| February 17, 2007 | Saturday | Muharram 28, 1428 |
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Compulsory military duty
Back to December 1947
Putting our own house in order
Lesson from Mandela
Nobel prize for nonsense
US attack on Iran
Just a game?
House trespass
Road widening
Depressing news
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
IN recent weeks two Japanese ministers have criticised the American policy regarding Iraq (Dawn, Feb 5). Last month, their defence minister, Fumio Kyuma, made a series of remarks about US policies, which provoked displeasure from the US State Department.
But a former defence chief, Shigeru Ishiba, under whose watch Japan had taken the historic step of sending troops to Iraq in 2004, slammed his statement. He thought it was inappropriate for his country to offend the US, upon whom it relies most for its national security, at a time when the US is going through the most difficult times. He said the US is the only ally for Japan, and, “if a North Korean missile flew to Japan now, it’s only the US that could protect Japan.”
However, this was followed by a swipe by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso who said the US policy in Iraq was ‘very naïve’ and blamed it for the spiralling unrest there.
Both the ministers have actually done a favour to the US by letting their true feelings known. After all, a good friend must be like a mirror through which one can see one’s blemishes. It’s not just Japan that has expressed its reservations about the US occupation of Iraq, many other staunch American allies have also done that and Washington should not fret about it.
In fact, this is an opportune time for Japan to reassess its ties with other countries. American unilateralism has made it unpopular in the world, and Japan will suffer adverse consequences if it does not distance itself from the Bush administration’s follies. There is a Japanese saying, “A wise man in a fool’s service is a clear pearl thrown into lacquer.”
As far as Mr Ishiba’s anxiety about annoying the US is concerned, it must be realised that Japan would be better off by not putting all its eggs in one basket. Akio Morita, who had been one of the founders of the world-famous Sony Corporation in the war-ravaged Japan of 1946 and rose to become its chairman and CEO in 1976, had written a book, Made in Japan. In it he has narrated an incident that carries a lesson.
He says that before Ronald Reagan took office as president, one of his advisers visited Japan to get some ideas for formulating Reagan’s Asian and, specifically, defence policies. He met many leading Japanese figures and, in one conversation with a Tokyo economist, he linked trade problems with defence and suggested that Japan should build some warships and give or lease them to the US navy.
The economist told him this would probably not be possible because article nine of Japan’s constitution renounces war and forbids them from maintaining any war potential or exporting it. Mr Reagan’s friend and adviser said: “Well, then, change the constitution (which had been written not by the Japanese but the post-war US).” That sums up the US attitude and how dismissive it is of even its closest allies’ difficulties. This has greatly worsened during George Bush’s presidency.
As far as a missile attack is concerned, much progress has been made recently through China’s sincere efforts: a Japanese lawmaker has quoted a Chinese negotiator as saying North Korea has agreed to shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Besides, President Kim Jong-II is shrewd enough to realise that firing one crude nuclear missile at an opponent will bring dozens back on his country (Feb 13).
The Muslim world, China, Russia and many countries of Asia, South America and Africa don’t have happy relations with the US. It is in Tokyo’s own interest to endear this 60-70 per cent of humanity, which it can do while retaining friendly ties with Washington; this will also help the cause of global peace. The needless war in Iraq reminds me of the words of Osamu Kataoka – from whom I take my Japanese pen-name – who had survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and recalled its horrors in 1951, as a high school student: “Here is no such thing as rose-coloured glory where there is war.”
KATAOKA
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Hafizur Rahman’s article ‘Compulsory military duty’ (Feb 7).
I fully support his plea for compulsory military training for all young men and women in Pakistan. The government should appoint a committee of army personnel and educators to draw up a scheme for enforcing at least one year of compulsory military training for all young men and women between the ages of 18 and 21 years.
The curriculum should be based on the experience that was gained during the years in the post-Ayub era by the enforcement of compulsory military training for young people as a part of academic education.
As an inducement, a special allowance can be given to the trainees for doing military training. Much improvement in the old pattern of training can be effected by learning from the experience of many other countries where two years of military training was compulsory in the post-war years.
During the World War II, in my university years in India, I underwent two years of military training. It made me physically better and enhanced my self-confidence and my life became disciplined. I had also done two years of scouting in school and the Boy Scout Movement should be promoted in Pakistan to make our young people better citizens. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a promoter and benefactor of the Boy Scout movement in Pakistan.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
ON Dec 7, 1947, I saw a rope being lowered from the fourth floor of a house in Ranchhore Lines, Karachi. One young man managed to get down to the ground through it. The second man followed. The two waited for their old father to come down. The fellow could descend three stories but lost the grip on the rope and fell down from about 12 feet height. The two sons helped him to stand but cried bitterly for fear of their lives. One Hindu had been knifed a day before in the same locality.
I watched their agony, rushed to them, took out my Aligarh pyjamas, slipped these on the dhoti of the old man and asked the two sons to help me to take him to the nearby Mandir on Lawrence Road, with a crowd of people watching me and the three men getting into the Mandir.
