Dawn Editorials (with Summary and Vocabulary)
DAWN EDITORIALS
February 20, 2024 (Tuesday)
Nation of soldiers
Summary
Israel:
- Became a "nation of
soldiers" despite historical lack of experience.
- Has high
literacy, science, and technology, and strong democratic institutions.
- Practiced
ethnic prejudice against Palestinians (unwritten apartheid).
- Achieved
military success due to short wars and strong mobilization.
- Currently
engages in a "genocidal war" against Gaza.
Arab countries:
- Cannot replicate Israel's
model due to lack of necessary fundamentals.
- Should
learn from Israel's sense of societal equality and military efficiency.
Other:
- Author criticizes Western
powers for enabling Israel's actions.
- Calls for
an end to the violence in Gaza.
Article
WITHIN a short time after the founding
of Israel, a persecuted people who had never warred [engage in a war] became “a
nation of soldiers”. As historians Edward Luttwak and Dan Horowitz write in
their book, The Israeli Army,“two ex-generals drove garbage trucks in Tel Aviv
and famed scientists sorted the mail in [occupied] Jerusalem” during the 1973
Ramazan war.
I am, of course, wrong when I say that the Jews had “never
warred”. Over the course of 2,000 years of life in Europe, it was impossible
for the Jewish people not to serve in their countries’ armed forces. They were
in the German army too — even in the Wehrmacht — and earned the coveted Iron
Cross, though their Nazi detractors [who
tries to take away from the quality, value, or reputation of someone or
something; critic] claimed they served only for the
record and withdrew from the army quickly on one pretext or another. There were
Jewish officers in Luftwaffe, including air marshal Erhard Milch, Hermann
Goering’s deputy, who rebuilt the German air force after World War I. Goering,
like Hitler ignored the fact that Milch was of Jewish heritage and once
remarked: “I decide who is a Jew!”
As history shows, ‘nations of soldiers’ pillaged their
neighbours but ultimately destroyed themselves. Can any Arab country follow
Israel and become a nation of soldiers? Frankly, no, because no Arab country
has the fundamentals needed for a state to become a nation of soldiers. Israel
has universal literacy, science and technology of a kind second to none in the
world, a pool of scientists and technocrats of the highest order, and
well-established democratic institutions.
This democracy, of course, openly flaunts [display (something) ostentatiously, especially in order to provoke
envy or admiration or to show defiance] its ethnic
prejudices, like the unwritten apartheid against the Palestinian civilians.
Besides, there is something Nazi about its raison d’être [the most important reason or purpose for someone or something's existence] that
goes against the very spirit of democracy and human rights, for unlike other
countries in the world, Israel is not a state of its citizens; it’s a state for
Jews the world over. In fact, the Law of Return passed by the Knesset in July
1950 gives Jews living anywhere in the world the right to ‘return’ to Israel.
Those who ‘returned’ to Palestine included David Ben-Gurion, born in Russian
Poland; Yitzhak Shamir, born in Belarus; Golda Meir, born in Ukraine, Menachem
Begin, also born in Belarus. The list is endless.
Israeli
democracy openly flaunts its ethnic prejudices.
Israelis do not bother about such considerations. Their
dedication is to their raison d’être — Israel’s survival and its territorial
expansion at the expense of its neighbours.
Israel’s Achilles’s heel is its manpower, because it cannot
fight a long war. A long war will mean factories, farms and offices would be
without hands. So all the wars it has fought with its Arab neighbours were of a
short duration: the Suez Canal crisis in 1965 lasted nine days, the Six-Day war
in 1967 and the 20-day-long 1973 war.
However, Benjamin Netanyahu can continue this war against Hamas
till eternity because it is a war Israel has never fought before. A war means a
clash between two armies, even if one of the armies is no match for its enemy,
but it is an army nevertheless. In Gaza, one of the world’s most powerful
armies is ‘fighting’ hungry, thirsty, wounded and homeless women and children.
This genocidal war can continue endlessly, because Western powers led by the US
have vetoed every attempt to have a ceasefire resolution passed by the Security
Council. The Likud regime will continue this Hitlerite barbarism till Gaza
becomes a people without land, conforming to the old Zionist shibboleth — for a
people without land, a land without people (effectively countered by Ghada Karmi
in her book Married to Another Man).
