http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/25/the-search-for-good-news.html
The search for good news By Abbas Nasir | From the Newspaper MILITARY courts in Bahrain have started handing down harsh punishments including life sentences to demonstrators who took to the streets earlier this year to call for democratic change in the small Gulf kingdom. Standing stripped of all political rights in Bahrain the Shia majority was clearly inspired by the `Arab Spring` which saw popular protests forcing the collapse of powerful autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. The United States and its allies, which ostensibly supported the uprisings once they were under way in the two North African countries and called on their leaders to bow to popular will, followed the same path in the third when protesters took to the streets. In fact, when the Libyan regime started a crackdown against the protesters, the UN Security Council was asked to quickly approve a resolution authorising the use of force to protect the civilian demonstrators from the `savagery` of the Qadhafi forces. As we speak, western powers and some of their Middle Eastern client states continue their air strikes against Libya in an unsuccessful effort to dislodge Muammar Qadhafi from power. Their mandate was to protect protesters who have made little headway despite receiving arms from the West and incognito special forces` support. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad`s stranglehold over power remains firm but there is considerable dissent manifesting itself on the streets. And the legendary brutality of the Syrian Baathist regime is often on display as dissent is dealt with firmly and summarily. The western world is rightly alarmed and calling for change. The peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain were slowly but surely eroding the authority of the king and, in full view of the world`s media, threatening to upset the status quo. At this stage, the yearning for democracy sweeping the Arab world appeared to have the potential to completely upset the power equilibrium in the region. We know what happened next. Thousands of heavily armed Saudi National Guard troops started to pour into Bahrain in their armoured carriers, flashing victory signs; a clampdown ensued, entire neighbourhoods were besieged and house-to-house searches initiated to round up dissidents in their hundreds. And then the sham trials conducted by the military. Sham because where else in the world would even doctors and nurses working in hospital emergencies be held to account for treating badly battered and bleeding demonstrators. So, where do we figure in all this? A client state of the West we may be but the only missions our air force is launching are against militant targets on our own soil and territory though often in lawless, ungovernable parts of the country. But we don`t have to use the air force where our navy can be equally effective. Yes, Pakistan Navy`s Bahria Foundation is recruiting ex-sailors to serve in the Bahrain security forces whose primary role is to ensure that dissent remains under wraps. Of course, we are so used to living on an ad hoc basis and are so bereft of vision that we don`t realise that repression can delay the inevitable and no more. Imagine how welcome and popular Pakistan/Pakistanis will be in Bahrain once change is a reality there rather than an aspiration. We don`t care. Voices of sanity can cry themselves hoarse but we won`t budge an inch. We are perfect. If anyone watched the (no doubt welcome for the hostages and their families) spectacle of the homecoming of the released crew of the (merchant vessel) MV Suez, they`ll know what`s meant by over-egging the pudding. The merchant ship was boarded by Somali pirates near the Horn of Africa in August last year and its 22-strong crew held hostage by them till ransom was paid earlier this month. The freed hostages among them Pakistanis, Indians, Egyptians and Sri Lankans were then picked up by PNS Babar. Babar was on patrol duty in the area as part of a multinational flotilla to check piracy as well as movement of terrorists and was first asked to supply and escort Suez once the pirates had left the ship. It picked up the crew after Suez became unserviceable and later transferred them to PNS Zulfiqar for the final leg of the voyage to Karachi. If we saw the story being told on our inimitable TV channels and the drama unfolding we wouldn`t have been at fault had we mistaken it for a great naval victory; the sinking of an enemy armada; the wiping out of the entire maritime wing of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan(if they had one). No doubt it was a great human interest story, a tale of endurance and the happy ending made it greater, sweeter. In my column last week, I pegged hope in the country and its future to unsung acts of heroism in their thousands. But here everyone was singing praises of heroism which wasn`t. The media-savvy human rights activist, who contributed in no uncertain terms to a peaceful end to the saga, talked to TV channels often, heaping praise on the naval chief Adm Noman Bashir and ISI DG Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, without really explaining how exactly they had played a `decisive role` in the affair. Yes, we are desperate for good news, for a feel-good factor. And good news the release of the hostages was. Beyond that the contrived bits serve little or no purpose. A steady trickle, a drip, drip of reports of sympathy for extremists among the ranks of the general staff has started. Given the size of the officer corps, one cannot say it anywhere nears a deluge yet but it still makes one sit up in concern. Let`s first acknowledge this threat is real and also admit our own policies have contributed to it in no uncertain terms. Then perhaps we`ll begin to deal with it in the right earnest. And there won`t be better news than that. The writer is a former editor of Dawn. abbas.na...@hotmail.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
