NATO and Pakistan

The major cities of Pakistan were set ablaze by huge demonstrations with protestors chanting slogans such as “Quit the war on terror.” Viewed by the nation as yet another radical violation of its sovereignty, the loss of 24 soldiers near the Pakistan-Afghanistan last Saturday inflamed a nation already irate with its government’s utter subordination to the US.

This rage was conveyed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, and to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey by Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

According to military spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas, the encounter continued for two hours, during which calls to NATO to put an end to this atrocity were ignored. Correspondingly, Islamabad has deliberated ending its diplomatic ties with US and halting all US supply lines from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s stance is now being supported by China, with the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi confirming that China would “firmly support Pakistan’s efforts to defend its national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Calling the NATO assault as a “serious incident,” he urged that it “should be thoroughly investigated and be handled properly.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government remains adamant that such events rightly ignite the population and discourage them against supporting the ‘War on Terror.’ Nonetheless, Gilani has been very sheepish and ambivalent in his comments, stating that relations “could continue to be based on mutual respect and mutual interest.” He added that he would await recommendations from the Pakistani Parliament’s National Security Committee.

The US on the other hand is covertly enlisting Pakistani cooperation in negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban. It can be assumed therefore that the US tolerance of Pakistani ties with networks, such as the Haqqani, is because it needs Pakistan to help the US tame the formidable resistance to its bloody occupation next door.

Nevertheless, the US and Pakistan enjoy a considerably ambiguous relationship in this regard, ranging from the US employment of Pakistan as a proxy during the 1980s to support the mujahideen against the former USSR, to forming an alliance with Pakistan to hunt down the same mujahideen, now operating as the Taliban and so-called Al Qaeda.

Provided Islamabad proceeds with the curtailment of NATO supplies into Afghanistan, Pakistan-US relations will experience yet another jolt of volatility, as more than half of NATO supplies find their way into Afghanistan via Pakistan. Pakistani claims of doing so are fuelled by incredible fear amongst the political establishment of being confronted by the opposition and corresponding vengeance of its masses. With Pakistanis already up in arms by the Raymond Davis incident and Osama execution, such fears are rational and, more importantly, central in the context of the country’s political turmoil.

Adding further to the list of fears is the government’s insecurity regarding the army. Also fed up with US heavy-handedness, the army has made no efforts to conceal the disgust it feels with the current political shenanigans of empire and their local collaborators, and of course we're supposed to forget the Pakistani military's central role in creating and sustaining such a neo-colonial relationship. 

Political-Murder versus religiously inspired murder: the clash of two thoughts

Newspapers today abound with news in which doubts are raised by various political agents and political analysts over the confession of the killer of Salman Taseer. In his confession, the accused cites his religious convictions as the motive for the act. On the other hand, critics argue that the roots of this murder run deeper than the obvious and call it a “political murder”.

Can a murder motivated by religious conviction not be a political act? For an action to be political does it have be expressed and spoken in a particular language or do all human aspects contain the characteristic of being political? Is political a terrain of a specific language and vocabulary, where political expressions have to subscribe to certain rules and laws?

For the last two questions, if we assume that the political is a specific language (excluding every element outside of the set of the political as non-political), then the implication of it for human society and political institutions can be imagined to be tragic. If the political is to vote yes and no to the propositions presented by a bureaucrat, then every spatial and social organization, except the site of voting, is de-politicized. Popular politics occur not even at the office of the bureaucrat but only at the site of the voting booth (the adjective popular is a deliberate insertion to separate the politics of deliberation over the proposition by the bureaucrat from the politics of acceptance and rejection by the popular voice or subject population).

In the science-fiction movie “Matrix”, the only politics available to Neo was to choose between the two pills. Every other political choice was taken for him by the machines when there was an illusion of choice for Neo. The result of whatever choice he takes, except choosing between the pills, would be pre-determined by the machine as well.  

