Can Pakistan unplug itself from the Matrix?

We live in a time when the developing world is increasingly focused on inclusive development, bottom of the pyramid solutions, environment and green activities, reform in various segments to deal with poverty alleviation and reduce rich-poor disparities, infrastructure development, health and education for all.

Meanwhile Pakistan is discussing how many plump houris there are on the head of a grenade pin.

"Can a Muslim kill another Muslim?"

"Should we give up the good militants / bad militants philosophy?"

"Are the Taliban a Hindu / Zionist / US creation?"

"Is it our war or America's war?"

"Should it be Af-Pak or Af-Pak-Ind?"

"How many embassies does India need to build a road in Afghanistan?"

"Was the Chand Bibi video doctored or was she really whipped by the Men in Black?"

and of course

"What did the Quaid want for Pakistan?" (a 364x24x7 favourite)

To me and perhaps many in the rest of the world the answer to these questions seems obvious or even completely irrelevant but in Pakistan every second discussion seems to be on these questions.

How has this come to be?

As an outsider I will merely add to what is said by many analysts in Pakistan. That it is a combination of two aspects of Pakistan's history. The first is the "Let us be more and more Muslim" discourse that began with Pakistan labeling itself an Islamic republic and which has, like wine, continued gaining in potency and body in one form or another. The second aspect is that military mindsets have been decision makers for most of Pakistan's existence who have viewed everything through the narrow prism of Great Games and scoring points of the neighbours. A critical consequence of both has been the doctoring of Pakistan's history to make it fit an Islam Arab centered, Hindu & India hating, martial narrative.

This brainwashing seems to have institutionalized the creation of a martial paranoid 'conspiracy theory credulous' Islamic mind.

As I.A. Rehman wrote in the Dawn, "So strong is the Pakistani elite’s aversion to India that it barely acknowledges its South Asian identity. Most Pakistanis would like to believe that Pakistan is located somewhere between Iraq and Saudi Arabia." (http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/col umnists/i-a-rehman-the-indian-election-159)

This mindset has worked wonderfully for those in power. It has kept people focused on metaphysical questions or identifying with the military establishment's narrative for the region or blaming external causes whether it is India or the US. In an eerie way it reminds me of The Matrix, that fascinating hypothesis that humanity is plugged into the 'Matrix' a simulated reality that keeps each person who is plugged in, docile and non-rebellious.

Some fixed elements of this Pakistani Matrix world seem to be:

- Muslims are a separate 'people' and Pakistan was forged so they would not be subjugated by Hindus
- India treats its Muslims very badly (Godhra! and Sachar committee report) so Pakistan is really Noah's Ark for subcontinental Muslims
- Sharia is a just equitable law which is superior to all modern legal systems
- India is the implacable foe of Pakistan
- India is filled with cunning Hindus who are constantly plotting to either reassimilate Pakistan or dismember Pakistan (remember 1971?)
- Kashmir belongs to Pakistan or at the least should not be in India's control
- Unless Kashmir accedes to Pakistan or India cedes it, Pakistan will wage a covert war using non state actors
- These non state actors are heroes and martyrs and mujahideen who are fighting a righteous war
- It is critical that the Pakistani army be at par with India so that they can at some point wrench back Kashmir and / or avenge 1971
- If for doing that the rest of Pakistan has to 'eat grass' then every patriotic Pakistani must consider it a well worth sacrifice
- The heroic courageous Pakistani fauj knows best what is best for Pakistan
- Politicians are venal fools who would sell the country for their own interests
- Every once in a while the altruistic army has to relucantly step in to rescue Pakistan from the politicians
- Pakistan needs a friendly state to its west to give it strategic depth in case of an ever possible conflict with India
- India does not have any valid role in Afghanistan
- If India does any activity in Afghanistan it obviously must be aimed at Pakistan and its 'legitimate' strategic interests

It is a completely paranoid narrative where at all times the good Pakistani is fighting a phalanx of evil forces arrayed against him. We can almost imagine it as a Playstation or XBox game.

If Pakistanis freed themselves from the matrix and are able to see the world as it really is, they may ask questions such as:

- Do we need to spend over 40% (or 50 or 60%) of our budget on the military?
- Why is land reform not on the agenda of any political party?
- Why should the military be running corporations rather than focusing on fighting external and internal threats?
- If the military is really such a hot shot organization why are we in this mess after 9 years of military rule and a total of 45 years of it since independence?
- What is more important, a resolution to Kashmir or good bilateral trade so that the region as a whole develops?
- Why is so much public discourse controlled either by the mullah brigade or defence analysts who are ex-Lt Gen this or ex-Air Vice Marshal that?
- Why do seriously insane people like Zaid Hamid have such a following?
- Why are the military establishment so keen to perceive a threat from India without much provocation?
- What can Pakistan hope to gain in a war with India?
- Why are there so few people writing in the media on developmental issues?
- Why do we so rarely find the President of Pakistan or senior government functionaries talking about developmental issues and setting developmental targets?
- Does it not show a strange disconnect that the Finance Advisor should mention that 'People should use public transport' when it is common knowledge that public transport is almost non-existent even in Pakistan's cities? As Ahmad Ray Alam says in The News (http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=186124) "what buses was the finance adviser referring to? Islamabad, the city from where he spoke, is one of the world's few capitals that don't have a public transport system. In Lahore, which has a population of eight million, there are less than 900 public transport buses on its congested streets."
- Why is there so much apathy in the people about whether Pakistan should be a democracy or a military led government?
- Why is it that 60 years after independence, all political parties (except for Altaf Hussain's MQM party) are led by by zamindars, industrialists, religious fundoos, ex-cricketer fundoos and none by people from planet Earth at the lower ends of the social strata?

And indeed there Morpheuses free of the Pakistani matrix who are asking these questions, the sect of political commentators of the likes of Irfan Husain, Ayesha Siddiqua, Ejaz Haidar, Cyril Almeida, Kamran Shafi, Masood Hasan, Kamila Hyat, Fasi Zaka et al hanging on in their Zion. And as an aside, it is worth mentioning that the quality and courage of the Pakistani commentators and their willingness to take on unpopular subjects such as the questions above, has far as I can see, no counterpart in India. One can but ask whether if the reverse of 26/11 had happened, say Karachi if attacked by an Indian militant group and one person had been captured who claimed to be Indian, whether Indian news channels would have courageously tracked down the address and exposed the government's denials as both The Dawn and Geo TV did.

What Pakistan urgently needs are more Morpheuses who will awaken the country.

The good news is that there are already signs that the drug is wearing off. The Lawyers Movement and the spontaneous rallies in March to protest against Governers rule in Punjab and the doctored ruling against the Sharifs showed the tremendous latent feeling in the grassroots for genuine change and the feeling that 'enough is enough'. It is this vein that needs to be tapped and grown to become the engine that will change Pakistan by focusing on the things it genuinely should and not on perceived bogies built up by those in power to keep their 60 year gravy train rolling.