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Old Sunday, May 05, 2013
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Default Where is Malala?

Where is Malala?
By Ghazi Salahuddin

One high point of my visit to South Korea just over a week ago was a telephonic conversation with Malala Yousafzai. It happened while I was in a car in Seoul’s rush hour traffic. But why should I be focusing on this apparently insignificant incident at this crucial moment, when elections are only six days away and terrorist violence is stalking through the electoral campaign in some parts of the country?

In the first place, I think that Malala must figure in the story of what is happening to us. Watch closely and in the back of the glory of a teenage girl’s face you may decipher deep shadows in which the Taliban lurk menacingly. And to be sure, the Taliban are voting in this election with their bombs and guns. Or is it that some parties are unwittingly voting for the Taliban?

In that sense, the big question is whether Malala and what she represents can prevail in a country overwhelmed with confusion about what a ‘naya’ Pakistan is meant to be. Malala is also a warrior in a historic contest. Is it our war or someone else’s?

Yes, it is only by chance that I am able to make this beginning and use Malala as a metaphor for a deadly clash of ideas. So I need to explain why I was in South Korea and how I came to speak to Malala. The visit to Seoul was sponsored by Pildat to study and understand the evolution of democratic oversight of defence and the nature of civil-military relations in a country that, in the near-forgotten times of late fifties and early sixties was often compared with Pakistan.

Anyhow, in a delegation of otherwise some very distinguished individuals, Saleem Safi and I were the media component. The two of us had a meeting with two female Korean journalists who couldn’t stop talking about Malala and wondered if we knew her. Incidentally, Saleem Safi knows the family well. So he immediately called Ziauddin, Malala’s father. Unfortunately, Malala was in school – and going to school in Birmingham would pose no threat to her life.

I was also able to speak to Ziauddin and he was kind to recall my columns on Malala. The next day, while our ambassador Shaukat Mukadam was taking the two of us to a television channel, Ziauddin’s call came and that is how I was able to speak to Malala. The content of our conversation is not important. I just had to pay my tribute to a very young woman who is a symbol of courage and hope for Pakistan.

That conversation made me think about why we, in Pakistan, have almost forgotten Malala at a time when she has earned so much esteem for Pakistan. We should be proud of what she is and what she represents. Only two weeks ago, she was on Time magazine’s cover as one of the 100 most influential people of the world. She is set to address the United Nations on her next birthday in July and she is writing a book – I Am Malala – that seems certain to become a best-seller.

All these accolades would obviously not go well with the Taliban and others who support the Taliban worldview without often being conscious of this ideological linkage. They look at it as a western conspiracy. It was a Taliban assailant who shot Malala in the head and they later argued that she, a girl who just wanted to go to school, actually deserved to die.

Be that as it may, there is a lot of stress on education in the electoral campaign and Geo as well as some other organisations have launched a massive drive to urge the people to “vote for education”. But at least I have not seen any mention of Malala. Her face, which tells a compelling story, does not appear in television promos or on billboards. Political leaders do not refer to her in their speeches. I think it tells a lot about who we are and how we wish to deal with a national crisis.

I remember the shock that the nation had initially suffered when a murderous attack on Malala and her two friends was made in Swat in October 2012. It was something that could have changed the course of history if our rulers had immediately launched an operation against the militants, who have always opposed education for girls and were bombing schools with apparent impunity.

Sadly, that act of infamy did not become a catalyst for change. On the other hand, the Taliban and their supporters, with unthinking support from the popular media and the news channels, were able to confuse the entire issue. I was at the Children’s Literature Festival held in Peshawar in November and was shocked to find a number of students classifying Malala as an enemy of Pakistan. That only means that Pakistan is not yet a safe country for its girls to go to school.

It breaks your heart to see that political leaders do not seriously engage with this and similar issues. In its final phase, the campaign is not only more frenzied but also more trivial. The ‘bazari’ level to which some top leaders have stooped is surprising. If this is what electoral politics is all about then where is the hope for any meaningful change in the affairs of Pakistan?

This sometimes seems so surreal also because a political campaign and a wave of terror are running in tandem. Friday was another bad day when a National Assembly candidate of ANP and his four-year-old son were gunned down in Karachi. Headlines were made across the globe when special public prosecutor of the FIA was ambushed by gunmen in Islamabad. Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali was investigating the murder of Benazir Bhutto and the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

We seem to have become apathetic towards such tragedies. In spite of all the assurances that come from Chief of Army Staff General Kayani and other high functionaries, nobody seems to be willing to take any decisive action. Perhaps no one is in effective control. That is how the attack on Malala did not become a game-changer. Has the Pakistani establishment sold its soul to the extremists and the militants?

As for the symbol that Malala is, that conversation with her while I was in South Korea was also relevant to what we can learn from a country that has made phenomenal progress in its journey from a military dictatorship to a modern democracy. In its times of trouble, South Korea devoted its attention to primary education, mainly for the girls. But we refuse to learn from other countries. That, perhaps, is the ideology of Pakistan.

The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail. com
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