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Open your eyes, Dave

Fatima Bhutto

Published 04 December 2008

In his haste to embrace the new pro-western government of Pakistan, the British Foreign Secretary has ignored reality

“Criminals shouldn’t run countries”: Bhutto

Open your eyes, Dave

Dear David,

I hope this letter finds you well. Do you mind if I call you David? "Mr Miliband" sounds so formal, given your affectionate relationship with my country. It was such a lovely surprise to have you over. It warmed our hearts, really it did. I especially enjoyed your faith in our new government (you know, the one headed by two former ex-cons?). The CIA and Nato have both praised Pakistan's new regime for its enthusiastic assistance in the war on terror, and now you've chimed in. I find it's always nice to have supportive friends when you're at war with your own citizens.

But back to you, esteemed Foreign Secretary (maybe I could just call you Dave?). You welcomed the "reforming zeal" of Pakistan's present government, adding that under Asif Zardari's stewardship Pakistan has been turned into an outward-looking force. Flogging an extremely dead horse, you went on to say that Britain was keen fully to support Pakistan's "democratic" government. The quotation marks are mine, not yours, clearly. Let's talk about some of that reforming zeal you were so impressed by.

In a push to inaugurate as many chums as possible into high-powered federal posts, the Zardari government last month named Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani as the education minister. Does the name ring a bell, Dave? It should. In 2007, the former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry - you remember him surely? - ordered Bijarani's arrest for a small matter.

The small matter was this: to settle a feud between two families, Bijarani, then a Pakistan Peoples Party national assembly member, sat at the head of a local jirga and ordered that five girls be handed over to the family of a murdered man as compensation. The five girls were Aamna, aged five, Bashiran and Meerzadi, both aged two, Shehzadi, six, and Noor Bano, three. But thanks to the reformist zeal of our new and, might I add democratic, government, the former chief justice's condemnation of Bijarani's barbarism is null and void. The criminal is cleansed and blessed with a promotion allowing him to preside over a substantial federal ministry. What happened to the five girls - to Bashiran and Meerzadi and the others? Who cares? Their country is an outward-looking force.

Throughout your time in Pakistan, and I hate to be a pain about this, Dave, you used the phrase "civilian government" ad nauseam. "Pakistan's civilian government must stop the drones"; "I welcome the reforming zeal of the civilian government"; "Britain supports the civilian government of Pakistan". But what you seem to be forgetting is that civilian governments can be authoritarian, too. Case in point: because of a most inconvenient deluge of criticism aimed at the civilian government, the civilian government has introduced the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance.

Threatening text messagers and satirical emailers through the Federal Investigation Authority was not enough; now parliament is going to get serious. Under the ordinance, anyone found guilty of "cyber terrorism" and who thereby "causes death of any person" will face the death penalty. The only problem is, again, a small one - that no one is clear as to what exactly constitutes cyber terrorism. The definitions put forth by the civilian government are ludicrous. They do not follow internationally recognised standards. The ordinance includes many more ambiguities, for crimes such as "spoofing" and "spamming", for instance, that will be punished with imprisonment.

Does this article count as an electronic crime? It might. According to the decree, I've just spoofed by making suggestions of an obscene nature - that criminals shouldn't run countries. I could, therefore, be found guilty under section 13, which prohibits cyber stalking. Yes, I know they aren't related. I didn't stalk anyone. It's just that kind of law. If I forward this article to my mailing list, I could be charged with "spamming". Anything is possible under the reformist zeal of our new civilian government.

A few days ago, the senate standing committee on the interior admitted the presence of "countless hidden torture cells" across the country. What exactly has changed since the civilians took power from the generals? Nothing. Torture remains unabated. The press is more muzzled, and the economy is prostrate, at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund's lending conditions.

By next July, according to the stipulations of the IMF, subsidies for electricity, gas and petroleum products will be eliminated. Agricultural subsidies will most likely be cut, and by 2015 the ratio of tax to GDP will increase from less than 10 to more than 15 per cent. The poor will have to pay for Pakistan's corrupt governance, Dave. The poor, already burdened by extreme food inflation and power and water shortages, will bear the brunt of our civilian government's "reformist zeal".

Covering both Afghanistan and Pakistan on one trip in two days, and now having the issues in India to respond to, is a hell of a lot of work. You must be dreadfully exhausted by all your recent politicking. I know we are. I trust you had a safe flight home. We'll miss you.