What Arab countries should learn from this ‘nation of soldiers’
is the sense of equality that prevails in society; this esprit de corps is reflected
in the working of the armed forces, and Moshe Dayan was usually addressed as
‘Moshe’. Unnecessary saluting is discouraged, and a man may have two ranks, and
will report to the unit that is mobilised. He may be a major in one unit and a
corporal in another, depending upon where he is needed. Even old women who have
retired from the army help in mobilisation by passing on sensitive information
on the telephone in coded language.
Dead on arrival
Summary
- Pakistan's recent elections
were rigged, creating an unstable and troubled state. This instability stems
from various issues like rising inflation, terrorism, and political
polarization.
- Neither the new PDM regime nor
the PTI will be able to effectively address these challenges. The PDM lacks legitimacy
and unity, while the PTI will likely resort to agitation and resistance.
- There is no immediate
alternative to the current parties, despite their flaws. Other parties like
Jamaat-i-Islami and leftist groups lack strong mandates or specific
evidence of rigging.
- Pakistan cannot afford another
rigged election or prolonged political instability. All stakeholders,
especially the establishment, ECP, and political parties, need to act with
maturity to find a solution.
- The focus should be on
appointing competent individuals, regardless of party affiliation, to
tackle Pakistan's problems. The Sharifs, Zardaris, and Imran Khan
should prioritize this over personal agendas.
- Failure to address these
issues could lead to even deeper self-destructive politics, insecurity,
and economic turmoil.
Article
INSTEAD of giving a fresh start or the
political stability that has been lacking since 2017, our badly rigged polls
have hobbled [walk in an awkward way, typically because
of pain from an injury] our ability to tackle the huge
problems that are threatening chaos. These problems include ever-rising
inflation and the default threat; a surge in terrorism; and testy ties with
three neighbours. They also include political polarisation and gridlock [a traffic jam affecting a whole network of intersecting streets]; a
Constitution mauled [(of an animal) wound (a person or animal)
by scratching and tearing] by all major parties and
institutions and thus institutional collapse. All this makes us, arguably, the
most unstable and troubled state in South Asia.
A new inept [having or showing no
skill; clumsy] PDM regime, lacking strong
legitimacy, mandate, unity and ideas to tackle these challenges, may land dead
on arrival. It will see internal and civilian-establishment tussles. It will
face a PTI, revitalised after the post-May 9 setbacks by the polls results,
with new legitimacy and energy to do what it does best — furious agitation.
A quick, simple review of the Form 45s of about 40 National
Assembly seats can settle matters in three to four days, but establishment
ploys may foil that. The PTI has uploaded its copies online and a review by
credible media and civil society groups can help generate pressure for quick
ECP action if its claims are found valid. The PTI may want street protest. But
the brutality of the post-May 9 crackdown may mute it. Western pressure linked
to a new IMF loan can force our hand too, but the PTI’s wild US conspiracy past
talk may mute it. Even if a quick end in PTI’s favour doesn’t come, it will
retain the upper hand with many ways to down PDM 2.0 slowly over time via a
thousand cuts.
Its big numbers at the centre and in Punjab will cripple smooth
legislature work. Its strong social media teams will unleash huge public
pressure against all unpopular reform acts the new regime must take to meet IMF
terms. Its KP set-up may withhold the cooperation needed to end terrorism. Its
expatriate teams will work to poison Western minds against PDM 2.0. It will
look to exploit fissures between PML-N and the establishment. In short, the PTI
will use in-house, street, legal and foreign ploys deftly [in a way that is neatly skillful and quick in movement] to
cripple PDM 2.0. Against this well-oiled, superfast PTI outfit will be the
slow-motion, septuagenarian [a person who is from
70 to 79 years old] PML-N dinosaurs, unable to control
the narrative. It will have to last five years to give relief to people after
two to three years of a tough IMF programme to win the next polls (it is
unclear if it will). Thus, political stability and economic revival may remain
elusive.
There is no
immediate alternative to the current parties.