They were safe there and were taken to a safer place by the orders of Mr Muhammad Ayoob Khoro, the then prime minister of Sindh (it was much later that the provincial prime ministers were designated as chief ministers).
I had migrated from Rajasthan where massacre of Muslims was carried out in Alwar and Bharatpur states. I dared to save three lives at the risk of my own. I don’t seek any commendation for this act of mine but only wish somebody read it in Ahmadabad, Gujarat and Rajasthan and save the life of even one Muslim when unabated massacres of numerous Muslims are carried out there unnoticed over the years.
RAEES AHMAD KHAN
Karachi
APROPOS of Mr Irfan Husain’s article, ‘Putting our own house in order’ (Feb 3), I, with a pinch of salt, add that the writer’s comprehension about the Chinese ideology et al mentioned in the piece: “ . . . . . why cannot they (Pakistani leadership) learn from the Chinese leadership which has put ideology on the back-burner while it builds up the economy?” seems to be rather imbecile.
It would be educationally ideal if some learned Chinese gentlemen, especially a diplomat, enlighten us on the subject.
To me, ideology is akin to national pride, way of life and values translated into transparent national objectives and policies. Hence, our Chinese friends would not dare to put their ideology in jeopardy by putting it on the back burner; on the contrary, they do not waste time in eliminating black sheep from their ranks to preserve and protect their ideology and the system. Moreover, they respect our ideology and, in return, we respond the same way.
We, Pakistanis, shudder with depression when an increasing number of commentators make a cacophony of the marauding Americans’ and Nato’s forays into our hearth and homes, nearly pushing us against the wall; it is our sheer good luck that the time-tested Pakistan-Chinese friendship comes up handy bolstering our morale upwards.
MOHAMMAD AHMAD
Karachi
ON Feb 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27-and-a-half years. Today he is the most respected and loved freedom-fighter, a former president, a great nationalist who loved his country more than his family. His sacrifices to attain freedom from a tyrannical government which had usurped his beloved country -– South Africa — and to unite his people are a golden chapter in the annals of human history.
Today no world leader is more loved and respected than Nelson Mandela. His humility and humbleness can be gauged from many of his acts, but the greatest was he did not bear any hate for the white Afrikaners whom he not only forgave but made them equal partners in the new South Africa.
When he was released from prison, he went to his humble tin-roofed house at No. 8115 Orlando West in Johannesburg where thousands of people besieged him. For his peace and rest his African National Congress members advised him to move to a house a few blocks away in Diepkloof that his wife Winnie had built when he was in jail.
Nelson Mandela would not hear of it. Why? He said that it was a grand place by Soweto standards, but it was a house that holds no meaning or memories for me. Moreover, it was a home inappropriate for a leader of the people. He said, “I rejected that advice as long as I could. I wanted to live not only among my people, but like them.”
I pray and hope that the people who govern us will read this and learn something from this great sage. Lord when will we be governed by people like him?
FRAMROZE H. PUNTHAKEY
Karachi
RIZWAN Yassin (Feb 11) has ridiculed Gwynne Dyer for suggesting in his article, ‘Chirac’s gaffe’, that it is the Pakistani nuclear weapons rather than the Israeli ones that Iran may really be worried about. He sarcastically says that he would award his ‘Nobel prize’ for nonsense to the writer for this.
From his past columns, it should have been apparent that Mr Dyer is a seasoned journalist and one of those few in the West who are unbiased or even sympathetic towards the Muslims. Thus, he has been critical of the invasion of Iraq and, more recently, of Somalia by Ethiopian troops backed by the US.
As far as his present conclusion is concerned, he can be seen to be right at one level but wrong at another. It is no secret that relations between Iran and Pakistan have been strained due to our past patronage (along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE) of the Taliban since the mid-’90s, whom Tehran views as hostile to it. Likewise, Mr Dyer’s comment that Pakistan’s nuclear tests of 1998 had “scared Iranian strategists half to death” does hold water.
Trying to look at it from Tehran’s perspective, if an extremist Sunni group like the Taliban or Lashkar-i-Jhangvi were to somehow grab power in Pakistan, there would be much danger to Iran, given the bitter struggle that has been going on between some of the Shia and Sunni militants over here. Nuclear weapons in the hands of such people would greatly alarm the Iranians.
That is one level of perception. The other level is that if such an unlikely thing does happen, the western, Israeli and Indian intelligence agencies would make a bee-line for Pakistan, causing what the noted American journalist Seymour Hersh recently called a ‘nuclear traffic jam’, to try to destroy our strategic assets. I think that in case they fail, a nuclear missile defence shield would definitely be placed in Afghanistan which could shoot down any Pakistani nuclear missiles headed west even before they are able to leave our airspace, as the French president predicted in the Iranian scenario.
Conversely, none of Iran’s neighbours, including Pakistan, would feel comfortable in case the former does manage to acquire the nukes. Mr Dyer rightly notes that this would lead to a nuclear arms race in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt also trying to go nuclear. Another thing worth noting is that the columnist has repeated in the present write-up what he had explained last year also. The Iranian president had not actually said that Israel should be wiped off the world map, but an error in translation of his words in Farsi had led to this misunderstanding that was seized upon by the Israelis and the West.
