Shakier Hussein; 4/10/08; Shakira Hussein is the editor of interfaith online magazine Shalom, Pax, Salam; http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=Shalom%2C+Pax%2C+Salam&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
The Duet: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power; By Tariq Ali; Simon & Schuster
Pakistan is a nation in a permanent state of flux. As Tariq Ali observes in the preface of his new book The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power, “When I began to write this book a London friend asked, ‘Isn’t it reckless to start a book while the dice is still in the air?’ If I waited for the dice to fall, I would never have written anything about Pakistan.” Events have moved on even in the short time since those words were written. Former president Pervez Musharraf has finally been forced from power, Benazir Bhutto’s widower and designated political heir, Asif Ali Zardari, has become President, the US has increased its incursions into Pakistani territory in pursuit of Taliban fighters and I write this review not long after the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad has been reduced to a charred shell by a suicide bomber.
No Internet Text, The Australian
The Duel, however, remains highly relevant. It anticipates many of these events. What’s more, the book’s subject matter seems likely to attract increasing interest as Pakistan moves to centre stage in the war on terror.
Pakistani-born Ali is a veteran left-wing commentator and a great raconteur. The political analysis of The Duel is spiced with anecdotes from his many years of engagement with the region and with juicy gossip about the main players.
It also provides a clear and compact account of the country’s history, from the bloodshed of Partition in 1947 through the various cycles of civilian and military rule to the lawyers’ movement against Musharraf and the assassination of Bhutto.
Those unfamiliar with Pakistan will find the book a lucid and readable introduction. It also provides thought-provoking material for those who have been following events in the region for some time, although much of the material in this book is very lightly recycled from Ali’s previous writing.
He is highly critical of Pakistan’s ruling elite and, indeed, of its founding ideology. Yet part of his book’s appeal is its clear affection for the Pakistani landscape, culture and people. Through family stories, reminiscences and quotations from literature, Ali provides glimpses of the society behind the headlines, an approach that is particularly welcome when the country seems to stand at the brink of an abyss.
It is worth noting that some of Ali’s juicier pieces of gossip are strenuously denied by the parties concerned, although widely believed by many Pakistanis.
The story of Bhutto’s brother forcibly shaving off half of Zardari’s moustache and the allegation that the sisters of another prominent politician were “married to the Koran” (a cultural practice in which young women are committed to celibacy to keep family property intact) are two examples of this.
The book’s central theme, however, is the relationship between Pakistan and the US. Ali
describes Pakistan as having become a satrapy of the US and reserves his most scathing criticism for the US foreign policy that has supported a string of Pakistani military dictators through the decades.
He quotes a retired Pakistani general who complains that Pakistan was treated as a condom by the US during the counter-insurgency against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan: used for protection, then discarded once the task was done.
Pakistan’s role as a protective sheath was revived after 9/11, when the Bush administration allied itself with yet another Pakistani military leader, this time as an ally in the war against terror. This support continued long after Musharraf had passed his use-by date in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis and the alliance between the US and Musharraf was fuelling popular discontent.
Ali rejects the portrayal of the war in Afghanistan as the “good war” (in contrast to the “bad war” in Iraq). He denies that the failure to establish stable government in Afghanistan is due to a lack of troops on the ground or to Pakistan having provided a safe haven for the Taliban. Rather, he says that the rise of the “neo-Taliban” has been fuelled by the presence of foreign troops and in particular by the rising number of civilian casualties in US military strikes.
Any escalation of US military action in Pakistan would only deepen anti-Western sentiments and fracture the authority of any government that was seen as tolerating it, so that “the ‘jihadi finger’ on the nuclear trigger might well become a self-fulfilling prophesy”.
Ali’s proposed solutions are not new but they are relevant: meaningful land reform, government investment in education so that families have an alternative to extremist madrassas, the development of regional alliances to develop “non-confrontational” solutions to issues of common concern.
As Ali acknowledges, the problem is that none of the main players are interested in these kinds of solutions.
The title of Ali’s 1983 book, Can Pakistan Survive?, generated intense hostility from Pakistanis. Tragically, it is a question that more and more of them are beginning to ask. The answer is still yes, but the next question is: at what price?
