The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Calamity mitigation on the back burner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Calamity mitigation on the back burner

B. Muralidhar Reddy

For the Pakistani military establishment, the earthquake means little in terms of advancing its agenda. This should explain its laidback response and tardy approach to the ground realities in the aftermath of the calamity.

ON MONDAY, the Pakistan Foreign Office announced that it "intended" to hand over to India a list of 70 people from earthquake-shattered Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) who wished to go over to the Indian side. They wished to do this through five points across the Line of Control (LoC), to share the grief of their brethren. To finalise the first list it took Pakistan 16 days after an agreement was reached with India on opening up the LoC points.

This laidback approach typifies the response of the military and the Government to the aftermath of the earthquake. It killed over 86,000 people, seriously injured 60,000 and displaced over 3.3 million. But the actions and reactions of the establishment hardly reflect the enormity of the tragedy. There is just no sense of either urgency or an understanding of the ground realities.

Since the October 29 agreement with India, the Public Relations Department of the military, and the Foreign Office, have been busy painting India as the villain of the piece impeding the proposal to open the LoC. A day before the agreement, President Pervez Musharraf told an Arab daily with supreme confidence: "Tomorrow you would see who is haggling!"

Harping on Kashmir issue

During his visit to Dhaka for the summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz could not resist the temptation to score a point vis-à-vis India. Harping on the theme of a resolution of the Kashmir issue for achieving peace and stability, Mr. Aziz claimed to have made, during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a proposal for the demilitarisation of Kashmir as means to comfort the earthquake-hit people.

Mr. Aziz had clearly missed an opportunity for a frank dialogue with Dr. Singh on the challenge posed by the militant groups, fostered by various agencies of the Pakistan establishment at some time or the other who are bent on wrecking the peace process. The serial blasts in New Delhi and the claims by the Delhi Police of Pakistani links to them had provided Mr. Aziz a chance for a heart-to-heart talk with Dr. Singh. But he had other priorities.

The media contingent that accompanied the Pakistani Prime Minister was obsessed with a few themes: the admission of Afghanistan as a member of SAARC, the conferment of observer status to China and, of course, Kashmir. The earthquake figured mostly as a footnote — as if it had occurred last year, if not a decade ago. There were brief references to the opening of LoC points. The media were obviously reflecting the official mindset.

For the military, the earthquake means little in terms of advancing its agenda. Gen. Musharraf chided a Pakistani journalist at a press conference for asking if a cut in defence expenditure was on the cards to tide over the crisis triggered by the earthquake. He wondered how anyone could suggest jeopardising the country's security.

Initially he ruled out any review of the decision to acquire F-16s from the United States. After vociferous protests from civil society groups and a section of the press, the President decided to delay the $4 billion deal. Indications are that the postponement was more with an eye on the international donors for earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation than on domestic criticism.

The deal with Sweden for six flying turkeys (an early warning system involving six SAAB aircraft) at a cost of a billion dollars is also under public scrutiny. What makes it worse is that the deal was apparently contracted days after the earthquake.

Questions have been raised about the merits of such defence purchases, particularly at a juncture when Pakistan is urging the world to chip in for the massive reconstruction work. But the military is unmoved. The purchase proposal has been justified not only on the ground of defence preparedness from the Indian angle but as something that can be of help in times of calamities.

Ayaz Amir, columnist in Dawn, wrote: "Must we match India in every defence particular? India is getting an airborne early warning system from Israel. Must we have one too? The nation was led to believe its nuke capability provided insurance against Indian superiority in conventional arms. Nukes enabling cuts to be made in conventional defence spending make sense. But along with possession of nukes allowing ourselves to be bled dry by a tit-for-tat arms race makes little sense. The SAAB deal therefore sucks. It too should head for the chopping block. Sweden, which puts such great store by its humanitarian record, should not mind."

Questions have been raised on the military's decision to build an Army headquarters in Islamabad. Far from being on the defensive, Gen. Musharraf has argued that it will be funded from the sale of cantonment land and that the Government stands to gain from it as 25 per cent of the sale proceeds would go to it.

The earthquake shattered the lives of millions of people but still has failed to bridge the gap between the military and the civilians in general and the political class in particular. Thanks to the contempt Gen. Musharraf has for the mainstream political parties and leaders, there has been no consensus over holding a customary all-party meeting to take stock of the impact of the earthquake.

The Government's efforts to convene one have not succeeded as the Opposition parties want the former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, to be allowed to return from exile. Gen. Musharraf is not ready even to hear such a question. His decision to entrust some of the key relief and reconstruction jobs to the military has been criticised, but he is not moved.

A former editor and a human rights activist, Kamila Hyat, is of the view that the aftermath of the disaster has exposed the precarious state of relations between civilians and the military. "As the military has moved into more and more spheres of life, it would seem that resentment against the institution has grown. The results of these often unseen tensions manifest themselves when the need to work together arises — as in the traumatic post-quake situation." She believes the mistrust is the inevitable consequence of the Army leaving the barracks, and its occupation of not only political office but offices in educational institutions, the bureaucracy, the business sector and more.

She says: "More than anything else, the present situation, where the military continues to come under fierce criticism — some aspects of it justified and others not — underscores the need for the army to turn once more to its professional role, rather than striding further along the murky track of power acquisition in the civilian sector which has already cost it dearly in terms of the trust and goodwill of the people the force is entrusted to defend."

Another aspect that has alarmed civil society and the international community is the resurgence of militant outfits in the earthquake zone. The speed with which the militant cadres fanned out, caught many unawares. For months the people had been assured that all militants had been crushed.

Yet, they are in such strength on the ground that Gen. Musharraf was compelled to praise them. In an interview he went to the extent of suggesting that the only way for the Government to be one up on the jehadi outfits is to "outdo them" on the ground.

The presence and the work of the jehadis in the earthquake-hit areas have serious social and political implications for Pakistan, India and the region. It raises the prospect of radicalisation of the PoK as never before.

International community concerned

More than the Pakistani establishment, the international community (read the U.S.) seems to be concerned about the situation. President Bush's Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca is leading a business delegation to the earthquake-hit areas for an assessment. Ahead of the visit, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a member of the delegation, advocated massive American relief as a "wise investment in war on terror."

Writing in the Washington Times he lamented that the chasm of need in the earthquake zone is being filled by groups hostile to American values and interests.

He wrote: "Jamaat ul-Dawa, an affiliate of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, opened a major field hospital — weeks before an American MASH unit was up and running. Other extremist groups, including at least one whose U.S. assets have been frozen on suspicion of channelling funds to Al-Qaeda, have organised massive relief convoys and camps sheltering survivors. These radicals have learned a lesson already known to every U.S. military officer. You can't win a war with bombs alone; you have to win hearts and minds."

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