|
|
|
May 12, 2002
REVIEW: Military briefings
THE book A concise encyclopaedia of military facts has a rather impressive title and the author is eloquent in self-praise when he describes in the Preface his work as “so comprehensive a collection of facts ...”. Maintaining this tone, he ends on an upbeat note by declaring in the last sentence: “the general educative value of the book is immense”! Lieutenant General Bakhtiar Rana is equally effusive in according accolades to the book which he terms “this magnificent and superbly compiled book”. This does injustice to the book by raising the reader’s expectations too high.
He would naturally expect a work packed with information, objective analysis and scrupulously precise facts. The dimensions of a book of this nature call for extraordinary efforts and objectivity, consistency, economy in expression, and authenticity of data. By and large, these seem to have been kept in view, yet there have been errors and omissions which mar the final presentation in substance and style.
The overall utility of the work, particularly for servicemen of the younger generations and generally for the lay reader as well as students, cannot be underestimated. Tremendous effort has been obviously put in and in all fairness, it merits appreciation, encouragement and patronage.
But some of the weaknesses need to be pointed out so that they are corrected in the next edition. There is need for greater consistency in the use of terms and the organization of the matter. Thus the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy have been described under separate heads but the Pakistan Air Force has been omitted. Instead, there is a chapter titled “Pakistani aircrafts” which is a misnomer and the term ‘aircraft’ has been used interchangeably with airplanes, aeroplanes, etc. The syntax suffers from sporadically sloppy structure and better editing could have enhanced the value of the book which has a number of incorrect spellings and erratic usage.
Some major entries have been omitted while others are erroneous. If at least one knowledgeable serviceman had been included in the panel of consultants many of these errors and omissions could have been avoided. Thus the explanations of decorations, symbols and honours such as “KG”, “OM”, etc have been dropped, while in other places superfluous and inaccurate information has been given.
But the point on which the book can be faulted is its failure to be objective. The writer has occasionally succumbed to his personal prejudices. A reading of the entries on the 1948, 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan wars and some strange omissions confirm that. Ayub Khan receives kid glove treatment and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gets in while the Quaid-i-Azam is out. The inclusion of Eva Braun (p.39) and the exclusion of King Hussain of Jordan needs to be looked into. The most astonishing exclusion is of Mao Zedong.
The writer is a retired squadron leader of the PAF
A concise encyclopaedia of military facts
By Majed Aliseyed
Wisdom House Publications, 202/3rd Floor, G-1 Hamilton Courts, Block-7, Clifton, Karachi.
367pp. Rs350
|
|
|
|
