Arafat’s ability to weather storms hangs in balance

BEIRUT: If all had gone according to plan, Yasser Arafat would, round about now, have been installing himself in Al Quds as president of the state, coexistent with Israel, which has been the object of all his strivings. But the closer he gets to the fulfilment of his long-standing dream the more his plans seem to go awry and instead he is confined, like a prisoner, to an old hilltop British barracks in Ramallah, a mere six miles from the Holy City, his chances of ever entering it looking just about their bleakest ever.

His arch enemy, Ariel Sharon, himself facing prosecution in a Belgian court for his role in the Sabra and Chatila massacres, calls him - Nobel prizewinner and architect of the “peace of the brave” - a congenital liar and murderer with whom business is no longer possible. On Friday, the Israeli government pronounced Arafat irrelevant, and cut off all relations with his Palestinian Authority. Sharon demands the arrest and punishment of all terrorists but bombs the very institutions of the Authority which are supposed to carry out this task - not just barracks and police stations, but, on Friday, the headquarters of the Palestine Broadcasting Authority.

Indeed he bombs the Arafat compound itself. On Friday, as the army stormed into Palestinian towns, a rocket fired from a helicopter struck metres from Arafat’s office. This is Sharon’s way, apparently, of amplifying the message that the rightwing Israeli establishment has been trumpeting forth this past week: if Arafat will not do the job, Israel will do it for him and banish or kill him into the bargain.

The Great Survivor has been written off many times before. Yet his resilience in adversity is legendary, his political comebacks are only outdone by his narrow escapes from violent death. So while this is one of the most desperate crises of his long and turbulent career, it may still not be his last. It has deep roots in both the sheer, endemic implacability of the Arab-Israeli struggle, and the manner in which he has waged his side of it. Of all the villainies Israelis ascribe to him, intransigence, an unwillingness to compromise, is the most undeserving.

For his whole career is one of ever growing moderation. True, it may have been his endless setbacks that forced it on him. Or his indomitable egotism - only thus could Arafat retain the position of sole and indispensable embodiment of his people’s cause, which has been his for more than 30 years. But the fact is that, out of failure and retreat, he always managed to build a new platform for another seeming advance in his personal odyssey, or, as he puts it, his “long march” to the “spires and minarets” of Al Quds. He did so by ever greater curtailment of his original goals. For a long time he carried most of his people with him, using the institutions of his “Palestinian democracy” to endorse them. But however drastic the curtailments, they were never enough for the most moderate of Israelis, while he found it increasingly difficult to persuade his own people that he could ever achieve goals which, in their eyes, were becoming modest to the point of treason. And the greater his difficulties the more he relied on dubious methods - a shelving of his democracy, and all the well-known flaws and frailties of his Authority - that have merely compounded them in the end.

If there has been one single infirmity of his from which, above all, these methods have flowed it has probably been his notorious egotism. No one has ever doubted his virtues: such as physical courage in the face of mortal danger or his dedication and indefatigability; the “old man” - as the now 72-year-old leader has been known as long as anyone can remember - was, until recently, a virtual insomniac, rarely completing his day’s work before 4am.

But no one close to him has ever doubted his preoccupation with himself either. The egotism doubtless accounts for that high sense of destiny which seems always to have possessed him; one of its first publicly recorded manifestations came when, at a student conference in Prague in the early 50s, he astonished his audience by pronouncing himself Arafat and donning the checked keffiyah that has been his trademark ever since. But it also underlies his obsessive desire for personal control and domination, his interference in the minutest details of administration, his deviousness and whimsy, his preference for loyalty over competence, his readiness, though entirely uninterested in wealth and luxury himself, to exploit, through patronage and corruption, the weaknesses of those around him who are. It is ultimately thanks to such egotism that his popularity ratings have fallen to their lowest level ever, just when he can least afford it, just when, trapped between Israeli diktat and the popularity of his rivals, the embattled Arafat toys with the terrible necessity of carrying his moderation to the point of open war on Palestinians.

Arafat is called upon to carry to impossible lengths the collaborator’s role that the Oslo accord requires of him. Whether he does or not, he risks his own political, even physical, elimination. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.

Never ending woes of admission to medical colleges: Social Themes

Nusrat Nasarullah

Ramazan, or Eid, the end of the year 2001, or perhaps the cool season itself, in town, which has so far refused to turn into winter, one had something like that in mind. In fact it was the Pakistan Post Office and Eid mail that was likely to be a subject of concern for today.

But then here comes this old story, all over again, just when we were expecting it to be a closed chapter: the story of the admission of boys and girls who have appeared for two entrance tests conducted by the Institute of Business Administration, both of which tests have been cancelled and in the bargain a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered. I am sure there are many people who do not understand it all. And that no one has got the sack as yet. No details of what is the “inside” story. Only the students continue to suffer.

