Bloomberg: Pakistan’s government is squandering its “Malala moment”: the chance to harness public outrage over the Taliban’s shooting of 14-year-old education activist Malala Yousufzai and take the fight to the terrorists who threaten the nation and its neighbors.
The fecklessness of the government’s current strategy against terrorism is captured in the offer of a $1 million bounty by Interior Minister Rehman Malik for aid in hunting down Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Eshan, who has defended the attack on Malala and warned of more to come.
If Pakistan really wanted to capture Eshan — and it should — a $1 million reward probably isn’t necessary. He routinely sends e-mails and text messages and makes landline phone calls to dozens of journalists, many of whom are under some form of government surveillance. Dollars to doughnuts Pakistan’s Inter- Services Intelligence agency, long thought to have ties to the Taliban and other terrorist groups, knows where Eshan is.
All these articles being written about Malala seem to be more about after and the army.
The point to note is that when US was attacked, a “democracy” overnight changed into a “fanatic” regime, over night countries were missiled and forced to join their “undemotratic” actions at the point of a gun. Those who resisted were punished economically (blackmail of course). The strategy seems to e dictated by “an eye for an eye”.
In Pakistan, when it came under attack, the journey has been from a military rule of Musharaf towards a democratic set up.
Even when there was a military dictatorship (1999-2008), there were no missiles fired, instead there has been restraint. Now that when there is a semblance of democracy in Pakistan, there is a pressure to resort to the strategy of “an eye for an eye”. Talibans strategy is the same.
At heart is the “clash of morality” between the strategy based on “American Values” and the strategy based on the “Indus Values”.
Like the Chinese have their “tian”, in Pakistan there is a similar thing – the Indus Tian, which is rooted in the “sufi culture” of this region. All those who want to contain this extremism cannot succeed unless they change their strategy of “an eye for an eye”.
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