For there to be dialogism (idea developed by Paulo Friere in his thought on radical pedagogy. It is different from dialogue. As opposed to a dialogue, it advocates cultural synthesis of the oppressed and oppressor for human liberation for both of these social classes) between the forces of antagonism at the social level and at the level of the community rising up to the institutions of social organization (for example modern state and parliament as its concrete expression), politics should be recognized at every spatial and social space. Every discourse and every idea should be allowed a dialectics (understood here as the connection between objective events and to the method of knowing and fixing these events) of development, confrontation and expression in the space of the political.

For the politicians to call the murder of the Governor of Punjab as “political” as opposed to motivated by religious convictions, excludes the discourse and language of religion from politics. The element of religion either exists in the set of theological understandings or outside the set of the political. The politics of discourse and its exclusion of religion from the murder of Salaman Taseer reflects the basic vacuum in Pakistani politics. The sphere of the religious is not understood and read as political. The political touches but dares not enter the terrain of the religious.

For as long as this binary exists (commonly thought of as the separation of Church and State. However, “Political Theology” as academic discipline argues that even the basic tenets of liberal thought such as Human Rights emerge from and retain the language of Christian theology – as secular theology), the definition of the religious shall be undertaken by social organizations commonly labeled as “religious extremists”. As Carl Schmitt argued more than half a century ago, liberalism by its very functioning produces its own nemesis. Similarly, the liberal thought in Pakistan by producing an artificial binary is producing political forces which define the religious as violence to the liberal thought.

The death of a Prince and the post-modern condition of knowledge in Pakistan: Notes on the televised death of Salman Taseer

Salaman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, the Machivalliean Prince of Punjab’s politics and the Prince of media, accountancy and other industries – by yordinary understanding of Prince as related to wealth – was  killed yesterday by his own guard. The official narrative of the incident by the Federal Government of Pakistan talks of a murder inspired by religious conviction. According to this narrative the guard’s motive for murder emerges from the remarks by the Governor against the Muslim blasphemy laws (Section 195 – C of Pakistan Penal Code).

The media has become a battleground of discourses, dominated by the liberal voice of ‘civil society,’ in which the media tries to locate itself. The secular, liberal and tolerant voice of civil society is pitted against the irrational, operating-beyond-the-structure-of-law voice of religious fundamentalism. This debate merges into the global confrontation between the “War of Terror” and the “War on Terror”.

However, how accurate is the popular narrative trumpeted by the media and what limits of accuracy can it hope to reach and touch? Pakistan presents to us the post-modern condition of knowledge. Knowledge in Pakistan is what Lacan refers to as the slipping signifier. There is no center or absolute understanding of knowledge. Knowledge is understood within a specific code and the realm of the symbolic, with socially constituted rules of understanding and grammar. To give such knowledge the status of absolute shall construct a reality of “sand castle’’ in full reach of the tides of counter-discourses.

The murder of Salman Taseer exposes this state of knowledge to us (like other recent incidents, i.e. the responsibility for bombings in Pakistan, the sudden appearance, disappearance and survival of the Taliban, etc). The political analysts and media anchors are searching for a meta-narrative to explain the death and make it palpable to the ordinary subscribers of media. All in all it is viewed as two alternate voices of ethics (legally construed) battling each other over the body of the Governor of Punjab.

But if we wait and scan the socio-political horizon and change the code, then the meaning of the death changes significantly. The death in the symbolic realm of the political, will change significance from one ”language game” to another. Conspiracy theories abound the popular construction of the death due to the uncertainty in the language of knowledge. The conspiracy theories blame the residents of Raiwind Palace to the ever so present role of agencies. America and the Presidential figure also emerge as suspects to gain from the death, in the popular cultural.

However, this popular cultural construction of the death resonate away from the code of civil society and media politics. The grammar of media only speaks upon the presentation of facts as constructed and understood by the language of state-legality (state-legality here represents the code of legality, of which the examples can be the defamation ordinance, PEMRA Ordinance, etc). However, the presence of one discourse by no means excludes the possibility of another discourse or being placed on a higher pedestal in relation to other popular discourses.