Admittedly the parents, and the larger extended families are also suffering. They are also undergoing the kind of gnawing uncertainty that brings agony too. Will the son get admitted? Will the daughter get admitted? Families have their compulsions, their priorities, their own time tables their own dreams. No one family can truly comprehend or empathize with the other, perhaps. But one can try. And that is what is being attempted here.

Pakistani parents, one would suggest, have with time turned cynical and downright pessimists. If they have seen this country go the way it has since independence, they can perhaps expect just about anything to happen. There is many a slip between the cup and the lip, remember that. As if it was said for societies like ours. Admittedly, this society is dishonest and inefficient, and delays and dwindling standards among other things, define this community. We have a poor overseas image, and image makers are helpless, it seems. Helpless or inefficient? Decide.

Details of the entrance test story appeared in Friday’s Dawn (14 December) and going through the facts of the lead story one gets the impression that this is the most important issue that the Sindh government has to tackle right now. As if this was the only area where there are “irregularities” that have come to light, and where the authorities wish to set matters right, said one citizen, shocked. Is this priority number one? One other citizen who read the story with an analytical approach underlined the point that some of the most important people in the Sindh government have been informed and associated in this second time cancellation. Of course the director of the Institute of Business Administration, Dr Javed Ashraf, is there, and he is reported to have noted that “serious irregularities” had been committed a second time. (Who is responsible for it and were there no lessons learnt from the first experience?) Then Brig Akhtar Zamin, the principal secretary to the Sindh governor, the Sindh health secretary Chaudhry Khalid Latif, the Sindh health minister Ahsan Ahmad, acting governor Justice Syed Saeed Ashhad, Chief Secretary Javed Ashraf Hussain, and Governor’s adviser Abdul Wahab Shaikh, are among the others who are in the picture of what has happened, and what is happening today.

The question that arises is whether this is the most important issue that faces the province, and if so, why should the students suffer? If things are wrong in this society, and indeed there are matters that need to be set right, is it the best course to begin with bright students? And those students who have passed their intermediate examinations on merit? Was something wrong with those intermediate examinations that were held by the Board of Intermediate education Karachi? Are we going to reverse the entire process?

One disappointed girl who was sure to have been admitted to the governments medical colleges, reportedly remarked that this decision is going to affect Eid that all these students and their families are going to celebrate. There was in her attitude, perceptible, a certain disenchantment that has come from a process that has turned out to be tiring, and overstretched. A test of nerves and a test of patience. An exhausting experience that is leaving more than a bad taste.

One reflects on this with unhappiness. It is truly sad that “the director of the IBA, Dr Javed Ashraf, lodged on Thursday an FIR with Mubina Town police station against unidentified persons for alleged irregularities in the entrance test for admission to the government medical colleges in the province”. Things have now come to this stage. It is further stated that “The complainant, the IBA director, has attached a list of the staff of the departments concerned of the IBA with the FIA. (The test was conducted by the IBA on November 15). It is also reported that a directive from the Sindh governor house was issued for this case being registered.

Look at the stage that we have come down to. The IBA was a prestigious institution at one time, and it produced some of the best managers in the country. Today its own director lodges the FIR, and in the police case the staff of the IBA is named as the accused.

The implications are that details are going to be made public in course of time, and till the moment there is suspense and uncertainty. And the test is now to be held at the end of this month. Incredible! This is a story which has now become longer and which is likely to expose details that could well shock us all. One does not know at this stage so we should keep our fingers crossed?

One does not claim to be offering any wisdom at all to the students who have been afflicted with this admission process to medical colleges, and which is bringing them an experience they could not have imagined in their worst dreams. But as the wise have said that this too shall pass, and eventually “greater good” will come off it. Insha-Allah.

An Eid at last

IT’S official. The Shawwal moon not having been sighted anywhere in the country on Saturday, the Eid is to be celebrated on Monday. The disappointment of a 30-day Ramazan, given the blessings of the holy month, somehow mars the joy of Eid for most Lahoris. The appreciation of a late Eid as a full payment requires a certain degree of stoicism, quite alien to them. Optimistic to a fault, they always count on the ‘bonus’ of an early Eid.

The holiday schedule, particularly for the public schools, too, has contributed to the feeling of having been shortchanged. Instead of announcing the Eid holidays followed by the winter vacation, it seems they have brought forward the winter. Whether the number of school days saved is worth the heartbreak is anybody’s guess.

After a prolonged dry spell it finally rained on Saturday morning and the Met Office has forecast a cloudy weather for Eid with chances of rain. That can, of course, disrupt outdoor congregations and kite-flying besides ruining some gorgeous dresses. But, it has happened in the past and if memory serves one well, was far from unwelcome. Indeed it added some spontaneity to the Eid activities. No worries, therefore, on that account.

