Another political alliance

YET another alliance has come into being, and Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif have parted ways. Like most other alliances in the past, this one too consists of parties which have no shared ideals. As Mr Sharif announced the formation of the new alliance, he was flanked by Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Qazi Hussain Ahmad. The two MMA leaders have no love lost between them and the PML-N leader, as their record shows. But they share with the Sharifs one passion — hostility to the PPP, focussing on the Bhutto family. Qazi Hussain Ahmad especially is in his elements when it comes to his life mission — destroying the PPP, a task in which he, like his mentor, Ziaul Haq, has met repeated failures. The main purpose of the APDM seems to be to make common cause against the military government and to isolate the PPP. However, the second aim appears to be more important, because the “struggle” against the military regime has been going on for a long time under the ARD umbrella.

If the PPP has been kept out of the new alliance, it has to blame itself, unless it loves this isolation. This may endear it to the military-led government. Ever since there has been talk of a deal between the military government and the PPP, the rest of the opposition was looking for a strategy that would not surprise it if the much-talked about deal turned into a reality. Ms Bhutto and her comrades have been quite evasive about this, their rhetoric often revealing the obvious contradiction in their approach. They would, for instance, promise to “struggle” against the military government and be part of the combined opposition and yet they would not categorically deny the deal rumours. The PPP became even more inclined towards a rapprochement when it found western support for such a move. As the western media has reported, the US and EU feel a PPP-army alliance could act as a bulwark against religious militancy in Pakistan and lead to political stability. This is too simplistic to be accepted, because, in spite of a PPP-army alliance, there is nothing to suggest that the opposition parties, especially the religious ones, will have less of street power than they have now.

Looking at it from the point of view of realpolitik, the PPP is behaving no differently from the way the APDM parties have in the past and would not mind doing so again if it served their interest. The religious parties now in the forefront of the opposition to President Musharraf’s government are exactly the ones which gave unqualified support to Gen. Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship, joined his cabinet, collaborated with him in his suppression of political dissent, signed on the dotted lines to disfigure the 1973 Constitution, and accepted him as president and army chief for 11 years. They also played a collaborative role in the passage of the 17th Amendment giving President Musharraf a five-year term. For Ms Bhutto it seems nothing matters more than the withdrawal of the cases instituted against her and her husband. If those cases are withdrawn, she will go along. Politicians the world over do not hesitate to sacrifice principles for power and pelf. This is truer of Pakistan. That is the reason why alliances have succeeded in the past in removing dictators, but they have never succeeded in giving the nation democracy.

Onto madressah reform

STATEMENTS alone do not change ground realities. Intent does not translate into results without action and follow-up, especially when the problem in question is deeply entrenched. Countering the rise of extremism and religious bigotry requires a strong will and honesty of purpose — qualities that are sadly not the hallmark of government in Pakistan. It is all very well for the prime minister to declare, as he did on Wednesday, that illegal activities in madressahs will not be tolerated. The question is: what specific steps is he planning to take to deliver on this promise? The government’s track record on this count is far from heartening. Over the years, seminaries promoting different schools of thought have become a breeding ground for religious militancy and intolerance. At the same time, some madressahs have been indoctrinating, training and arming militants for ‘jihadi’ activity, both within the country and beyond its borders. Given the resources and expertise of the state’s intelligence apparatus, it is unlikely that these “illegal activities” — including the stockpiling of heavy weaponry — went unnoticed all these years. An element of oversight, fortuitous or otherwise, cannot be ruled out. So what is going to be so different this time in the government’s approach?

Laws relating to madressah reform already exist in the form of ordinances at both the provincial and federal levels. The Madressah Registration Ordinance was promulgated in June 2002 but thousands of seminaries have yet to register themselves with the authorities. This process, which was to be completed by December 31, 2005, has to be expedited and must include every madressah, not just those receiving government funds. Madressahs should be bound by law to reveal their sources of funding and provide detailed annual accounts of their expenditure. In 2005, the government sent all the wrong signals by kowtowing to the Ittehad-i-Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Deenya and its refusal to divulge the identity of donors. That mistake cannot be repeated. Curriculum reform is also of singular importance. Besides religious instruction, the education of seminary students must include conventional subjects such as science, mathematics and English. Only then can they become well-rounded and productive members of society.

Men’s role in women’s health

IN a patriarchal society such as ours, little progress can be made on maternal health without the support of male family members. Appropriately then, the theme for this year’s World Population Day, observed on Wednesday, was “Men as partners in maternal health”. But such a slogan rings hollow in societies where decision-making by women is circumscribed to an extent where they are not even allowed a say in the number of children they want to bear. With an average fertility rate of 4.3 — greater in the rural areas — the number of children per woman is among the highest in the region. Early marriages, gender discrimination and poor accessibility to health and contraceptive services have complicated the issue for women whose destiny is decided by husbands, fathers, brothers and male community and religious leaders who formulate public opinion. Maternal mortality in the country is in the vicinity of 350 to 500 per 100,000 live births, indicating that reproductive health needs are largely ignored. Under such circumstances, it is essential to create an environment where women are encouraged to take decisions about the size of their families and men are urged to support them in their role as heads of families, breadwinners and managers of community resources.

