Terms of reference
By Shahid Javed Burki
Tuesday, 10 Nov, 2009
HILLARY Clinton, the US secretary of state, has come and gone but her visit to Pakistan will reverberate for a long time. It may be useful at this stage to summarise what she was expected to accomplish in Pakistan.
If she was given some terms of reference they may have read something like this: ‘Madam Secretary, you know Pakistan well; you have visited the country before but this is your first visit as the senior-most diplomat in the administration of President Barack Obama. Your visit is of great importance for both the United States and Pakistan. The two countries need each other at this time. This was also the case when, on a number of previous occasions, Washington and Pakistan worked together.
‘This relation was always asymmetric, however. To a certain extent that is inevitable. We are a superpower with the world’s largest economy and with military strength that is unmatched by any other country. Pakistan is poor and even after more than 60 years of having achieved independence it is still attempting to define itself.
‘During your three-day stay you will attempt to achieve the following four objectives: the first one is to convince your audience in Pakistan that the Americans don’t have a quarrel with the Muslim world. Unlike his predecessor, President Obama is making a genuine effort to improve America’s relations with the world of Islam. He gave a major speech in Cairo in June this year explaining how he views the Muslim world and how much he appreciates the fact that the followers of the Islamic faith have made contributions to science and learning. ‘But that was in the past, 1,000 years ago. Over the last few decades — in particular since the terrorists attacked the United States on Sept 11, 2001 — a segment of the Muslim population has decided it prefers obscurantism to the accumulation of knowledge as its goal. There is ferment in the Muslim world. This has produced both despair among Muslims and extreme hostility towards the outside world on the part of the few who are trying to redefine their religion to take it back to medieval times. You will recall what Samir Kassir, the respected Lebanese scholar wrote in an essay in 2005: “It’s not pleasant being Arab these days. Feelings of persecution for some, self-hatred for others; a deep disquiet pervades the Arab world.”
‘He paid for his life for these words when he was gunned down on June 2, 2005. What he said about Arabs applies to most Muslims around the globe.
‘If this approach continues, the Muslim world will fall further behind. Pakistan has already been left behind other countries of Asia including India in its immediate neighbourhood. In comparing Pakistan’s situation with India’s, you will, of course be appropriately circumspect. Most Pakistanis remain suspicious of India’s intentions with respect to their country, remembering the harm India tried to do to Pakistan just as it was finding its feet after winning independence.
‘But that is more than 60 years ago. The situation has changed, especially over the last quarter century. Pakistan could benefit enormously by developing a close relationship with its large and now much more affluent neighbour.
‘The second issue you will need to deal with is also very important for Pakistan. Madam Secretary, you might want to focus on India-Pakistan relations during your brief stay in Pakistan. The United States will need to work on both countries to convince both policymakers that they should work to help rather than hurt each other. The Obama administration believes that this realisation has come to Islamabad but not to New Delhi. Once you have given that message to the Pakistanis we will follow it up with the Indians.
‘Third, you arrive in Pakistan at the time of a lively debate on the Kerry-Lugar bill that President Obama has signed into law. Most of the debate is focused on a misunderstanding of what the act purports. You know from the internal debate in the administration that we dealt with a number of concerns in putting together the bill. We were anxious to place our relations with Pakistan on a longer-term basis rather than on the achievement of our short-term strategic objectives. Pakistanis, unlike the Americans, have long memories. They remember how quickly we abandoned them once they had done our task of expelling the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. They were left holding the baby, including, most importantly, extremism.
‘We also wanted to shift our focus to economics rather than simply provide additional weapons to the military. This would be the first time that we will be dealing with a civilian government rather than the military while increasing the flow of our money to the country. At the same time we should keep in mind that the money we are providing is only a small fraction of the amount the country receives as remittances from its own citizens working and living abroad. This means that $1.5bn a year won’t provide us with the kind of leverage we had in earlier periods. We should not exaggerate about what we can purchase with the money on offer.
‘Fourth, Madam Secretary, you will run into a great deal of hostility towards the United States. This is not unique to Pakistan; it is shared by many other countries in the Muslim world. We don’t think we have made a serious attempt to study the reasons for this or to direct public policy towards bringing about changes in attitudes.
‘Our stance in the long-enduring Arab-Israeli conflict; the way we went into Iraq and conducted our operations there; the humiliation Muslims — in particular the young people of Pakistan — face in obtaining visas to travel to the US; the way we have obstructed the development of genuine democracy in Muslim countries, including Pakistan; and, in Pakistan’s case, our attempt to develop strong ties with India even though New Delhi is considerably less forthcoming are genuine reasons for discomfort concerning us.
‘These are rich terms of reference and you will not be able to accomplish all of this or much of this during three days. But we hope you will be able to make a start. Have a good stay in Pakistan.’