobnobbed with dictators and potentates if they lent bases to the US and made their countries part of the US-led system of anti-communist alliances. In the aftermath of the Cold War, too, there is little difference in American policies on this score. The sins of President Moammar Qadhafi have been forgiven, now that he has fallen in line, while Washington seems to have no problem dealing with Arab kings and dictators who happen to be on its side and cooperated with Washington in the attack on Iraq.

While America is welcome to continue its attempt to spread democracy, it would be better if it paid greater attention to the unresolved problems that are a major source of frustration in the Arab-Islamic world. Palestine and Kashmir are conflicts in which Muslims have suffered enormously at the hands of the occupying powers. Yet there is nothing to suggest in the wake of 9/11 that America has made any sincere efforts to have these problems resolved. In Palestine, Israel has indicated that it has no intention of quitting the West Bank, and in South Asia, despite the detente between Pakistan and India, a solution to the Kashmir dispute is nowhere in sight. The US would do well to address these issues if it wants to win the battle for “Muslim hearts and minds”.

Taking care of the orphans

AS officials scramble to ascertain the number of children killed during last week’s earthquake, images of dazed and bewildered children are particularly heart-wrenching. More than others, children are vulnerable to health hazards, which is why Unicef is stressing that international relief efforts must prioritize keeping alive children who have survived the disaster. While many were killed when their schools or homes collapsed, many others have been separated from their families in the ensuing chaos or have been orphaned. It is to the future for these children that the government and the NGOs must give their utmost attention. Given the magnitude of emotional outpouring witnessed across the nation and the world, many families have stepped forward and offered to adopt these children. However, it is imperative that the state and various relief agencies adhere to strict regulations before handing over any child to foster parents. We must learn from the Asian tsunami last year where Unicef reported that almost all the 10,000 children orphaned in that disaster were adopted locally within two months and by the end of February only 60 children were left without foster care. It is crucial that efforts are focussed on ensuring that orphaned children are taken care of by their extended families, friends or neighbours as happened in the case of the tsunami. There is a serious risk that people posing as well-wishers may adopt children and engage them later in dangerous activities. That children are trafficked, employed in hazardous professions or made to do hard labour are all grim reminders of the need for extreme care in choosing foster parents.

Here too, international relief agencies should be called upon to monitor and supervise any adoption process, for it is important to ensure against overburdened hospital staff disposing of unclaimed children to make room for the injured. Organizations like Edhi and existing orphanages, which have plenty of experience in facilitating adoption processes, should be brought in to assist as they follow strict guidelines when it comes to ensuring that children are given good homes. There is every possibility that those classified as orphans have families looking for them and help should be provided for reuniting them with their families.

A baseless bias

IT IS estimated that there are 150,000 NGOs operating — some on paper only — in Pakistan. While the performance of some is exemplary, the record of a few others has brought a bad name to the NGOs generally. But that hardly justifies the negative attitude that people generally adopt towards them, tarring them all with the same brush. It was therefore quite unbecoming of the president of one NGO in Islamabad to lash out at all the organizations that had been holding “seminars and festivals in mega hotels” but, according to him, were not doing anything to provide succour to the earthquake affected people. The fact of the matter is that many NGOs have been active in providing relief assistance to the affected people and 85 NGOs in Islamabad have come together to form a joint action committee for relief work. This is a sensible thing to do if their efforts are not to be duplicated or wasted. The Edhi Foundation, which is after all an NGO, has been active in the field not only in this hour of trial but in every crisis.

It may be pointed out that one must always separate the grain from the chaff before launching a tirade of this kind. There are many NGOs which are doing excellent work in their own specified fields but may not be found on the scene in the north because they are not equipped to handle an emergency of this nature. For instance, an organization that is basically a pressure group, a consciousness raising body or a research body — as many women’s and human rights groups are — cannot handle a relief and rescue operation even if it tries to. Many NGOs have raised funds for others which have the capacity to work in social spheres. Hence it is time some people shed their strong anti-NGO bias.

Where are they at this hour of need?

NOT too long ago we used to see money boxes placed at shops and on street corners for collection of funds to facilitate ‘jihad’ against the ‘infidels’ who were oppressing Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya, occupied Kashmir and in the Taliban’s Afghanistan. Maulana Masood Azhar and many like him went around brandishing automatic weapons, delivering firebrand speeches and urging the Muslim world to wage a holy war to save the brethren- in-faith from death and destruction at the hands of the ‘infidels’.

Then came 9/11 and the collection boxes were taken away. The militants now turned on the government, accusing it of supporting the US-led war against the Taliban. The Iraq invasion strengthened their resolve to fight Gen Musharraf’s ‘enlightened moderation’ tooth and nail. They congregated on the streets of Pakistan, leading anti-government rallies, clashing with security forces, calling for strikes and damaging property.