To sum up, the act of murder of th Governor of Punjab reveals to us again that knowledge in Pakistan keeps shifting meaning from one language game to another. The politics of Pakistan has no center and hence no meaning. Knowledge differs in different social contexts and social sites. The political anchorage given to knowledge shall be be spatially constructing knowledge in the form of a Commission Report. This represents to us a politics and a political culture working upon limited knowledge and working with a reality constructed and viewed by such limited knowledge.

Bombs in Egypt and Resistance to Empire

The devastating bomb attack on the Coptic Christian community that took place this Saturday in Egypt once again reminds us of what the ‘costs’ can be of ongoing conflict in the region. Yes, it is indeed regional and it is indeed geopolitical – despite the simplistic description of such occurrences as ‘mindless’ acts of anti-modern barbarians.

As barbaric and heinous as these acts are, they need to be understood as a consequence (arguing whether they are a ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ consequence is really a useless exercise) of the destructive political machinations of the most powerful and violent actors in the region, namely Israel and the United States.

From criminal wars of occupation to ongoing dispossession, from drone and B-52 bomb attacks to support for one tyranny after the other, these two imperialist national security states have wreaked havoc in the region.

And therefore, one shouldn’t always expect such ugly invasions, occupations, and outright murder to produce the most beautiful, pristine, angelic forms of resistance. Which is why resistance in the region, mainly coming in the form of political Islamist groups today, sometimes pathetically does fall in the trap of confusing genuine resistance to imperialism and the local corrupt state as synonymous with a project of targeting religious minorities, Muslims (especially women) who seem to be losing ‘traditional’ values (like no longer wearing the hijab), and so on.

While it is important to unequivocally repudiate such an approach by some Islamists, it is far more important to point out a simple fact: the policies of Israel are the biggest threat to the well-being and survival of Jews in the region, and the policies of the United States are the biggest threat to the well-being and survival of Christians in the region.

This should be a truism that all those who make policy should know. Unfortunately, the powerful forces making policy in the US and Israel aren’t really concerned with abstract and insignificant issues like survival. They are obsessed with domination and hegemony, no matter what the costs to the peoples of the region or to their own societies in perhaps not so distant a future.  

The War We’re Waging Against Women

Despite the trend moving towards excepting domestic violence against women as wrong , the actual prevention and punishment of such violence is a far dream that is being seen only by a few organisations and indivisuals that actually tackle the issue of violence against women and children in a country which chooses to turn a blind eye , pretending that if one doesn’t see something it really is not occurring – I suppose it’s a good thing that Pakistan is famous for carpet weaving , it ensures enough carpets to sweep allt he filth under and allow offenders to go free.

The data looks bleak;  as reported 75,039 cases of violence against women have been reported in the last 9 years while 13,972 women have been murdered. About 17,107 women have been subjected to torture and 452 women were raped and then murdered.

The major causes of violence are listed as the lack of education, poverty and a feudal mindset. As though a feudal mindset is not bad enough for forcing it’s oppressive regimes on those perceived to be of lower castes or non-land owners it also is one the spokes that turns the wheels of abuse. Pakistan’s power dynamics ensure that people all know their places and dare not attempt to change them.

The sad part is the most common perpetrators of both domestic violence and honour killings are  relatives , which begs the question who will step in to protect, save and change the cycle?  

I also find myself asking if it is not just a small attempt by the powerless to exercise power over those who have none or is it the sheer anger at our impotence in the face of the corruption of our own governement and the imperialist governments of the west imposing their will on us?

(source: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Karachi/20-Jan-2010/Domestic-violence-at-alarming-level-report)

Obama's Iraq Exit Strategy

Not Another High Terror Alert

With intense pressure from the Americans, various European governments were forced to accept the claim that an Al Qaeda terrorist plot was brewing inside their borders. The only source of this information -as usual- was the US government. Strangely enough neither the European, nor the Pakistani governments (from whose country it was claimed these terrorists would be originating), could independently support such a claim. Yet the Europeans -possibly grumbling a bit in the process- once again submitted to their mafia don across the Atlantic. It's like a movie shoot on the hundredth take. The bad Muslims are coming ... run for the hills!

