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Getting on the same page in Pakistan
May 5, 2009 | Posted by Londonstani - 6:49am | 47 Comments
We all know that Pakistan is key to Afghanistan. And it's clear that Pakistan is in trouble. How comes, everyone wonders, is that the people that rule Pakistan don't get it?
This article in the Daily, a Pakistani national newspaper, gives you a very good idea of how the movers and shakers see Pakistan's present predicament.
The basic ideas are that:
1. All of Pakistan's internal problems come from Indian activities run out of Afghanistan.
2. Pakistan's present "democratic" rulers are useless and owe their positions to America.
3. The real story is that the U.S. has failed in Afghanistan
4. London and Washington have a hidden agenda in cosying up to India.
5. The US wants to invade and dismember Pakistan
In a normal Middle Eastern military dictatorship (let's say Egypt), newspaper columnists compete to outdo each other in parroting the ruler's view in the most sycophantic manner. Pakistan is a little different and a lot less straight forward.
Pakistani's have a long history of saying what they think in the press. And more often than not, the things said in the press reflect the views of upper middle class Pakistanis, who the government needs to keep onside.
In Londonstani's view, Washington and London will never get the Pakistani government to fully realise and act on the dangers the neo-Taliban insurgency poses until it gets this demographic on side, which considering the deep memory of colonial history and the Afghan-Soviet war (and its aftermath) will not be easy.
But this is vital. Ultimately, at present, the opinion that matters in Pakistan does not see the Taliban as a threat to the state in its own right. Instead it blames the U.S. presence in Afghanistan for inflaming the passions of a "bunch of villagers" that the movers and grovers casually dismiss.
Now, this is where public diplomacy as a role to play. London and Washington need, in Londonstani's opinion, to convince Pakistani public opinion that they are on the same page, that they all share a common threat and that the Western powers aren't about to use and abandon Pakistan.
What won't work is encouraging another military guy to take over and then convince him, hoping that he takes the nation with him. Public opinion (of the right sort of public) matters in Pakistan, and there's no getting around that.
This article in the Daily, a Pakistani national newspaper, gives you a very good idea of how the movers and shakers see Pakistan's present predicament.
The basic ideas are that:
1. All of Pakistan's internal problems come from Indian activities run out of Afghanistan.
2. Pakistan's present "democratic" rulers are useless and owe their positions to America.
3. The real story is that the U.S. has failed in Afghanistan
4. London and Washington have a hidden agenda in cosying up to India.
5. The US wants to invade and dismember Pakistan
In a normal Middle Eastern military dictatorship (let's say Egypt), newspaper columnists compete to outdo each other in parroting the ruler's view in the most sycophantic manner. Pakistan is a little different and a lot less straight forward.
Pakistani's have a long history of saying what they think in the press. And more often than not, the things said in the press reflect the views of upper middle class Pakistanis, who the government needs to keep onside.
In Londonstani's view, Washington and London will never get the Pakistani government to fully realise and act on the dangers the neo-Taliban insurgency poses until it gets this demographic on side, which considering the deep memory of colonial history and the Afghan-Soviet war (and its aftermath) will not be easy.
But this is vital. Ultimately, at present, the opinion that matters in Pakistan does not see the Taliban as a threat to the state in its own right. Instead it blames the U.S. presence in Afghanistan for inflaming the passions of a "bunch of villagers" that the movers and grovers casually dismiss.
Now, this is where public diplomacy as a role to play. London and Washington need, in Londonstani's opinion, to convince Pakistani public opinion that they are on the same page, that they all share a common threat and that the Western powers aren't about to use and abandon Pakistan.
What won't work is encouraging another military guy to take over and then convince him, hoping that he takes the nation with him. Public opinion (of the right sort of public) matters in Pakistan, and there's no getting around that.
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