A handful of extremists carried out assassination attacks against the president; others abducted and killed foreign nationals, Daniel Pearl and the French engineers, most notably; western diplomatic missions in our cities were targeted, as was the Christian minority whose places of worship were attacked. Muslim minority sects, too, were not spared. All this in the name of religion and holy war. Mullahs gracing the TV screens even today vow Jihad against unnamed ‘enemies of God’. The zeal has not died down, nor have the militants been rounded up and sent to Guantanamo Bay.

They are all here, but where? You can hardly tell. Not a word is heard from them, or from their more politically acceptable backers, some of whom now sit in parliament, when the biggest disaster in the country’s history has struck their innocent brethren-in-faith in the Frontier and Azad Kashmir. Is this not the time to recruit volunteers and wage ‘jihad’ against nature’s forces of death and destruction? Are they not aware of the misery and suffering of the Muslims of Kashmir?

But who do we see spring to action, instead, at this time of national tragedy that happened in the holy month? The British, German, French, Japanese and Chinese relief and rescue teams were among the first to get here and help out with the relief effort. And the custodians of the Pakistan’s borders at the airport did not even spare them the few dollars that could be pocketed in visa fees. The country’s image problem begins the minute a foreigner sets his foot on our soil.

One may also ask as to where the jihadis’ more docile cousins have disappeared — that proud congregation of over a million men, who converge on Raiwind every year. Why this apathy towards human suffering? They and their friends would take to the streets in large numbers to stop the Aga Khan education board’s syllabus from being taught in our schools, but none would join the relief effort to save fellow Muslims’ lives. There has got to be something wrong with the way these people look at the world.

Why does it have to be the capitalist multinationals, agents of western imperialism, that have to step forward and donate money to save Muslims’ lives at such tragic moments? Where are the madressahs that pocket millions of rupees in charity and government grants every year? Why are their syllabi so bereft of the message of social responsibility towards fellow human beings that the Quran and the Sunnah lay so much stress on? The cul-de- sac of ignorance that these institutions have become makes sure that no ray of light enters the dead end to which they have been leading the young and vulnerable sections of society.

This was the time when mosques and madressahs should have become the repository and transit camps of relief goods, for religious laders we are told, have inroads into the rural hinterland. A village in the remote north may not have a primary school but it will surely have a mosque; many will also have at least one madressah if not more. Imagine that entire infrastructure going to waste at a time when it could have been mobilized to provide succour to the suffering thousands, if not millions.

The MMA-led Frontier government set the tone for the apathy inherent in the way our religious right looks at the world and its problems. The day after the disaster struck, the provincial legislature rounded up its proceedings by reciting fateha for the dead and praying for the lives of those buried under the rubble. It then adjourned the session in great haste, declaring a weeklong mourning. Leader of the opposition in parliament Maulana Fazlur Rahman, whose party runs and controls the hundreds of madressahs in the Frontier, and who leads the chorus against the registration of madressahs, has also kept quiet one wonders why.

The religious affairs ministry headed by MNA Ijazul Haq has been equally silent. No other ministry has so many tertiary institutions, such as the madressahs receiving government grants and which spread to all the nooks and crannies of the country, under it fold. Yet, they have proved by their inaction that this is not their domain. They had rather spend the funds they get on indoctrinating young minds, spreading hate against ‘infidels’.

You need only to tune into a religious programme on TV to hear a given cleric’s take on this most tragic of disasters to have struck Pakistan. Dr Israr Ahmed, that vociferous defender of ‘jihad’ and champion of the traditional interpretation of religion, is no different. Helping the quake victims does not involve any undoing of the controversial laws such as the Hudood ordinances, the blasphemy act or the law of evidence; nor does it involve digging out from under the debris any outspoken rape victims who would bring a bad name to the faith or the country. Many that lie under the rubble are Muslims with full, undeniable witnesses rights admissible in our Shariah and other courts.

The self-styled scholars have nothing but prayers to offer to the victims and their families. Others that go a step further would ask you to seek divine forgiveness for excesses committed or face God’s wrath, like the one faced by the disaster-struck people in the north of the country. The dead and the wounded have a lesson to teach us, and the sermon stops right there. If this indeed is the sole message of religion that we want to project then we cannot blame the westerners for thinking of us what they do.

The lack of social responsibility and that of action among the ‘jihadi’ segment is too evident. They are only capable of fanning indoctrination and bigotry, spreading obscurantism and strengthening the forces of mediaevalism. The space allocated to them on the airwaves is a sheer waste of time, especially at a time of national crisis that we are facing today. They should simply be shown the door at this hour of grief and tragedy.