Even the Jamaat-i-Islami, JUI-F and GDA claim rigging, but their
claims differ from the PTI ones. These parties did not face the visible
pre-poll rigging that the PTI did, as confirmed even by neutral observers. Nor
are they making specific rigging claims or providing initial proof of it,
unlike the PTI’s Form 45 claims. Thus, such claims are as vague and wild as the
PTI’s in 2013.
Beyond rigging issues, the overall mandate delivered by the
elections also undermines our ability to make a fresh start under competent
hands. Religious and king’s parties did poorly, but so did, unluckily, new and
even older leftist parties. Thus, it was a mandate for the overtly status quo
PML-N and PPP politics and the status quo PTI and MQM politics wrapped in thin
populist foils. So badly have establishment forays into politics clogged the
veins of our political system that the latter is unable to produce the
regenerative politics needed to solve our many problems. Still, there is no
immediate alternative to the current parties, and the way forward has to come
from them until better parties start emerging.
Given this, Pakistan cannot afford a second rigged regime,
brought to power dubiously by the establishment after 2018, and the
endless political stability seen after 2018. Thus, it is critical for all
stakeholders to show maturity. The initiative must come from the establishment,
which must end its political meddling. The ECP must quickly and transparently
retabulate the results of the contested seats. The winners must then be allowed
to form governments. Politically motivated cases and verdicts must be reversed
legally. All political parties must recognise the dire problems we face, which
can only be tackled by competent persons who have not been involved in the
extreme political polarisation we have seen since 2014.
This means that the Sharifs, Zardaris and Imran Khan must focus
on running their parties and appoint competent persons from within their ranks
who can work constructively with the opposition to rescue Pakistan from the
edge of an abyss. Otherwise Pakistan may remain mired in self-defeating and
destructive politics, insecurity and economic turmoil.
Of
the elephant in the courtroom
Summary
Indian Supreme Court:
- Unreliable: Umar Khalid withdrew
bail application due to repeated adjournments and lack of progress in his
case.
- Inconsistent: High court prioritizes a
case about naming lions over numerous undertrial prisoners.
- Politically influenced?: Opposition leader denied
bail while pro-govt journalist gets it quickly.
- Landmark ruling questioned: Did BJP violate court
order by using religion in elections?
- Selective enforcement? Court bans religious
appeals in elections, but will it enforce it?
Concerns:
- Unjust imprisonment: Umar Khalid and
potentially many others may be wrongly jailed.
- Erosion of democracy: Religion used for
political gain, potentially influencing elections.
- Selective justice: Powerful figures receive
favorable treatment.
Call to action:
- Supreme Court must uphold its
own rulings and ensure justice for all.
Article
JAILED rights activist Umar Khalid
withdrew his bail application from the Indian supreme court last week,
preferring instead to try his fortunes at the lower courts. Implicit in the
move was a wry statement. Seeking justice in India could be like joining the
end of another long queue for a routine government service after waiting in
vain for the first queue to move. Umar’s activist father said the lawyers
believed there was a better chance of getting a hearing from the lower courts,
where they feel the atmosphere has ‘improved’ in recent days.
The decision to give up on the supreme court was prompted by
countless adjournments before its judges, right from Umar’s arrest in September
2020 on unproven terror charges that are widely acknowledged to be flimsy and
only a ruse to keep him in jail. The prosecution hasn’t produced a shred of
evidence to suggest Umar exhorted anyone to street violence during president
Donald Trump’s visit to India.
The pro-government TV channels, always ready to connive [secretly allow (something considered immoral, illegal, wrong, or
harmful) to occur] with the state, went so far as to
accuse Umar Khalid of visiting Pakistan several times given his critique of
India’s Kashmir policy. The anchors shut up when informed that Umar didn’t have
a passport and didn’t plan to apply for one when he is set free. A bevy [a large group of people or things of a particular kind] of
intellectuals, academics, and activists at home and abroad, led by the
venerable Noam Chomsky, have petitioned the Modi government, in vain obviously,
to free the much-admired student activist who earned his PhD at JNU studying
India’s tribal societies, and who has campaigned to defend the downtrodden
relentlessly.
