liberal disorder
i was just thinking about LUMS..actually i was thinking about higher education in pakistan when i realised how strong the penetration of the religious right in our education systems really is...they control Punjab university through the goonish IJT a student body that is the student wing of the jamaat-e-Islami.while thinking about lums i observed how so much of the faculty belongs to the tableeghi Ijtimah...in fact i recalled how the professors of Lums are actually educating the Ijtimah about sciences and stuff...which is good but thts not my point..the point im making is that politically apart from the last election the religious parties havent fared so well in our country...yet now i fear that its a matter of time before they take over...heres why....they are supremely organized and extremely focused on the whole....theyve got the soft spoken loving types and theyve got the hate spewing, gun totting types...they disagree amongst themselves but unite on one common objective that Pakistan was formed for islam...pakistan should have the shariah and by and large they alone know what islam's all about...zia-ul-haq's rule helped them alot...theyve got the blashphemy and hudood laws...theyve got text books to their liking...theyve got a hold over most if not all state run universities...but most importantly for the longest part theyve had little or no effective opposition...
the real point of this post was to examine the state of the progressive movement if you can call it tht...according to my parents and other elders of mine, pakistan was a place where most believed in live and let live..cinemas were good places for family entertainment...walking on streets was safe for both sexes and generally society as a whole was much more tolerant...the liberals found themselves on the slippery slope under bhutto's rule when one concession after the other was granted to the mullahs...they are no longer on tht slippery slope instead theyre at the very bottom of the pit flailing about aimlessly while the country figures out whther to follow them in the same pit or not...unlike the right, the left lacks clarity...many dont believe in Pakistan having bought into the ideology being spewed by the right...dejected and demoralised they rail against the very institution and person that might actually rehabilitate them and this country...the army and musharraf...now before everyone starts dismissing me aas a naive musharraf lover read me out...for most of the past century the left vs right deabte was about economics...command economy vs market economy.now the market economy stands victorious and as a result the left has changed its tune in the west...now the left vs right battle is about cultural and social values...sadly many on the left in this country are still stuck in the economic philosophical debate...the right/establishment in this country over the past few decades have changed the rules of the game....theyve made common Pakistanis feel affinity more for fellow muslims to the west than to india from which we were carved out...the liberals still frame the debate in context of india....some feel partition was wrong...some yearn for the same secular, democratic ideals of india...the last part is indeed noble yet utterly useless...for starters people care more for food and employment than representative government...secondly using india as an example to follow, rightly or wrongly isnt the best way to convince people...the only way the liberals can come out of the doldrums is to beat the mullahs at their own game...they can do this by being far sighted and losing the maximalist positions they hold so dear...piggyback onto the same establishment the mullahs used cos in this post 9/11 environment this might be possible.i say this cos in musharraf they have a military leader whose world view is pragmatic and progressive...doubting and dismissing him cos he hasnt made pakistan a beacon of prosperity overnight is foolish....if he had the support of most of the liberals he wouldnt need most of the PML(Q)...liberals doubt him cos they perceive him as someone who takes one step forward two steps back...like i said the society is where it is cos the right for the past 3 decades or so infiltrated and penetrated all walks of life...it'll take some time to reverse that...but the current situation isnt so rosy...with the PPP joining up with the MMA on a single point agenda to remove musharraf the real long term losers will be Pakistan and the liberals cos with musharraf out the slow process of unziafying the army will come to a halt and we'll be back to the situation on september10th,2001....final note to liberals...look at Turkey...its the establishment that is the guardian of the progressive,secular order in turkey...something to think about....everything does not have to be black and white
