DATE=10/15/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=PAKISTAN'S BURDEN
NUMBER=5-44527
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Military leaders in Pakistan have once again
intervened and removed a civilian government, pointing
up their continuing power in a politically unstable
country. V-O-A's Ed Warner asked two analysts of
Pakistan for their views of the intervention and what
it may mean for the troubled nation.
TEXT: Pakistan had a confused, blood-soaked beginning
that it has never been able to live down. How then
can you expect its military not to be powerful? asks
Khalid bin Sayeed, professor of politics at Queens
College in Kingston [Ontario], Canada, and author of
"Western Dominance and Political Islam."
Pakistan was too hastily put together at the time of
partition, says Professor Sayeed. It lacked the
opportunity to create a secure foundation and has been
shaky ever since:
/// 1ST SAYEED ACT ///
The demand for Pakistan was made in 1940, and
within seven years they established the state,
carving a state out of a larger entity. And 12-
to 13-million people cross[ed] the frontier and
[there was] enormous blood [was] shed -- a state
which has had no precedent in human history,
in a way.
/// END ACT ///
Since the beginning, then, the military has been the
principal power in Pakistan, even under civilian
governments. When offended by one of these
governments, the generals have simply returned to
overt rule.
Samina Ahmed of Harvard's Kennedy Center of Government
says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif deeply offended the
military by blaming it for the failed intervention in
Kashmir. He then tried to change its leadership:
/// 1st AHMED ACT ///
The military will not accept any intervention
in its internal affairs by any elected leader.
Even though nominally the prime minister was in
charge of the military, he was not really in
charge of internal affairs. That remains an
area of special sensitivity to the armed forces.
/// END ACT ///
Samina Ahmed says the prime minister, intent on
accumulating power, was largely responsible for his
own downfall:
/// 2ND AHMED ACT ///
Unfortunately, because [Mr.] Sharif had
distorted the Constitution, [and] introduced
amendments that made in-house change near
impossible, this gave the military an
opportunity because it deprived the political
leadership - the elected Parliament - of a means
of changing a very, very unpopular leader.
/// END ACT ///
Professor Sayeed agrees the Sharif government made
unnecessary trouble for itself. But, he adds, there
are other basic problems. In his opinion, Pakistan has
suffered from too slavishly following Western
constitutional models that may not be suitable for
other parts of the world:
/// 2ND SAYEED ACT ///
The Pakistanis seem to be so trapped by certain
formulas and phrases that they have borrowed from the
West and which have not yet been absorbed within the
social and political fabric of their society.
National unity cannot just be promoted by a
constitution, by a few phrases. This has to be worked
on. This has to be developed.
/// END ACT ///
Professor Sayeed says Pakistan's ruling elites, in
their rush to westernize, have tried to escape the
provincialism of their less fortunate countrymen. But
that provincialism -- a devotion to a particular
culture, language or region -- is at the heart of
Pakistan. He believes the country is not governable
without including it:
/// 3RD SAYEED ACT ///
Let us convert this provincialism, which at present
seems to be an inimical force, a hostile force, into a
creative and friendly force for the development of the
country. We have to persuade people who belong to the
minority regions to realize that we respect their
linguistic, cultural consciousness. We do not treat
it as anti-national.
/// END ACT ///
Professor Sayeed says building democracy is a gradual
process, especially in view of Pakistan's historical
and current burdens: an exploding population,
religious conflict, terrorists roaming the land and a
million refugees from the Afghanistan wars still
living in the country. (Signed)
NEB/EW/WTW
15-Oct-1999 16:04 PM EDT (15-Oct-1999 2004 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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