Umar Khalid’s decision to withdraw the bail application from the
supreme court comes with an underlying irony about the Indian judiciary. A high
court in West Bengal has admitted for hearing a communally inspired petition objecting to a lion
and lioness being called Akbar and Sita. Given the unconscionable
number of undertrial prisoners languishing hopelessly in Indian jails and other
forms of daily injustice meted out particularly to citizens in the lower
echelons of society the sense of priority of the courts can be baffling [impossible to understand; perplexing].
India’s supreme
court must step in to ensure that its own writ is honoured by the Indian state
and government.
At the supreme court, meanwhile, an opposition chief minister
who represents the vulnerable and perennially exploited tribespeople, was
arrested but denied a simple bail hearing. The arrest of a serving chief
minister is unusual as was the supreme court’s refusal to hear him. On the
other hand, a pro-government TV journalist got bail from the apex court at
unparalleled speed. Another day, a judge found time to hear the petition that
paved the way for the premature release of Hindutva men convicted for rape and
murder in Gujarat before yet another judge rescinded the order.
Similarly, in the eyes of many, the court argued one thing on
the Ayodhya case and delivered another.
More recently, the fate of Kashmir’s special status was sealed with a decision from the apex
bench, which, lawyers say, could threaten the federal rights of other states.
Umar’s dejected decision, however, came on the heels of
celebration for Indian democracy when a constitution bench of the supreme court
headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud declared illegal a law enacted by the
Modi government that allowed secret transfer of funds from corporates to
political parties. The court also ordered the State Bank of India to release by
mid-March details of the money thus transferred to the parties of whom the BJP
is believed to be the overwhelming beneficiary.
A revelation of the cash nexus between the government and
business captains, including some leading ones who had campaigned before the
2014 polls to declare Narendra Modi as their prime ministerial candidate, has
the potential to expose any quid pro quo, to damage the BJP. On the other hand,
there is the sobering possibility that the BJP has accumulated enough capital
over the years to outspend the opponents at the polls. But the elephant in the
room — more correctly in the courtroom — is the fact that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi thinks nothing of using religion for political gain. His own
preferred TV channels have described his recent inauguration of half-built Ayodhya temple
where the Babri Masjid once stood, as a masterstroke ahead of the May
elections.
The desperation with which the BJP is poaching leaders from
opposition parties to improve its chances suggests that the Ram temple gala may
have fallen short as an election tool. However, there’s no gainsaying that the
use of religion does polarise a sizeable chunk of gullible voters. This is
where the supreme court must step in, not necessarily to deliver a new verdict
but to ensure that its own writ is honoured by the Indian state and government.
It was only in 2017 that India’s highest court banned political
candidates from seeking election based on religion, caste or language. It was
described by the foreign media among others as a landmark ruling that could
have far-reaching consequences for the way Indian politics is practised.
Albeit in a split decision, the supreme court had nevertheless
ruled that India’s constitution allowed for the free practice of faith but
could “forbid interference of religions and religious beliefs with secular
activity such as elections”. Does seeking votes in the name of Lord Ram violate
the apex court’s orders or not?
An election won by soliciting votes along the lines of identity
politics could be considered corrupt practice and the result set aside, the
court had said. The dissenting judgement accused the majority justices of
overreach and “judicial redrafting of the law”. In this subjective squabble
between judges, the formulation and execution of legal verdicts often looks
like a lottery — for democracy, and for individual victims of an increasingly
errant state’s machinations. The elephant in the courtroom bodes ill not just
for Umar Khalid but for far too many equally talented and potentially innocent
academics, journalists and ordinary folks who may be damned by the order of the
day.
A giant’s strength
Summary
- Political instability in
Pakistan: The
author expresses concern about the current political situation in
Pakistan, highlighting the confusion and power struggles among different
parties.
- PDM 2.0 revival: The possibility of
reviving the PDM alliance (Pakistan Democratic Movement) is seen as a
"triumph of hope over experience," raising doubts about its
ability to effectively address the country's challenges.
- Party confusion: The article criticizes
the lack of clear strategies and internal conflicts within major parties
like PML-N, PPP, and PTI.
- Unrealistic expectations: The author questions the
belief that elections bring stability, arguing that the current situation
suggests more instability ahead.
- Call for change: The article indirectly
calls for a shift from traditional political practices and a need for more
effective leadership.
Article
IT’S time to be worried. Really worried
for Pakistan.