Finally, a reassuring thing for Iran and the West should be the fact that Pakistan’s nuclear programme and strategic assets have always been under the control of the army, no matter what type of government was in power (Dr A.Q. Khan’s access to these was a different and exceptional case, but it is now a firmly closed chapter).
It was for this reason that some of our rulers were not even allowed to visit sensitive installations like Kahuta. Thus, even if a bunch of religious extremists comes into power, the highly disciplined Pakistani army would not allow it to engage in any nuclear adventurism, knowing fully well that this would be absolutely disastrous for the country, diplomatically, militarily, politically and economically.
Q. IQBAL
Karachi
The US is now seeking to organise a coalition with Israel and conservative Arab states to confront Iran militarily. Breakout of a war between the US and Iran will automatically result in a drastic change to the present volatile world order.
What are Washington’s real intentions? Why would the Bush administration want to undertake an adventure against Iran when its forces are mired in Iraq and its policies in the region have created strong anti-US sentiments?
The Bush administration has two reasons. First, plan to destabilise and overthrow the present setup in Iran and to cover the tracks of their failure in Iraq and, second, divert the attention of American public opinion from the disaster the US has caused globally.
In these circumstances Pakistan should impress on both Washington and Tehran the need of a responsible and restrained approach and to warn the US of the horrible global consequences of such an attack.
Pakistan should tell the US that any action against Iran will be opposed on local and international levels.
QAZI ASIM NAEEM
Hyderabad
WHENEVER the cricket team loses, the players and their manager etc. say that “it’s just a game”.
However, the fact remains the players are professionals; their bread and butter is cricket and the team is simply not delivering what they were hired for.
So what happens when an individual, or individuals, in a company do not deliver? Questions are asked, inquiries are called and incompetent employees are sacked. But not in this case, after all, “it’s just a game” to them. Clearly the cricket team is making a mockery of our country.
WAHEED
Rawalpindi
The South African tour debacle confirms that the Pakistan Cricket Board, its officials, as well as the players, are at the lowest ebb of their performance — all involved seemed lacking the very basic required elements of a well-knit, team spirit and passion for dedicated persistent performance.
The attitude of both, officials and players, during the last England tour and now South African hope-shattering series, actually centred around their personal ego and selfish glory.
Still the nation is being given hope against all hopes that our injury-ridden team will win the World Cup. One wishes our squad ‘God-speed’.
ANWAR K. SHEIKH,
Tahirabad
ON the night of Feb 7 I heard intense firing around my house, situated at Zamanabad, Landhi, Karachi. I was terrified and preferred to stay in my bedroom with my wife.
I live in a portion on the first floor. After some time there were knocks at the door. As we opened it, we were stunned to see two policemen standing in front of us.
One of them was holding a gun. They asked us whether there was any dacoit inside. We said no, and they left the place.
Later on I came to know that they had entered our house after scaling the boundary wall and had broken the wooden door of our drawingroom on the ground floor. They had searched the ground floor where my mother and brother live.
I have been living in Landhi since March 1957 with my parents and other family members but such an incident had not occurred. I am very much perturbed. Will the high-ups take notice of it?
DR SAYEEDUDDIN
Karachi
I would like to highlight an issue that is critical for this city: the widening of the Golimar Road, connecting Lasbela Chowk to Nazimabad first chowrangi, which daily serves millions of residents of Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, SITE, Liaquatabad North Karachi, Federal B Area, etc.
Because of this throttled road, millions of productive hours of citizens are wasted in traffic jams, fuel is spent needlessly in crawling vehicles, pollution levels from exhausts are increased, and the residents of the area are subjected to horrendous noises from buses and horns. I appeal to the city Nazim, the Master Plan EDO and the Traffic Engineering Bureau to tackle this issue on a war footing.
All thoroughfares leading to and away from this critical but narrow road have large capacities, but Golimar presents a severe bottleneck.
Golimar Road is at present around 80 feet across and needs to be widened further by at least 50 feet. Under the law, the city government must acquire the first line of buildings on each side and widen the road. Additionally, work on an under-construction seven-storeyed building on this road in Firdous Housing Society must be stopped immediately (this can be done in the public interest under section 6(5) of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance 1979), otherwise road widening will become difficult.
Also, the city administration and the police should provide relief to motorists by removing all parking on this section of Golimar Road so that three lanes of traffic on each side can flow without any hindrance.
K.A. PERVEZ
Karachi
IT was depressing to hear that a man tried to sell his children so that they could survive. If this is what happens in the most prosperous province, one can be sure that in other parts of the country the situation is equally bad, if not worse.
Even more depressing is that a man was made to walk in freezing water to prove that his son wasn’t a thief. For God’s sake, just what is going on? Where is the logic in making the father of an accused person undergo this tortuous ordeal?
As if all this wasn’t bad enough, barbers in the wild north have been warned that they will have to pay a fine of Rs5,000 if they shave off a man’s beard. If I hear more news like this, I’ll have to go to a psychiatrist.
SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
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