the real point of this post was to examine the state of the progressive movement if you can call it tht...according to my parents and other elders of mine, pakistan was a place where most believed in live and let live..cinemas were good places for family entertainment...walking on streets was safe for both sexes and generally society as a whole was much more tolerant...the liberals found themselves on the slippery slope under bhutto's rule when one concession after the other was granted to the mullahs...they are no longer on tht slippery slope instead theyre at the very bottom of the pit flailing about aimlessly while the country figures out whther to follow them in the same pit or not...unlike the right, the left lacks clarity...many dont believe in Pakistan having bought into the ideology being spewed by the right...dejected and demoralised they rail against the very institution and person that might actually rehabilitate them and this country...the army and musharraf...now before everyone starts dismissing me aas a naive musharraf lover read me out...for most of the past century the left vs right deabte was about economics...command economy vs market economy.now the market economy stands victorious and as a result the left has changed its tune in the west...now the left vs right battle is about cultural and social values...sadly many on the left in this country are still stuck in the economic philosophical debate...the right/establishment in this country over the past few decades have changed the rules of the game....theyve made common Pakistanis feel affinity more for fellow muslims to the west than to india from which we were carved out...the liberals still frame the debate in context of india....some feel partition was wrong...some yearn for the same secular, democratic ideals of india...the last part is indeed noble yet utterly useless...for starters people care more for food and employment than representative government...secondly using india as an example to follow, rightly or wrongly isnt the best way to convince people...the only way the liberals can come out of the doldrums is to beat the mullahs at their own game...they can do this by being far sighted and losing the maximalist positions they hold so dear...piggyback onto the same establishment the mullahs used cos in this post 9/11 environment this might be possible.i say this cos in musharraf they have a military leader whose world view is pragmatic and progressive...doubting and dismissing him cos he hasnt made pakistan a beacon of prosperity overnight is foolish....if he had the support of most of the liberals he wouldnt need most of the PML(Q)...liberals doubt him cos they perceive him as someone who takes one step forward two steps back...like i said the society is where it is cos the right for the past 3 decades or so infiltrated and penetrated all walks of life...it'll take some time to reverse that...but the current situation isnt so rosy...with the PPP joining up with the MMA on a single point agenda to remove musharraf the real long term losers will be Pakistan and the liberals cos with musharraf out the slow process of unziafying the army will come to a halt and we'll be back to the situation on september10th,2001....final note to liberals...look at Turkey...its the establishment that is the guardian of the progressive,secular order in turkey...something to think about....everything does not have to be black and white
posted by Jerry shah at 3:26 AM
4 Comments:
i apologise for the lack of coherence...this subject is something i think alot about.will try to be more coherent and concise next time around.
hello my "establishment darling!" thats my new nick for you. as for your post, I read it and read quite a bit, but then had too manythings to write back in response, so I thought I would wait, take a deep breath, and then start reading it and make detailed notes so that I can comment coherently .... so you shall have to wait till tomm for me, I am too fucking depressed after puddle cake, bc I also missed gym and got on the scale and weight is up one pound. can't believe I am one of those girls who is riddled with weight issues, but I think I am definitely getting there. UGHHHHH .... hate fatness, and this work has made me fat, tomm onwards, fuck work, just gym and swim. bye bye establishment darling
You addressed this debate once previously. I will probably be reitrating as well but I doubt they will take over and maintain the same mandate they have right now. Historically they have had to form coalition governments because their urban base limits the number of votes they can garner to form a full government. In most other countries Islamic parties with power have usually had to dilute their strict mandate because political expediency requires them to do it. The worst scenario I suppose is political Islamization with no breath of religon in the economic sphere. Which is not to say that at any point, their opposition will attract all sorts of people to back them if only in a reactionary mode. But if that is so, then the dictates of democracy support the majority's choice and that's what we've all been aiming for since 1947 nahi?
On a deviant note, it's curious and intuitive at some level I suppose how the whole Mathematics and Computer Science faculty at LUMS is mullah but the Economics and Social Sciences is at best agnostic.
the lums issue is simply fascinating...i agree with most of what ure saying moizza...but the international environment is changing...the iraq/afghanistan/palestine issues.cartoon controversies..these issues are contributing to muslims having a seige mentality..secondly if the mainstream parties come back to power and repeat the same nonsense again what alternative will be left..the drawback of democracy in countries where most of the pre requistes for democracy arent being met could potentially lead to such a situation arising..if free elections were held in egypt or most of the arab world for tht matter religious parties would sweep the elections.so to answer ure point of respecting the desires of the majority..i for one am not interested in the desires of the majority..infact im striving for the development and prosperity for the majority as quickly as possible...now how to go about it is a debate for another time.btw do u have any insights into the lums phenomenon as to why theres these two extrem camps and no middle ground and why in these particular fields?
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