 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| PAKStan into Pakistan
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Aug. 15, 2007 For the Standard Today, August 16 issue For thousands of years before 1947, there was only India . The ancient Greeks knew about India . When the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great and his army crossed the Hellespont into Asia in 334 BC, to exact revenge on the Persian Empire for having sacked Athens 150 years earlier, he knew from his personal mentor, the Greek philosopher Aristotle, that east of the Persian Empire lay India. And somewhere east of India was the Eastern Ocean , the eastern edge of the world.. The ancients believed that the land mass that they inhabited, plus the Persian Empire , were surrounded entirely by a huge ocean. When his army reached the Caspian Sea, north of Tehran , Alexander, not knowing that it was only a mammoth lake, was convinced that they had touched the edge of the Northern Ocean , from which, they believed, it was possible to sail back to Greece and Macedon. But Alexander wanted to reach the Eastern Ocean , so he marched his army ever eastward and conquered the rest of the Persian Empire, including what are now Afghanistan , Uzbekistan and Tajikistan . Blocked by the mountainous terrain from proceeding eastward, he headed south, through what are now known as Kashmir and the Khyber Pass, into fabled India . He got to within 500 miles of old Delhi when his field commanders pleaded with him to head back for Macedon because his men wanted to be reunited with their families, having been on the march for the past eight years. Faced with a possible mutiny, Alexander built a small monument to himself on the banks of the Beos River � a sort of �Kilroy was here� marker � then followed the Indus River southward � almost dying of wounds suffered in battle along the way - to its delta near what is now the port city of Karachi. Here he had a fleet of triremes built, in which half of his army sailed back to the Persian capital of Persepolis (in what is now Iran ) which they had captured and burned earlier. The other half, with him at the lead, headed back to Persia on foot, covering a thousand kilometers in 60 days through the punishing Gedrosian Desert , in which two thirds of his force died from thirst, hunger, disease and exhaustion. The indestructible Alexander and his stragglers managed to reach Persepolis where he rendezvoused with his sea-borne army, and then, after a rest, marched on to Babylon (in what is now Iraq ), where he died of an unknown fever on June 16, 323 BC, at the age of 33. (See my articles Alexander the Greatest, Dec 08 and 10, 2004). In Alexander�s time, and for the next 2,270 years, there was only India .But most of the India that he knew, we know as Pakistan , which this week celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence from the British. India had long been under Muslim rule: by the Arabs in the 8th century, by the Turks in the 12th, by the Mughal emperors (originally from Afghanistan , but culturally Persian) from 1526 to 1857. When the British dismantled the last vestiges of Mughal rule, the subcontinent�s Muslim minority lost their pre-eminence, and the Hindu majority asserted their numerical superiority. It was the deepening conflict between these two religious communities that led to the break-up of British India in 1947, with millions of people caught up in a massive migration across sectarian lines as they sought to locate themselves in the religious community of their choice. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs abandoned Muslim areas for Hindu India; millions of Muslims abandoned Hindu India for Muslim sanctuaries. But to this day, India has a Muslim minority numbering more than 130 million out of a total population of 1.1 billion.. It is said that before independence was finally declared on August 14, 1947, the new Muslim nation faced the problem of what to call itself. Muhammad Iqbal., a popular poet-philosopher of the day, is said to have suggested taking the first letters of the names of the provinces that formed the new nation: Punjab, Afganiyat (known during the British Raj as the Northwest Frontier), Kashmir and Sindh, ending with �tan� from Baluchistan . (Time magazine, Aug. 13, 2007) Thus � Pakistan � was born 60 years ago. Compared to the India from which it had torn itself, Pakistan has been less than a success. Pakistan lost its eastern wing, East Pakistan, in 1971 when it declared itself independent as Bangladesh . Pakistan lost all its three wars with India . Thirty of its 60 years were spent under military rule, including the last six years under Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup d�etat in June 2001. Gen. Musaharraf has been a favored ally of the US in the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan . But lately, he has been making enemies left and right to the point where his government is now being seen as teetering on the brink. Earlier this year, Musharraf fired the chief justice of the High Court, which caused the middle class, led by an army of black-robed lawyers, to stage streets demonstrations against him. Last month, the Pakistan military stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad , a center of jihadist resistance to his secular government, and killed its chief radical cleric, who had called for sharia law to be established. The attack