KARACHI: “You have built barriers and tall walls with barbed and razor wires but do they really protect you?”

This was the main question in the thought-provoking presentation titled ‘Build bridges, not walls: a psychological perspective on tribulations, terrorism and triumphalism in Pakistan’ by an Aga Khan University Hospital psychiatry department professor at the AKU auditorium here on Tuesday.

“What happened on Dec 16 makes it the darkest day in Pakistan’s history. We should also remember that exactly 43 years ago, we also lost half of our country,” Dr Murad Moosa said. “And,” he continued, “three days after the Army Public School tragedy in December, Mr Salimuddin, a factory manager, was shot at three times by one of the three extortionists who had visited him. Is there a connection between all these?”

The scholar explained further by going back into history saying: “Pakistan’s birth was traumatic. Making lines on a map may have been easy but on land the migration of 10 million people created total chaos. Then soon after its creation, Pakistan was orphaned with the passing away of Mr Jinnah. A series of foster parents, then surrogate parents and then adopted parents followed,” Dr Moosa said while displaying photos of various prime ministers, military dictators and presidents who led Pakistan over the years.

“Surprisingly, all the military dictators had a same uncle — Uncle Sam,” he added.

“But none of those parents taught this country any values, none took the pain to educate it, or keep it healthy. In fact, they took advantage of it and exploited it. So today we have a social and political upheaval here with dysfunctional systems, politicised religion, lowered threshold of tolerance and terrible statistics in education, health, etc.

“There is homelessness, lack of utilities, a bad transport system and illegal possession of firearms. One young boy Shahrukh Jatoi can take the life of another boy Shahzeb Khan. In one year there are 6,000 to 8,000 suicides and 60,000 to 200,000 attempted suicides. This is a nuclear country and we cannot provide security to our people. There is extreme poverty in Pakistan, which leads to health problems which hinders the ability to earn. So we are stuck in a vicious cycle giving way to learned helplessness [a psychological concept], which in turn plays a role in depression. Sadly, many here have disengaged themselves saying things such as ‘things will not change here’, ‘corruption will never end’, etc. When we disengage ourselves, we deserve what we get,” he added.

“With huge bank loans being written off by well-connected people while ordinary people who take small loans, for maybe a motorcycle, are sued, no matter how much aid comes into this country, there will be no change due to a structural fail,” he said.

“Terrorism comes in many forms. There is state terrorism, there’s also media terrorism when you show hanged terrorists on the front page of newspapers, there are people taking law into their own hands by punishing criminals themselves, there’s an epidemic of violent crimes against women and what not? There are 25 million children out of school in Pakistan and some end up doing child labour while some become suicide bombers. The suicide bombers are as much victims as the ones they kill,” Dr Moosa added.

Showing pictures of Pakistani sports stars, Nobel laureates and social workers like Abdul Sattar Edhi, he said, “We all know our heroes, but what about the unsung heroes, like the mother who recognised her son in the closed-circuit television camera footage of Mr Salimuddin’s killing and handed him over to the police, people who take care of their terminally ill relatives, judges ... it is thanks to them and their actions that we survive in spite of our system.”

About the affluent, he said, “Some people live in nice bubbles, behind high walls, where we get clean water, uninterrupted electricity, security, etc.

“But step out of that bubble, see how old people here are burying their children, teachers and children are being given firearms to protect themselves because the government cannot provide them security, feel the anger and try and channelise it into positive action. Be brutally honest with yourselves. When the 140 APS students make you come up with a national plan, there are also 144,000 children dying from diarrhoea. What about them? All policies must be embedded in ethics and integrity,” he said.

Finally, to bring his point home, Dr Moosa shared a story by Kausar S. Khan about a villager noticing a baby in the river and diving in to save it. The next day there are more babies in the river and more villagers dive in to save them. The babies keep coming downstream and to take care of so many babies, the villagers build an orphanage. But during it all no one thought about what was going on upstream for the babies to be drowning in the river like that. “What’s happening upstream has to change so raising walls won’t end your problems, though building bridges and addressing the issues can,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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