Best wishes,

Fatima

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15 comments from readers

Raja Naveed Sarwar
04 December 2008 at 13:55

Interesting letter, but a different approach………………

sweety
05 December 2008 at 00:55

Why not invent more sophisticated , drone type weapons for dealing with terrorists who polarise borders. You can gauge their success when the Pakistani's start moaning about civilian casualities, other than the usual ones at bye elections. The drones have a long list of high profile casualities to their credit. The somaili pirates, are another case in point, live in a confined area are easily identifable but are making a laughing stock of the international trading community.

writeon
05 December 2008 at 21:14

Fatima,

You can give up on Dave Miliband. He's totally out of his depth as Foreign Secretary. He seems totally incapable of thinking for himself and is totally uncritical of US foreign policy. His statements and speeches sound like they are written in Washington, which I suppose isn't that far from the truth.

mmalik
06 December 2008 at 20:43

In a more-real-life high-stakes version of the reality show ‘Boiling Point,’ Pakistan’s current government is not holding back. It is determined to test the country’s patience through every means. The one-day 70% hike in power prices was classic. Naming an uneducated (I can’t really think of another way to describe someone with his views) person to a cabinet post for education was ingenious. I didn’t realize this earlier but the carefully etched out strategy to use the words ‘we are a civilian government’ and ‘Pakistan is a sovereign nation’ over and over and over and over and over again and NOT mean it to boot is excruciatingly annoying not to mention disrespectful. Brilliant! Where do they come up with this stuff!

Unfortunately unlike the television show’s unsuspecting participants it is doubtful that Pakistan’s downtrodden (read: most of its population) will react so kindly to a cheery “Gotcha!” and 7,500 rupee (US$ 100) prize when all is said and done.

Or will they?

Gideon Polya
06 December 2008 at 21:43

Excellent letter by Ms Bhutto. The key sentences: "The CIA and Nato have both praised Pakistan's new regime for its enthusiastic assistance in the war on terror, and now you've chimed in. I find it's always nice to have supportive friends when you're at war with your own citizens."

Thus a recent report from Pakistan states: "In the rugged north of the country, a major military offensive to root out Taliban militants has created a flood of up to 200,000 refugees and pitched Pakistani against Pakistani, Muslim against Muslim, in a conflict some are beginning to regard as a civil war" (see: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/23-4 ).

Another germane statistic is that avoidable deaths (excess deaths, excess mortality, avoidable mortality,deaths that should not have happened) total 850,000 annually for Pakistan and under-5 year old infant deaths total about 600,000 annually - the price of Western hegemony, militarism and corruption (for details see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ).

Of course Pakistan is Paradise compared to Occupied Afghanistan. From UN Population Division data, avoidable deaths in Afghanistan (1979-2008) since US-backed overthrow of progressive rule in Afghanistan in 1979 and 30 years of violence and national disruption total 10.6 million.

In Occupied Afghanistan post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths total 4-6 million, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 2.1 million and refugees total about 4 million (including 0.2 million refugees from US bombing of the Pakistan NW Provinces) – an Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention; it is estimated that about there have been 0.6 million opiate drug-related deaths world-wide (50,000 in the US alone) due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry (see "9-11 excuse for US global genocide": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/25184/42/ ).

writeon
07 December 2008 at 14:35

Miliband stated recently that the attacks in Mumbai were an attack on Western democracy, despite the fact that they took place in India! He repeats this neo-conservative mantar endlessly that radical Muslims are attacking us for our values and because we are democracies. Therefore they are irrational, illigitimate, mad and insane. Is any of this true?

It's all in their "mad" and dangerous culture and religion, which is incompatible with democracy and modernity and hates both of them and wants to destroy them. Is any of this true?

But "radical Muslims" even the evil one himself, Bin Ladin, don't say this at all. They say the opposite. They claim they are fighting a perfectly justifiable war of liberation from Western agression and imperialism, aimed directly at the Muslim world for the purpose of securing access and control of vital raw materials, namely oil and gas reserves. Why do we choose not to believe them? What if this analysis is correct?

Obviously we cannot accept it or even talk about it. It is close to a taboo subject in the Western establishment media and politics. The struggle isn't about economics and power or money. It's about culture and religion, democracy and freedom. Is this true?

Hasn't the Western world always, stretching way back for centuries, justified it's imperial conquests and crusades with a fancy veneer of "holy values" designed to ligitimize robbery, rape and murder on a massive scale? So nothing has really changed, we are still doing it, only the faces, names and words have been modified slightly, the strategy has remained virtually unchanged.

Of course my perspective does stick a dagger right into the heart of Western self-image; that we are a benign force for good and progress in the world, that we love freedom and democracy above all things, even above life itself. Give me liberty or give me death! Very nice, but before that give me what I want and what you've got of value first!

Mark
09 December 2008 at 12:36

The whole of Pakistan polictical establishment are corrupt and spineless, and I have no love for them, however I think it a bit rich for a Bhutto to continue to twitter about another group of scum especially as the Bhutto wealth and position is founded on have traitors as ancestors who sold the out ot the British and were rewarded with land, money and position.

sajidswindon
10 December 2008 at 14:36

I am afraid Miss Fatima Bhutto is banging her head against a brick wall. Incidentally, one wonders whats her connection with the BHUTTO family and why could she not keep quiet for her name's sake?