More than any other occasion, Eid is about giving and sharing. Nurtured over the month of fasting, the spirit finds its great expression in the Feast. An iftar, of course, is an Eid on a small scale. There is the same sense of accomplishment, and certainly the urge to share it with those around. As a rehearsal for Eid, indeed a mini-Eid with the advantage of a flexible calendar, it always had great social potential. That it should be seized by public relations professionals was probably inevitable. The scale on which iftar parties are now organized, however, is truly amazing. The development has meant a bonanza for restaurants and caterers who only about a decade ago considered Ramazan as their vacation.

Nor is the spirit of sharing limited to the joy of Eid. The holiday also affords the leisure for remembrance and there has been a tradition in the city of expressing solidarity with the bereaved. In fact a very large number of people also visit the graveyards.

While glorifying it as a great virtue, Khalil Jibran had made a distinction between giving naturally ‘like a tree’ and giving as an act of purification. After years, indeed decades, of lean living, in some cases of near starvation, giving is definitely a maladoptive social strategy in our society. All occasions for giving, not to put too fine a point on this, are thus dreaded except by those who have mastered the fine art of conducting themselves in such a manner that their ‘gains’ always outweigh their ‘losses’. Call it a gift, a bonus or plain Eidi, those expected to part with what they have earned, saved, or stolen, resent it no end. Extortion, they call it, and extortion they believe it is. Hence the contempt for the recipients who fail to understand it, sometimes don’t even suspect it.

Among the regular beneficiaries beyond the household and the extended family, the neighbourhood watchman, the postman, and the office helper are probably the best tolerated. This is probably because of a general feeling that they are inadequately compensated otherwise. Nothing like occasional generosity to soothe a guilty conscience.

The police and the Ramazan wake-up boy have to be bracketed in another category. Their claims of loyal service and, therefore, their right to be remembered in your times of joy, are not just doubted, but fiercely contested, ridiculed, and rejected. Why? Why not, indeed? While a fairly large number of people would still vote against the abolition of police if a referendum was held today and many would want the sehri choirs to continue, how many in the city rely today on the wake-up shout for getting up for sehri or on police for security? Everybody realizes, of course, that they are low-income people. But what is their utility? Those who give willingly to beggars and the neighbourhood poor are still willing to suffer them. If only there were more understanding of the changing roles all round.

Even the beggars, who admit that they have no other claim to your money except their express need, can be annoying. The extreme case, of course, is that of begging with a gun, of which there was a lot reported during the recent weeks. Should the economic slowdown continue, it does not take a Cassandra to tell that we are likely to see more of the same.

While Eid shopping is nearly two thirds about giving and less than a third about consumption, window shopping is a rather complex phenomenon. Besides the hobbyists who must know the price of everything, irrespective of whether they will ever buy it, they include the Bunburyists, the shop lifters and a growing tribe of daydreamers. Then there are those who visit the shops simply to torture themselves with what they cannot buy.

Besides the dress, gifts and sweets there is always shopping for greeting cards. To reach their destination ahead of Eid, the cards must be dispatched early. This tends to make them one of the first Eid purchases. Looking for the right card can take a perfectionist longer than selecting a dress. It can also be as frustrating or as rewarding. Technology is of course changing that as fewer people are writing letters and mailing cards every year and more switching to phone and email. The anthrax scare might hasten the transition which could be complete in a couple of years.

By its very nature, Eid also provides a break from the parochial and an occasion for thinking and feeling globally. The holidays allow one to look away from the immediate and the mundane, and the Feast helps one identify, first with the faithful all over the world and then with all men. But being a part of a larger fraternity has its downside as well. The suffering in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine and the knowledge that injustice is not going to go away soon are painful thoughts. There is, however, no getting around them.

The West, to which relatively few people in the city now relate as an abstraction or a stereotype, is another worry. While one cannot simply write off the dreams of an inclusive, rational, humanist civilization emerging first in the developed world and then integrating the rest, the optimism must be tempered after the recent events. The loss is even greater on account of the diminished exchange between the peoples. Also lost is a window of opportunity for some truly enterprising people who have the misfortune of being born in some under-developed society which lacks the ability to benefit from their indisputable talents.

And yet, even as Prof Huntington seemed to have prevailed with his clash of civilizations prediction, Pope John Paul II instructed his followers last week to fast on the last Friday of Ramazan to promote understanding of Islam and to express solidarity with Muslims. According to press reports, Christians everywhere, particularly of his Roman Catholic flock, complied dutifully. This included the largest religious minority in Pakistan — its complaints of perennial harassment and unending discrimination notwithstanding. Praise the Lord. — ONLOOKER