caused a flurry of reprisal bombings by the jihadists that killed some 150 people, most of them soldiers. As if that were not problematic enough, senior US officials have lately been making noises that Gen. Musharraf was not doing enough to flush out the Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders thought to be hiding in the tribal areas in the northeast border with Afghanistan . Barack Obama, one of those seeking the Democratic party nomination for the 2008 US presidential elections, has voiced a gung-ho statement that, if elected, he would not hesitate to send the US military into Pakistani territory to flush out the terrorists hiding there, if Gen. Musharraf did not do it himself. Spoken like a true neo-con, Uncle Dick Cheney must have muttered under his breath. Given the lackluster showing of all aspirants for the Republican party nomination, the neo-cons need someone genuinely popular to carry the neo-con doctrine of pre-emptive strike against all perceived enemies of the US . Why not Obama, even if he is black, and even if he is a Democrat? Gen. Musharraf is in trouble. Having antagonized the middle class, the Islamic jihadists, and the Americans, he is running out of allies. He cannot even trust the military from which he came. In December 2005, he was the object of two assassination attempts in the space of two weeks, probably masterminded by some people within his inner circle who were familiar with his daily schedule. Suspicion fell on the military intelligence agency, the ISI, which is known to have been instrumental in organizing the Taliban in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. If Musharraf is deposed or assassinated, his successor is not likely to come from the middle class - former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto are already positioning themselves � because they do not have the numbers. More likely would be the Islamic jihadists, who do. A victory for the jihadists in Pakistan would have repercussions in the Philippines . According to a Tausug from Sulu whom I met in Diliman, Filipino jihadists in Mindanao and Sulu have organizational links with jihadists in Pakistan , not with those in Egypt or Saudi Arabia . While I have not been able to verify that, it is credible because during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan , at least 200 Filipino Muslims are known to have fought in the international brigade organized by Osama bin Laden , and their staging area was in Peshawar in Pakistan . Barack Obama may yet prove to be prophetic. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �PAKStan into Pakistan � More Reaction to �Jobless in Colombia � OFWs demand an apology Dick Cheney on Iraq (in 1994) Dear Manong Tony, I am glad that you wrote about Pakistan 's history. I hope that once in a while, other columnists will also write about other countries such as those in the dark continent and not the too often mentioned more successful neighbors of ours. Our people, even if only briefly, need some sense of accomplishment in comparison to these less developed countries. We often bash our heads unnecessarily, which is counterproductive. Best regards and GOD bless. . Jerry Quibilan, (by email), Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur, Aug. 16, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Thanks, Tony. I have always enjoyed your articles on Alexander the Great and his exploits. I have always maintained that the Great Alexander made a Big Mistake dealing with the Indians who are culturally very different from the people of the Persian Empire . As his own wife said in the movie, the Indians cannot be trusted and urged him to go back to Babylon where he had strong support from the people. Even the Mughals were better, whom you wrote were originally from Afghanistan but culturally Persian. Tony, are the Mughals like the Manchurians whose culture and identity was decimated by the Chinese? The same fear of the Dalai Lama to what the Chinese would do in Tibet that is why he is now open to Autonomy - and no more independence - in order to preserve the Tibetian Culture. Regards, Ric (Ramos), (by email), Santa Rosa , Laguna, Aug. 16, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello Tony, I wonder who that Tausug you met in Diliman was.. He must have been one of those links for you to even mention him in your essay. Best, Edilwasif Baddiri, (by email), Aug. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Been awhile since I sent my last email to your mailing group. Your latest piece on Pakistan somewhat spurred me to share something. Your analysis on the possible fundamentalist takeover in Pakistan and its profound implication to Philippine national security has never been more accurate. You know, the Pakistani connection of our very own homegrown motley extremists is not a secret. Browse over Maria Ressa's book, and it is all there. But of course, there are some gaps. Let me be like the Dutch boy and fill them up for you, hopefully. Old school Islamic nationalist (or vaguely socialist) movements, the one Nur Misuari espouses, have roots of course in Egypt and, to some extent, Libya . You know, the Pan-Arabism trend, which has spurred a lot of armed spawns in the past, including the PLO and MNLF. However, Islamic Pan-Arabism was (is) a secular trend. Advocates viewed Islam in terms of its instrumentality, its use, for unifying a variety of national identities. When