How this can be achieved is another story. The task will be gargantuan no doubt, given the prevailing anachronistic notions on birth control and the perception of women as inferior beings. It will call for a total change in outlook, and the government will have to do all it can to lessen gender disparities and give women a more prominent role in decision-making. Religious and community leaders, too, can play their part as moulders of public opinion, and the relevant authorities should induct them in any campaign aimed at disseminating information about reproductive health.

Importance of knowledge

HAZRAT Adam, the first man, was gifted with Nur i.e. knowledge. It was this very Nur which made all the angels besides Iblis bow down to him. Iblis reasoned that since he was made of fire and Hazrat Adam was made of clay, it was impossible for the former to bow down to the latter.

His pride and refusal to obey God’s command made him one of the unbelievers. “And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: ‘Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth.’ They said: ‘Will you place therein those who will make mischief…while we glorify you…’He (Allah) said: ‘I know that which you do not know.’

He taught Adam all the names (of everything), then He showed them to the angels and said, ‘Tell me the names of these…’ The (angels) said: ‘…we have no knowledge except that which you have taught us…’ He said: ‘O Adam! Inform them of their names,’ and when he had…He said: ‘Did I not tell you that I know …what you reveal and what you are concealing?’.” (2: 30-33)

Kowledge has since time immemorial been crucial to man’s sustainable and productive existence and development. It not only serves to satisfy his innate curiosity but also steers the same towards a more constructive and beneficial course. This inevitably leads to research and invention which is part and parcel of his intellectual growth and personal achievements. Keeping in view its utility, earlier prophets were also blessed with the same: “And indeed we gave knowledge to Dawud (David) and Sulaiman (Solomon)…” (27: 15).

Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) was commanded to read when he was informed about his prophethood: “Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists). He has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught (the writing) by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not.” (96: 1-5).

The words read and pen have great significance as the two emphasise the need to be literate i.e. to be able to comprehend and put pen to paper. God has Himself sent us the Divine message in the form of the Holy Quran so that we may read, understand and obey the injunctions laid down in it: “…We have sent among you a Messenger (Muhammad) of your own, reciting to you Our verses (the Quran) and purifying you, and teaching you the Book (the Quran) and the Hikmah (i.e. Sunnah, Islamic laws and fiqh- jurisprudence), and teaching you that which you used not to know.” (2: 151)

The Holy Prophet has himself stressed the need to acquire knowledge. According to one hadith, the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) said: “It is obligatory for every Muslim to acquire knowledge. Allah likes those who seek knowledge”. At another place He said: “Allah opens the path of Paradise to one who takes a step on the path of acquisition of knowledge.”

The Holy Prophet was victorious in the Battle of Badr. Seventy people from the enemy’s side were taken prisoners. As they were all literate, the Prophet declared that if each of them taught ten children of Medina how to read and write, this would be treated as payment of ransom and they would then be set free. This incident goes to show the importance the Holy Prophet attached to literacy. Not only did he forego ransom in the form of money but also ignored the dangers of letting his enemies go free.

Islam also accommodates research. It realises that freedom to conduct the same is mandatory for improvement and progress. While residing at Medina after migrating from Makkah, the Holy Prophet once saw some people pollinating date palms. As dates were not grown in Makkah he was not familiar with the process and so inquired into the matter. When he was informed that they were pollinating the palms he stopped them from doing so. As a result, in the following year the date yield was very poor as compared to previous years. The Prophet asked as to why this was so and was informed that pollination was necessary for a good yield. He then admitted that the date growers knew more about this than he did and told them to resume pollination.

Islam not only stresses the need to acquire knowledge but also looks at the purpose for which it has been so obtained; therefore once acquired, it should be put to fruitful use for the benefit of others as well. The Holy Prophet once said: “He who learns for the sake of haughtiness, dies ignorant. He who learns only to talk, rather than to act, dies a hypocrite. He who learns for the mere sake of debating, dies irreligious. He who learns only to accumulate wealth, dies an atheist. And he who learns for the sake of action, dies a mystic.”

The true utility of knowledge lies in sharing the same. The Holy Prophet said: “The best monuments and legacies which a man leaves behind himself are a dutiful son, useful buildings, knowledge and wisdom which are benefited by the people after him.” At another time he said: “Whoever is asked about something but he hides it, Allah will put fire into his mouth in the hereafter.” According to another tradition, the ink of a scholar’s pen is more precious than the blood of a martyr. Thus procuring knowledge and imparting the same is of the essence in bringing about a truly literate society. “And surely, We have created many of the jinn and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherein they understand not, and they have eyes wherein they see not, and they have ears wherein they hear not…they are the heedless ones.” (7: 179).

Hazrat Ali Ibne Abu Talib once said: “Knowledge is better than wealth because it protects you while you have to guard wealth. It decreases if you keep on spending it but the more you make use of knowledge, the more it increases. What you get through wealth disappears as soon as wealth disappears but what you achieve through knowledge will remain even after you.”

While Europe was immersed in the Dark Ages, degradation of human intellect being rampant, superstition holding sway over logic, reasoning and rational explanations, the emergence of Islam brought with it the urge to explore and invent. Scientific activities were taken up at places like Baghdad, Kufa, Basra and Cairo. Muslim scientists contributed to the study of astronomy, medicine, mathematics, geography, etc.

For example, Abu Ali Sina, better known as Avicenna in the West, was the most learned physician who wrote the famous book ‘Al Qanun fil Tib’, which was the only textbook for medicine used in western universities for several hundred years. Similarly, Jabir Ibn Hayyan, known as Giber in the West is considered godfather of modern chemistry. He prepared important chemicals like nitric acid, sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid.

Further, scientists like Al-Kindi, Abul Wafa, Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Battani, Al-Ghazzali and Al-Farghani contributed in the study of mathematics, geometry, aljebra, trignometry, astronomy and geography respectively. Further, political philosophers like Ghazzali and Ibn Khaldun have left their mark in the field of political philosophy and have also in fact managed to influence western political thinkers. Ibn Khaldun’s immortal piece ‘Muqaddamah’ bore great influence on political philosophers like Montesqieu, Machiavelli, Adam Smith and Karl Marx.

The end of cheap food

THE era of cheap food is over. The price of corn (maize) has doubled in a year, and wheat futures are at their highest in a decade.

The food price index in India has risen 11 per cent in one year, and in Mexico in January there were riots after the price of corn flour (used in making the staple food of the poor, tortillas) went up fourfold. Even in the developed countries food prices are going up, and they are not going to come down again.

Cheap food lasted for only 50 years. Before the Second World War most families in the developed countries spent a third or more of their income on food (as the poor majority in developing countries still do). But after the war a series of radical changes, from mechanisation to the Green Revolution, raised agricultural productivity hugely and caused a long, steep fall in the real price of food. For the global middle class, it was the Good Old Days, with food taking only a tenth of their income.

It will probably be back up to a quarter within a decade, and it may go much higher than that, because we are entering a period when three separate factors are converging to drive food prices up. The first is simply demand. Not only is the global population continuing to grow (about an extra Turkey or Vietnam every year), but as Asian economies race ahead more and more people in those populous countries are starting to eat significant amounts of meat.

Early this month, in its annual assessment of farming trends, the United Nations predicted that by 2016, less than ten years from now, people in the developing countries will be eating 30 per cent more beef, 50 per cent more pig meat and 25 per cent more poultry. The animals will need a great deal of grain, and meeting that demand will require shifting huge amounts of grain-growing land from human to animal consumption –– so the price of grain and of meat will both go up.

The global poor don’t care about the price of meat, because they can’t afford it even now –– but if the price of grain goes up, some of them will starve. And maybe they won’t have to wait until 2016, because the mania for “bio-fuels” is shifting huge amounts of land out of food production. One-sixth of all the grain grown in the United States this year will be “industrial corn” destined to be converted into ethanol and burned in cars, and Europe, Brazil and China are all heading in the same direction.

The attraction of bio-fuels for politicians is obvious: they can claim that they are doing something useful to combat emissions and global warming (though the claims are deeply suspect), without actually demanding any sacrifices from business or the voters. The amount of US farmland devoted to bio-fuels grew by 48 per cent in the last year alone, and hardly any new land was brought under the plough to replace the lost food production. In other big bio-fuel producers like China and Brazil it’s the same straight switch from food to fuel. In fact, the food market and the energy market are becoming closely linked, which is very bad news for the poor.

As oil prices rise (and the rapid economic growth in Asia guarantees that they will), they pull up the price of bio-fuels as well, and it gets even more attractive for farmers to switch from food to fuel. Nor will politics save the day. As economist Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute told the US Congress last month: “The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world’s two billion poorest people.” Guess who wins.

Soaring Asian demand and bio-fuels mean expensive food now and in the near future, but then it gets worse. Global warming hits crop yields, but only recently has anybody quantified how hard. The answer, published in “Environmental Research Letters” in March by Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California and David Lobell of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is quite simple: for every 0.5C hotter, crop yields fall between three and five percent. So two degrees C hotter, the lower end of the range of predicted temperature rise in this century, means a twelve to twenty percent fall in global food production.

This is science, of course, so that answer could be wrong –– but it could be wrong by being too conservative. Last year in New Delhi, I interviewed the director of a think tank who had just completed a contract to estimate the impact on Indian food production of a rise of just two degrees C in global temperature.

The answer, at least for India, was 25 per cent. That would mean mass starvation, for if India were in that situation, every other major food-producing country would be too, and there would be no imports available at any price.

In the early stages of this process, higher food prices will help millions of farmers who have been scraping along on very poor returns for their effort because political power lies in the cities, but later it gets uglier.

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