Being Liberal….
February 9, 2010
Here I attempt to list down the core lines of thinking of a “liberal” Pakistani. I have collected this thought process, from newspapers like Dawn that represent this “liberal” class, and from interactions both in person and on internet forums. I will try to keep updating this list as and when i come across new “liberal” mantras. So here goes, according to a Pakistani “liberal”, being liberal and modern means:
- Allama Iqbal was nothing but a poet. A philosopher at most.
- India is not the enemy, our Army is.
- Whoever talks about Islam, automatically equals to Taliban.
- Quaid e Azam was a secular , non Islamic leader.
- Pakistan does not need nuclear weapons and the associated delivery mechanisms.
- Pakistan Army is too big and too expensive to maintain.
- Islam has no room in legislation and/or governance.
- CNN, BBC and other MSM outlets are not liars, our journalists opposing or questioning the MSM view can be liars
- You may question Islam or the existence of God but questioning the Americans is a big no no.
- An American can call for bombing of any country, he is spreading democracy but when a Pakistani does that,we will call him a hatred spreading warmonger.
- “We cannot survive without American hand outs” is a more important line of thinking as opposed to “We can survive on our own if we eliminated/minimised corruption”.
- Regardless of the resolution of core disputes between Pakistan and India, i.e. Kashmir and Water, we should allow India free trade, and make the border between us a soft border.
- Our minds are too feeble to think beyond the western model of democracy, secularism and capitalism, anything else is either beyond our understanding or it is a “ghissa pitta nizaam”. And last but not the least:
- Anyone who disagrees with us is a conspiracy theorist.
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February 18, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Sir,
I think your post was malicious and far too simplistic. I am not sure I identify myself as a “liberal” Pakistani, I prefer to think of myself as an intelligent, realistic, and forward thinking Pakistani, and none of these attributes are specific to liberals. I hope you will read my responses.
Thank you,
Adil
Allama Iqbal was a poet, a philosopher, a revolutionary, and surely one of the finest pakistanis to have ever walked this earth.
India is not our enemy RIGHT NOW the taliban and Islamic fundamentalists are.
Whoever justifies killing innocent men, women, and children of any race or religion, and whoever justifies suicide, automatically equals to Taliban.
Quaid-e-azam was a secular, non-Islamic leader with a vision of creating an Islamic state for the Muslims of South Asia.
Pakistan definitely needs nuclear weapons to protect itself. But the entire world should be moving to a nuclear-weapon free world, starting with the US and Israel. Until that happens, Pakistan definitely needs its nuclear weapons.
Pakistani Army and the military receives too much of our GDP, MUCH more money needs to be invested in improving domestic structures like healthcare, education, etc.
Islam has a big role in legistlation and governance, but not the Talibani version of Islam that calls for murdering infidels and innocents alike. This is totally inconsistent with our national identity and has no role in Pakistani politics.
The American media is definitely not “free and fair” and a huge amount of money is paid to the media to cover and to not cover different events. The media in American shapes public perception to justify their aggressive foreign policy. The BBC is much more fair in reporting, but also can’t be declared flawless.
If you equate questioning God with questioning the Americans, then you are an idiot, not a liberal.
Americans and Pakistanis are both equally unjustified in bombing and spreading violence. We are on the earth for a maximum of 100 years, why do we want to waste this time bombing and killing and hating? Lets not compare our moral standards to those of the Americans, 9/11, 26/11, and US war on Terror are all gross violations of human rights and moral standards.
We can indeed survive without American handouts, but not until we divert money away from the army and military in general and more towards social services in Pakistan. Obviously this can only be done after the Taliban are defeated, but this needs to be the way forward if we want to become self-reliant.
India and Pakistan are both poor, developing countries with a million social problems. We lead the world in preventable diseases, malnutrition, and infant mortality, just to name a few. Yet we walk around puffing our chests with pride at our mediocrity. Instead of focusing on our differences, we should help each other overcome our social and political problems and work together for the improvements of BOTH countries.
The Western model of democracy will never work in Pakistan, and Pervez Musharraf was the most honest and successful leader we’ve had in the recent past. Had he stepped down before 2007, he would have been remembered as the best Pakistani leader after Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Intelligent discourse is the foundation of success. Key word, intelligent. Your post was more malicious than intelligent and far too overly simplistic.
August 15, 2010 at 9:05 am
“You may question Islam or the existence of God but questioning the Americans is a big no no”,insane writing i must say,What the hell do they feed you back there in Brasstacks?
August 15, 2010 at 6:26 pm
sorry, you could not understand what I said. And no I’m not a part of Brasstacks