it was convenient, Islam was invoked only to gloss over national identity issues and differences. Leaders of the movement were in disagreement over who or what country should lead the movement. Nasser of Egypt tried but failed. Another reason was that Western powers did (do) not want a unified Arab consciousness, lest it would gravely threaten their fair-haired creation, the State of Israel. In short, Pan-Arabism failed. By the late 1970s, its attractiveness to younger generation of Islamic militants was lost. However, secular Islamic nationalist, Pan-Arab inspired governments in the Middle East (Near East) had one "positive" contribution. It kept a budding Islamic fundamentalist movement at bay, especially in Egypt . For example, Sayyid Qutb, one of the founders of the Muslim Brotherthood and an intellectual inspiration to Osama, Ayman and Al Qaeda, was hanged by the Nasser government in 1966. But despite draconian measures, secular Arab governments in the mold of Nasser 's did not eliminate all of them. One reason was, you know, fundamentalist Islamic sects had always been there since the early days of Islam. In fact, the schism between Sunnis and Shiite was a product of the fundamentalism of both denominations. The nephew of Mohammad (peace be upon his name), Ali, was killed because of the emerging sectarianism even then. Secondly, when it was necessary to maintain political support, secular Arab governments used the fundamentalists to purge opposition. On the other hand, fundamentalist Islamists had no real galvanizing issue to sustain political momentum, besides they always had their hands full dodging the secret police of their respective governments. Since there was no unifying issue, fundamentalists never really achieved considerable political and military presence. Then came the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan . Perhaps the single most important event that galvanized Islamic consciousness where Pan-Arabism failed. Islamic activism then took a different direction since then. For instance, disenchanted with the MNLF, Salamat Hashim went to found the MILF. The founder of Abu Sayyaf, Absurajak Janjalani, was a veteran of the Afghan war, and so are a number of MILF commanders and political leaders. Afghanistan was the battlefield, but Pakistan served as the gateway. I clearly remember that a few years after the Afghan resistance against the Soviet ended, I went to Western Mindanao . There you would see, this was the early 1990s, "tablik" or Islamic preachers, most of whom were Pakistani. And they openly preached the brand of fundamentalist Islam these tabliks picked up in the madrassas of Pakistan . I can confidently tell you that personalities "who matter," MILF and Abu Sayyaf, right now had (or have) closer links with the Muslim activists in Peshawar and Islamabad than in, say, Jiddah or Cairo . And it is not inconceivable that once Musharraf is deposed and a more hard-line, fundamentalist government comes to power, capabilities of Mindanao-based terrorists may shoot up, with the possibility of state-sponsorship. Similarly, Pakistanis have longer commercial and social networks in most urban areas in the Philippines , much like the Indians. Not to mention the growing Muslim presence in major cities. You could just imagine if these networks would be used for terrorist purposes in terms of logistics, network, and recruitment. Urban terrorism in the scale of the Madrid bombings may not be a remote possibility. Ibn Khaldun, (by email), Aug. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mahar/Tony, Slightly wrong on the origin of the name -- somebody else dreamed it up (though Iqbal is credited with a few years earlier popularizing the demand for a separate state. From Wikipedia: Origin of Name The front page of the "Now or Never" pamphlet produced by Choudhary Rahmat Ali The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never [2]. He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan .) The word also captured in the Persian language the concepts of "pak", meaning "pure", and "stan", meaning "land" or "home", thus giving it the meaning "Land of the Pure".. Steven Rood, (by email), Aug. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, See how the so-called Undivided India unraveled and how the racist, Hindoo- and Moslem-hating Churchill, who is adored by American conservatives as a god -- and a god of freedom at that -- but who the Brits consider like we would Truman or Gerald Ford, was a party to this unending bloody mess. �I hate Indians,� Churchill declared. �They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.� Sounds like the Virginia ex-Sen. Allen macaca affair! Exit Wounds The legacy of Indian partition. by Pankaj Mishra August 13, 2007 The New Yorker Magazine http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/08/13/070813crbo_books_mishra Louie Fernandez, (by email), Aug. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Thanks again for your mention of the Mughal Emperors in your article. I got fascinated with their story that I have been reading about them for the past two days. Just to share some information I found out about the Mughal Dynasty. The founder of the 300-year old Mughal Dynasty, Emperor Babur, was actually born in Central Asia in Turkestan, but moved to Afghanistan when his older relatives removed him from the throne he inherited from his father. While the word "Mughal" means Mongol in Persian, Emperor Babur, considered himself more Turkish than Mongolian. From his father' side, he descended from Timurid (or "Tamerlane" in Western name) and from the lineage of Genghis and Kublai Khan on the mother side. The Mughals acquired Persian culture because they were easily influenced and assimilated with the locals. Same thing happened when Genghis or Kublai Khan went to conquer China , the Chinese culture influenced him. I suppose the same thing when the Romans went to Greece more than 2,000 years ago. The son of Babur, Humayan, became the second emperor and married a Persian wife. Their son, Akbar, the greatest of all Mughal emperors was heavily influenced by his Persian mother. In fact, he was born in Sind , Iran and lived most the first 12 years of his life there when his father was in exile for 15 years. Anyway, Emperor Babur had ruled Afghanistan (then a kingdom in Hindustan) from the capital of Kabul for 20 years when he conquered Northern India . What is interesting is that he deposed a 300-year old sultanate with the help of other Indian princes who wanted the ruler taken off. Of course, Babur was a brilliant military leader, similar to Alexander the Great, who won a decisive battle with less number of soldiers than his opponents. So the wife of Alexander the Great was correct about 1,900 years earlier, that the Indians cannot be trusted. A similar thing happened to Babur's son, Humayan, who was defeated and exiled with only a year's stay on the throne, by an Afghan with the help of Indian royalty. Humayan nearly lost his empire and was only able to reclaim it when there was internecine struggle for succession amongst the Afghans and the ruler of Iran gave him the army (it helps to have a Persian or Iranian wife!). But what made the Mughal Dynastry last for 300 years with the expansion of its empire is due to the policy of religious tolerance, particularly to the Hindus (since the Mughals were Muslims), and efficient administration even using Persian advisers. Ric B. Ramos (by email), Santa Rosa , Laguna, Aug. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Gen. Musaharraf is in limbo... The only way to survive is to kiss the ass of Uncle Sam. It's a good choice though. Barack Obama is right. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the breeding grounds of terrorists in Asia . U.S. has to hold his grasp in Pakistan and India too since Russia and China are the strongest threats in the region, if not, the world. Southern Philippines too to help its ally, Australia to watch the most populated Muslim countries in Asia . In the future when gasoline is obsolete, water will be the next highest commodity to really fight for. Well, it's been one of the reasons of the current conflicts in IRAQ (Tigris and Euphrates) and Nile River . Russia will lead the high-tech fuel in the future if U.S. doesn't jump in. Who is Barack Obama? A U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu , Hawaii , to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel , Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita , Kansas . Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii . When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia . When Obama was six years old, the family relocated to Indonesia . Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta . He also spent two years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school." Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta . Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking a major public office in the United States , Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. LF, [email protected], Aug. 25, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reaction to �Jobless in Colombia � (Aug. 13, 2007) Hi Tony, I read your "Jobless in Columbia " column. Could you inquire from Manolo how much is the plane ticket from Colombia to Manila . As former RPN 9 president, I think I can trust Manolo's instinct. I know Cathy Santillan as a colleague very well. Perhaps we can raise the amount by passing the hat around to former and present RPN executives. If Manolo's exclusive tape is good, we might even get some kind-hearted sponsor to air it on TV and raise expense money for the woman and her family. Also, I'm sure the tape will be valuable in warning other Filipinos about this sordid scheme of being a "mule" for smugglers and drug lords. Best regards, Rex (Lores), (by email), Aug. 27, 2007 Former president, RPN-9 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww OFWs demand a public apology Good day to you, Mr. Abaya. If I am not asking too much of your time, I would like you to go through the article attached as well as the link below. http://selvo.