KARACHI, Jan 22: Apart from external threats, if internal issues such as widespread illiteracy, endemic corruption and rapid damage to the environment are not addressed, Pakistan would face a grim future as marginalised segments of the population would turn against the state.
This was the thrust of senior scholar Professor Shameem Akhtar’s lecture held on Thursday on the premises of the University of Karachi’s Area Study Centre for Europe (ASCE). He was speaking on the theme of ‘The evolution of the concept of national security and its contemporary interpretation.’
“Illiteracy itself is a threat, an internal threat. What will the marginalised do? They will resort to car-snatching and dacoities. In turn people will burn them. Lawlessness will become endemic. Insecurity is built into the present system. (The marginalised) are potential recruits for enemies of the country. As the number of malcontents increases, they will be drawn to insurgency and terrorism,” said Prof Akhtar, former head of KU’s International Relations department and the founder-director of the university’s Institute for European Studies, the ASCE’s predecessor.
The professor said at the outset of the lecture that he had a cynical approach towards the term security as it had turned into a cliché and was used by expansionist powers to forward their agendas. However, he said the concept of security was evolving and that initially, it was interpreted as the concentration of military power. But citing the recent defence policy ‘white paper’ released by the Chinese government, he said the economy ranked at the top as with economic growth, security would improve correspondingly.
The environment also constituted a threat to national security, Prof Akhtar said, citing the example of the Maldives, as the Indian Ocean island nation of atolls is in danger of being submerged by rising sea levels, caused by global warming. “The environment is important. There is an invisible, impersonal enemy in nature when tampered with by humans.”
Closer to home, the creeping threat of salinity and water-logging was eating away at arable land, which would result in less productivity and cause serious problems of food security, he added, while observing that an “iniquitous partition” by the British of the subcontinent had left India in control of most rivers that flow into Pakistan. “India can choke Pakistan’s water.”
Comparing corruption to Aids, Prof Akhtar said “Corruption embedded into our fabric is sapping at the very foundations of this state.”
‘Obama doctrine’
The professor also cautioned the audience about having high expectations from new US President Barack Obama. He criticised what he termed the ‘Obama doctrine’, saying that the superpower was in fear of “a primitive tribal community of this country, kept under-developed by the British and Pakistan.”
Discussing the alienation of the Federally Administered Tribal Area’s people, he slammed the Frontier Crimes Regulations, terming them a “Draconian law with no provision for human rights and no rule of law, enforcing collective punishment.” He said the FCR was the brainchild of George Curzon as he “carried the white man’s burden.”
“These people lack basic necessities. They have no access to even contaminated water. It has been like this for 60 years. This community is considered a threat. It is ridiculous. It is a pretext for intervention in this region as the Americans (think) their security spreads from the shores of the Atlantic to Central Asia,” said Prof Akhtar.
He said the press had praised Barack Obama to high heaven while the “naïve masses of the Third World consider him a saviour right next to Jesus Christ. I am shocked by this naïveté.”
Earlier, delivering her introductory address, ACSE director Prof Dr Naveed Ahmad Tahir said that national security was equally applicable to large nations as well as smaller states, adding that it could be traced back to the dawn of history, mentioning the examples of ancient Greece and Rome.
Prof Tahir said national security had taken more personal forms, such as the marriage of Caesar and Cleopatra, as well as Queen Victoria marrying off her children into the various royal families of Europe.
She concluded by saying that today’s global challenges could not be met through traditional means.