Our political engineering formula has come undone. The hawa which
was clearly blowing hard couldn’t secure a win for the blue-eyed party and
engineer an election in Punjab. The ever-capricious electables have been
playing up for some time now and refuse to swing around with the wind. And
parties refuse to fall apart quietly after the first dozen or so among their
leadership are given a software update.
And then, the people. Decades ago, it was decided they were
illiterate, poor and desperate for money, and hence the political process could
be reduced to ‘they sell their vote for a few thousand, let’s not blame them’,
while the more organised or better off went for the promise of a naali (drain)
or sadak (road).
But this time around, the poor and the sadak lovers have changed
their colours. Their blood has also turned white. Caste and community no longer
mean the political world to them. They have turned into selfish adults who want
to exercise the individual right to vote, even encouraging their mothers and
sisters to think similarly. The absence of the bat didn’t confuse them, for the
wily [skilled at gaining an advantage,
especially deceitfully] creatures used smartphones,
believing it over mainstream media.
That PDM 2.0 is
about to be revived is a triumph of hope over experience.
The civilian side is not handling the new breakups and romances
well either. One political party ran a superb campaign rooted in the 1990s for
an election taking place in 2024. It came second but was the first to hold a victory celebration and
declare itself the biggest party. Confusion over numbers or just confidence in
the engineers? Who knows? But they tried to wiggle out of the federal
government once the PPP began playing hard to get; however, the confession of a Rawalpindi commissioner soon
put an end to their airs. Since then, there are no sources reporting that the
PML-N is considering not forming the government at the centre, and just
clinging to Punjab. (The questions over the north Punjab results don’t just
reduce their already miserable National Assembly number but also the majority
on which Maryam Nawaz will stroll into the chief minister’s house.)
In the confusion, no one bothers to ask who designed and ran
that uninspiring election campaign, which got them to the 80-seat mark in an
election, where no one else was contesting. Considering they ran Islamabad
directly since April 2022 and had a say in Punjab since the caretakers came in
and still barely scraped through in the election, it’s hard to imagine how they
plan to reverse this trend by governing directly. But who dare ask difficult
questions at this moment?
The PPP continues to blow
hot and scorn PML-N, while forming committees and holding meetings
for a power-sharing formula. (As an aside, I recently learnt of ‘breadcrumbing
in relationships.) It’s worth pondering why no one believes the PPP and is
convinced it will end up in government yet again. Does it have something to do
with the fact that after the son announced the tough decision taken in the
party’s two-day meeting, the other chairman suddenly appeared at a press conference of senior citizens who
laid claim to government-making at the home of Chaudhry Shujaat? Perhaps, there
is no greater sign of the times than the visuals of that press conference with
the good Chaudhry seated in the middle. He headed the king’s party of the
1990s.
That PDM 2.0 (or the senior citizens club) is about to be
revived is a triumph of hope over experience. This time around, it will manage
the IMF and carry out reform while saving itself and the country from its
perennial finance minister.
Then we have the PTI, a party which maintains the confusion
among its ranks, whether there is one page or not, whether in power or
opposition, and whether it is underground or not. Such consistency of confusion
has to be applauded, for the party rarely stays the course in any other field.
It is claiming a marvellous result in the election (the dominant view on social
media) and the governments at the centre, and in Lahore and Peshawar, even
though it still doesn’t have a symbol (of any party) after having held talks
with nearly every religio-political party other than the TLP. Also, by choosing a general
for a chief minister, it is indicating that it’s ready for a
face-off, with KP as its fortress.
The confusion within it is only bound to increase as access to
its leader is restricted and the lawyers and politicians figure out how to
proceed. But with Sheikh Waqas Akram, Ali Mohammad Khan, Latif Khosa and Sher
Afzal Marwat leading the assault in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif will
for the first time in his life find out what an opposition is all about. It
might just end up being a bigger surprise for him than 1999 when he was said to
be sleeping as his brother chose a new COAS.
In all of this, one can only hope we will bury the myth — among the many others — of an election bringing about stability and quiet. That old ‘analysis’ is about as relevant as a text message, and it should be dropped along with the caretaker government (one waits with bated breath), as we brace ourselves for not just PDM 2.0 but also instability pro max.
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