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/mahaderang-matapobre-sa-ofws/#comment-238 I never thought that a well-educated (was she?) writer like Malou Fernandez could write an article and eventually published mocking us OFW�s. The way she blatantly ridiculed us only manifests how pathetic is this lady wannabe. It�s a shame that a fellow kabayan like her would write an appalling thought of OFW�s. Regardless of what type of jobs we have here abroad, she doesn�t have the right to malign us as if she�s really somebody. I guess she�s more than an imbecile and never thought that what she writes in her article would boomerang (see all the negative comments). I do hope that depressing comments posted there would be an eye opener and that Ms. Fernandez would make an apology. Thank you so much. Gilbert C. Meneses, (by email), Aug. 20, 2007 Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) Maintenance & Technical Services Department Tareeq 218 cor. Tareeq 163 Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Aurora Pijuan) Dear Editors: I was beyond appalled to read this "Fierce and Fabulous" column by a certain Malu Fernandez in your June 2007 edition . Much worse was her arrogance and bigotry as she explained herself away after the public outrage: Most people don't get the fact that they need bitches like me to shake up their world, otherwise their lives would be boring and mediocre . Clearly Ms Fernandez is in the unhealthy habit of "kicking the masses" just to feel good about her obviously challenged physicality, but this time she went overboard. The host of OFWs that cover this planet are to me the most honorable among us Filipinos of the modern world. For keeping the country afloat at the high price of loneliness and abstemiousness, what they deserve is our respect and gratitude. Even with capellini for brains, Ms. Fernandez is well advised to comprehend that this awesome multitude who live and breathe the true meaning of nobility in work, are what allow her ilk the luxury of remaining MEDIOCRE, shallow, indulgent, and pathetically uninformed. And I want to know if she is capable of delving into the profundity of that statement. Was it a lapse in good journalistic judgment for your magazine to have allowed her insensitive words to go to print? Or perhaps Ms Fernandez is also your publisher? In which case, more so is her moral obligation to keep her personal hang-ups away from her readership. Whether or not your magazine is into sensationalizing and beatifying the pea-brained portion of the jet set, I join the clamor for your publication to deliver a huge apology to its disappointed readers � for the cruel words, and more importantly for your choice of a society writer. If you wish to be credible, or at the very least entertaining, kindly choose a Paris Hilton-type. This one's clearly a Miss Piggy and a misfit in the social set that she desperately wants to move in. Matey Alberto Los Angeles , CA (Bravo!!! No one could have said it better. I join the OFWs in condemning this cretin who has so insensitively maligned them. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Malu Fernandez�s Dubai experience vs. my cousin�s Everyone but the dog is talking about the Malu Fernandez debacle. Well she finally summoned the delicadeza to resign and apologize. Good for her. There can be no forgiveness without repentance and no closure without some form of reparation. The whole brouhaha started with her story of her trip to Greece via the Dubai airport hub. Her sidebar on her discomfort at mixing in with OFWs in Dubai and her coach seat- flight back to Manila riled up OFWs everywhere. She created more enemies with her first retort. Funny, recently in Dumaguete, I met up with a long lost relative. She�s a Harvard eye doctor now practicing in the Bay Area. She visited Dubai recently and saw all the OFWs there. Her reaction though was different. She empathized with the struggle and sacrifice of her fellow countrymen. She wished them a better life with their families. She hoped that they did not have to leave their homes and families to support them. She felt a mix of emotions. She was sad, proud, impressed at their resilience, drive, and courage. And she wanted to help. So instead of writing about her trip and whining about traveling discomforts, she visited the Philippines to explore and ask how she can make a difference. Before she flew in, she attended a talk given by Christopher Crane of Opportunity International, an NGO that facilitates microfinance, micro-credit, enterprise development, trainings, etc. in developing countries. In the Philippines alone, they have loaned close to $135 million benefiting 590,947 clients. She�s now looking at how she can work with them in Negros Oriental. She also attended a dinner meeting with Gawad Kalinga volunteers in Dumaguete to look at avenues of cooperation. She represents a new elite corps with the right breeding. In Gawad Kalinga, the thesis is that poverty is behavioral, not economic. Poverty results from a breakdown of relationships among family members, between neighbors, between social classes, and within society. Thus, the rich need to become better stewards of their resources, talents, and time. The poor need to regain their dignity, hope, and dreams, and to build capacities. Both can do so by helping each other, working together, and building partnerships. But first we need to build relationships and friendships and go beyond colognes and perfumes. Two women, two educated women, privileged. They saw and met OFWs in Dubai . Their realizations were vastly different. Their reactions were opposite. Yet working together and leveraging their talents and networks, they can achieve more in making the Philippines a little piece of heaven on earth. Why not visit a Gawad Kalinga site today? Mabuhay ang OFW! Hecky Villanueva, (by email), Tucson , Arizona , Aug. 27, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Ray Eced) Dick Cheney on Iraq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I Cheney �94: Invading Baghdad would create quagmire. (C-SPAN) OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |