William Dalrymple on Pakistan
William Dalrymple on anything is a much-anticipated event in Reihanland, but “A New Deal in Pakistan” — this is even better than usual, not least because he’s tackling a a badly misunderstood subject, namely the relative weight of religious extremism and middle-class liberal reformism in the politics of contemporary Pakistan, with great clarity and intelligence. Given the depth of ignorance and seemingly deliberate obtuseness that prevails in the Western press (Dalrymple calls out the right-wing press in particular, which strikes me as needlessly narrow) when it comes to Pakistan, Dalrymple has a lot of heavy lifting to do, and of course he doesn’t touch on everything, and he’s slightly more sanguine about, for example, the Awami National Party than perhaps he should be. But by any standard Dalrymple’s essay goes beyond useful corrective and into the terrain of essential reading. And it’s not all business: the piece is beautifully written, and it is full of surprising details (e.g., the cities are teeming with foxy models — reason enough to brave crazed Taliban irregulars, or not).
When I say we get Pakistan wrong, I mean we get it so wrong that the reflexively anti-American Tariq Ali is one of the sounder authorities on the subject.
In fact, the threat of a jihadi takeover of Pakistan is remote. There is no possibility of a takeover by religious extremists unless the army wants one, as in the 1980s, when General Zia-ul-Haq handed over the Ministries of Education and Information to the Jamaat-e-Islami, with dire results. There are serious problems confronting Pakistan, but these are usually ignored in Washington, by both the administration and the financial institutions. The lack of a basic social infrastructure encourages hopelessness and despair, but only a tiny minority turns to jihad.
Here is one of my favorite Ali moments, from his reflections on Bhutto’s assassination.
In 1968, when a right-wing, pro-military rag in Lahore published an attack on me, it revealed that I ‘had attended sex orgies in a French country house organised by [my] friend, the Jew Cohn-Bendit. All the fifty women in the swimming-pool were Jewish.’ Alas, this was totally false, but my parents were amazed at the number of people who congratulated them on my virility.
Speaking of which, I’ve been reading a brilliant history of the Bin Ladens and … let’s just say Cohn-Bendits of the world had nothing on the Sauds.
I was a 60’s Peace Corps Volunteer in West Pakistan-near Lahore. Also involved in emergency earthquake response in northern Pakistan in 2005. (And construction engineering management in Afghanistan 2002-3.)
Our involvement along with NGO industry is key that “encouraged hopelessness and despair of local social infrastucture”. It’s a shame the resultant inflated cost for building schools, etc. is far more especially then small communities and the $2-$3/day incomes can support. International aid and it’s inflation high operational cost/high-$500 to $1200/day – salaried staff has raised the bar well beyond what the small communities can afford and need. $20,000 would build a good girls school where now it takes $200,000. Who are we trying to help??
— ken choquette · Mar 24, 09:53 AM · #
Dalrymple’s piece is provocative and definitely a must read. Its always worth reminding people in the west that though both countries have regular bombings, Pakistan is nothing like Iraq.
However I think he is a touch too optimistic. I remarked to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago that the best case scenario for Pakistan would be to become like Israel i.e having economic and political progress which is resilient to bombings and attacks by radicals.
Unfortunately Pakistan is still a long way away from that ‘ideal’. Democracy in the 1990’s was a failure – although Dalrymple rightly highlights a new breed of politician emerging, the leaders are still the same and there is no guarantee of success.
Btw, models and fashion designers aren’t anything new. They’ve always existed in Pakistan and are largely confined to elite culture with no relevance to the majority. (although I guess you could say the same thing about America).
A couple of pieces well worth reading.
http://www.chapatimystery.com/archives/homistan/the_benazir_they_knew.html
(on the media’s reaction to Benazir)
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/01/critical_digres.html
(a couple of years old, but preempts a lot of what Dalrymple says)
— shariq · Mar 24, 01:56 PM · #