Meanwhile, it's becoming clearer to all thinking and at this stage even unthinking people that this was most likely a fraud. The Obama Administration was trying to minimize its increasing level of brutality and murder in the Af-Pak, caused mostly by its dramatic escalation of almost daily drone attacks into Pakistan. And of course the “terror scare,” now a perfected tactic of the US government well into the 9th year of its war OF terror, will be a great justification for the increase in the killing fields in our part of the world.

Because the Pakistanis who stopped the vital NATO supply lines recently, and a Karzai government overly keen (according to the Americans) on making a deal with the Taliban in order to stop the violence, should know that if they get in the world’s biggest warlord’s way in its project of maintaining and expanding its military-corporate empire, they will be crushed. Fortunately, the emperor’s clothes are being forcibly pulled off, and its limits at exerting its naked power are being checked by a formidable resistance on the ground.

There's no such thing as a free lunch!

So the US and NATO officials finally had to apologize to the Pakistanis for the deaths of Pakistani frontier troops by US helicopter gunships. While it is quite a feat to get these global hegemons to apologize about anything, least of all their own brutal and deadly conduct, it’s important to note why they did so. As the old saying goes, ' there is no such thing as a free lunch'. They did so because the Pakistani establishment halted the crucial supply lines going from Pakistan to Afghanistan – which comprise 70% of all of US-NATO supplies in Afghanistan. The Pakistani establishment was thus killing the lifeline of the Western occupation of Afghanistan.

And while the US-NATO continue to drag along their vicious and asinine occupation, and unashamedly expand their war into Pakistan, it’s important to see the visible signs of weaknesses where they exist. For most of the post-World War II era, it would’ve been impossible for the US political and military leadership to make such apologies, to be so deferential to its client and mercenary states/armies throughout the (third) world. The US is getting weaker and weaker. It continues, even under the “peace candidate” Obama, to rely on military force to resolve its increasing global economic and geo-strategic decline.

Sadly for them, no matter how superior the US firepower from 50,000 feet may be, at the end of the day, you need boots on the ground to control the natives. And for the most part, those US and NATO boots are being forced to regret ever leaving their homelands for these societies that increasingly detest their presence, and are fiercely resisting it.

Pakistani intelligence agencies will as usual be the fall guy for the massive incompetence and arrogance of the Firangi. And their imperial project will suffer because of it.

Small Victory Big Loss

My best friend signed me up for this blog a long time ago and I have been waiting ever since for a moment of inspiration, a sign or someone to write for me...

Today, however, struck me as a good day to start because often there is just bad news, but yesterday in Pakistan a small victory and a huge loss came back to back and gave me the sign I needed to get blogging.

US-NATO forces have been breaching the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan for months and last week they even killed 3 Pakistani military personel. The Pakistani government as usual when dealing with its Western overlords did sweet nothing,until, according to word on the street, the military pressured the government into acting. Subsequently, US supply routes to bases in Afghanistan have been closed.

A small victory indeed but for ordinary Pakistanis enough hope to realis\ze that it’s still possible to show the US the middle finger when it goes too far – as indeed it has in its relationship with Pakistan since at least the 1950s. 

As for the loss... there are many liberals and progressives who sit in their homes, in their elite areas and write about 'the people' and what they lack., There are very few of these activists who actually live among the people and challenge their perceptions yet remain their brothers in religion. It is with the utmost sadness that Pakistan bade farewell to one of its most dedicated sons, Dr. Farooq Khan, of Mardan, this past Saturday. I may not have agreed with all of his religio-political views, but he was someone who was not afraid to voice his progressive religious views in his homeland of Pakhtunkhwa, and most importantly, did not flee when many others did. What his assassination has once again demonstrated is that the real threat to powerful and reactionary forces in society does not come from disconnected, rootless Westoxifcated intelligentsia, but from those that speak the language – and are closer to the pulse – of the people..