The Pakistani public can elect any person they want, he/she will always turn out to be a rogue dictator because our system is such. By our system I mean; the feudal lords controlling their respective patch, the lack of dissemination of knowledge among general public, the absence of leadership, the abundance of injustice, etc. The Pakistani predicament is not new. The medieval Europe was ruled by feudal lords and violence was rife in Europe at the time, while the Muslim Empire spanned from Spain to the Valley of Sindh in Pakistan. In the year of our Lord 1453 AD, Mehmed II the Great along with his 100,000 men carried 100 ships over land to reach the channel of Golden Horn which was chained at its mouth, and captured Constantinople. The monks, thinkers, philosophers, etc. of Constantinople took the Greek and Roman books and escaped to Europe. There, they taught the European rulers the way to govern people and the importance of Scientific knowledge. What started the descent of the Muslims and the rise of the Christian Europe was the Europeans embracing Science and Capitalism.

Pakistan will only improve if someone like Oliver Cromwell becomes the leader of Pakistan; separates state from religion, encourages freedom of speech and overhauls every aspect of our primitive establishment no matter what the cost.

Darkalia
11 December 2008 at 08:55

A revolution is required, once the corrupt have been removed the next step would be for Pakistan to distance itself from Saudi Arabia and the USA, nations who export terror in their own ways.

maqsoodkayani
11 December 2008 at 11:45

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

- Samuel P. Huntington (The Clash Of Civilisations)

Riaz Ahmad
12 December 2008 at 16:18

In every election, the people of Pakistan keep electing the same old corrupt parties and politicians, so how on earth can they hope to benefit from democracy, is there any hope for a change?. India had the same problem, but people got wiser and started to vote for smaller regional parties. There is still a lot to do, but at least the Indians are heading in the right direction.

uvalawn
15 December 2008 at 22:43

all a country needs to do to succeed is set up democratic institutions. there is no reason why this should be so difficult except for the fact that there are greedy pricks everywhere. I guarantee you that musharraf, nawaz sharif, asif zardari and altaf hussein view themselves as being amazing and blame the others for being horrible. It's weird how that works. They are all pathetic and have kept/are keeping pakistan down.

Arish Tareen
01 January 2009 at 14:15

Apart from the government being not sincere with its people the government is not even sincere with the reason it’s in power today. There has been no sincere effort by the Government to investigate BB's murder and the reason behind that is apparently Mr. Zardari knows who the “killers” are as he said in his speech during BB's death anniversary but he doesn’t want to share that with the people of Pakistan and just wants them to support him now I know what he meant when he said "all my life I have turned my weaknesses into my strengths".

john_andrew
06 January 2009 at 02:20

Although I am nobody to point you or your family. But, why you are involving our foreign secretary in your country local's politics? You know more and bettter than our foreign secretary about your country, why dont you take step in politics? Read alot about you on wikipedia and flickrs (infact internet), and I can confidently say, you are more than a writer. The reason, your social profile, the way media highlights you. Although, you said earlier, that "I don't believe in birth-right politics. I don't think, nor have I ever thought, that my name qualifies me for anything". But, I think reality is different, infact, it was your internal fear about yourself which forced you to say those words. I think you are already in Politics. How? I dont know much about you but your media briefing on election day in a polling station was more than a clue that you were active in politics. Furthermore, your comments against your aunt and her husband was another clue that you consider them as your political opponent. Your another blog about your country failed leader was another clue, in which you claimed "Pakistan is not failed state but its leaders are failed statemen" This word Stateman and this Blog NEWSTATEMAN is another clue. You are a new statesman, infact, new statewoman. Your political background is enough to make you a political statewoman. You are not a selfmade statewoman. Your presence, when your step mom was fighting with opponent politican was another clue. You did not say any thing about your step mom, was more than enough proof that you support her. To sum up Ms. FATima Bhutto, a lady who will be new political statewoman of Pakistan, and who will compete Bilawal Bhutto. But do not underestimate your aunt family and their political power. Will you invite and welcome your step brother Zulfiqar Jr. Bhutto in politics? Your pictures with Zulfiqar, cutting cake with sword is negative picture in my thinking. Zulfiqar mean sword, and sword with sword, cutting cake is -ve.

sara
25 February 2009 at 16:44

first, i demand you ms.john_andrew to write her name with proper etiquette, sounds as if you are afraid of her and a little ashamed at the same time because she is not as dumb as your so called "foreign secretary"! ms. john, you are stating that you dont know her....but really if you think about it, you are cyber stalking her.

please read her letter to "dave" again and i am sure second time around you will be able to wipe off some dumbness off your face...yes, indeed the same stupid trade mark dave has earned and widely known for! so please try to grasp what she is trying to say.

she is a fine journalist and can write and say whatever she sees fit. leaving all aside including your not so impressive "foreign secretary", i just care about the girls she is talking about.

fatima you rock!!! dont ever stop fighting for the rights of the poor helpless people.