A nation on trial

Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
20 August, 2010
Calamities bring out the best and the worst in a nation just as they do in individuals. As the greatest calamity in Pakistan's history unfolds, both extremes are manifesting at various levels: from the vulgar display of a palace called La Manoir De La Reine Blanche in Cannes, France, by a runaway president to the hurriedly made, disaster-relief camps for photo-op for the prime minister and from the verbosity of politicians, attempting to make up for the non-existent state machinery to deal with the disaster to the little policeman seeking bribes in the remote Swat valley for allowing the aid to pass -- we have it all in the land where most people believe that these floods are in fact a punishment, although they differ on the crime they have committed.

But the other side of the nation on trial is equally remarkable: there are individuals as diverse as a lecturer in the history department of the Punjab University who is out there in the field with his team, helping the old and the sick cross over the gushing waters, to a medical doctor living in Canada but feeling the pain of his country's worse disaster and organising a fundraiser and all possible shades in between. This is the Pakistani nation.

Failed politicians, corrupt and incompetent rulers and self-appointed saviours of this nation have done little to break the backbone of this strange nation. Strange, for there is no other nation in the world like it, a nation that has no reason to exist as a separate entity, except for its religion but that very same religion has been so maligned that many Pakistanis have lately started to live in denial of their raison d'etre. Strange also, because it is a nation that refuses to vanish even in the face of worst disasters and calamities. Rocked by earthquakes, plundered by corrupt rulers, shaken by unending mismanagement and misrule, but still breathing, still facing the gushing waters. What is the source of this strength, if not something utterly beyond the rational calculations?

Waters will surely recede and mercy will return, for such is the divine promise: He wrote it upon Himself that My Mercy shall prevail over My wrath, we are told by none other than the Prophet of Mercy. But what of this nation in denial and on trial? What will follow the receding waters? That is the question.

The calamity brings out the best and the worst in a nation but calamities are not everlasting; they come and go, leaving behind a residual memory which lingers. Those who pay attention to calamities learn; those who are dumbfounded by them remain immune to any change for their own good. Will the nation now on trial learn something from this greatest of all tragedies that has befallen upon it? That is the question.

The lecturer of the history department will return to his home after doing what he was able to, but the expatriate doctor, who has raised 2.5 million dollars in two hours from a gathering of 1,400 Pakistanis attending a fundraiser in Edmonton last Tuesday does not even know how to use this money for the benefit of those whose homes, crops, animals and belongings have been lost in the gushing waters; such is the state of bankruptcy of the system; such is the level of distrust.

It is no wonder international assistance is slow in coming. When the 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, and affected an estimated three million people, the international community responded to that disaster (in which an estimated 230,000 people died, 300,000 were injured and 1,000,000 became homeless) in a manner that makes its response to Pakistan's disaster seem utterly callous: by April 9, that is within three months, the international community had put together $15 billion for Haiti! Four billion dollars of that $15 billion came from NGOs and charities, including $66 million raised by record-breaking "Hope for Haiti Now telethon"; $1.019 billion was given by U.S. tax dollars through USAID; $1.15 billion came as US tax dollars (for future redevelopment); and $8.75 billion for redevelopment from non-US countries and world bodies.

Compare this to US response to Pakistan's disaster! And then compare what the Pentagon spends per month in Afghanistan: it spent $6.7 billion dollars in February 2010 in Afghanistan (this was then compared to $5.5 billion it spent in Iraq)! On an average, the US monthly bill for Afghanistan is over $5 billion. And what has it given to Pakistan! A nation that has suffered so much for the American aggression in Afghanistan!

A nation on trial needs to learn certain basic lessons and reorient itself. Enough is enough. Enough of the corrupt rulers and American lackeys.

American response or no response, what is really true is that this nation can survive the worst calamity of its history entirely on its own, that is, as far as the human domain is concerned. This is the most wonderful aspect of the Pakistani nation. When struck with a calamity of this magnitude, it has shown that the care and the sharing, the generosity and the bigheartedness of this nation is really exemplary. The problem of this nation is simple enough: it has no leader it can trust and it is herd of a nation that cannot go anywhere without a leader!



The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com