Age of Terrorism and Poverty
05 August 2004
While the world focuses on the War against Terrorism, the war against poverty slides onto the backburner.
Since the bombing of the World Trade Centers almost three years back, three elements are emerging. The first is the fight to root out militants, the second is the political rise of the voice of the religious margins (extremists) and the third is the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
Pakistan is a front line state in the war against terrorism. Most of the leading terrorists were arrested from Pakistan. Khalid Shaikh, once described as the CEO of Al Qaeda, was arrested from Rawalpindi. Other important leaders continue to be caught in dribs and drabs every six months including Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani a Tanzanian who was arrested in the Pakistani city of Gujrat last month.
This is both good and bad news for Islamabad’s military ruler. The positive part is that the General gets to play good cop and earn Washington’s pleasure to continue his dictatorship. The bad part is that eyebrows are raised as to why Al Qaeda leading militants found it necessary to hide in a land run by Washington’s “key ally” in the war against terrorism.
Unfortunately for Pakistan, assassinations and suicide bombings are increasing domestically in Pakistan. Scores of Pakistanis and many foreigners were killed as a consequence. Many leading political leaders,
including a parliamentarian of the Pakistan Peoples Party, were gunned down in streets from the North in Rawalpindi to the South in Karachi.
None of the assassins were arrested.
Instead public interest was focused on five high profile assassination attempts that took place since last December. These included two attacks on General Musharraf, one on the Karachi Corp Commander, the fourth on Prime Minister designate Mr. Shaukat Aziz and the Baluchistan Chief Minister.
While the regime claims that these were assassination attempts against the politically high value targets, the pattern speaks against it. At best these were attempts to frighten the high value targets. At worst, if the cynics are to be believed, these were stage managed for external exploitation.
For example, in each of the attacks, the suicide bombers used low intensity explosives. While the cars were hit, or nearly hit, the casualties were of personal and national value and not of political value. These included innocent people escorting the politically high value targets. Each high value target, including Musharraf, the Corp Commander, the Prime Minister designate and the Chief Minister did not receive a scratch. While it is welcome that they survived, the larger issue needs resolving: was the aim of the attacker’s to kill the high value targets or merely frighten them– or was it something else.
The drivers in the Corp Commander and Prime Minister designate cars were killed but the rest of the passengers escaped unscathed. It is difficult to believe that a suicide bomber would repeatedly use a low intensity explosive so that only one occupant of the car he was bombing would die (or the person outside the car would die).
A public Commission into the suicide attacks would reveal the true intent of the suicide bomber. This is much needed.
The second significant development since the attack on the World Trade Towers has been the rise of the religious extremists. There appear to be groups in both the Muslim and Non Muslim world who believe that a clash of civilizations is needed for religious reasons. The Christian fundamentalists believe that Christ will be resurrected once the people of the Judaic faith are resettled on the banks of the Euphrates. The Muslim extremists believe that the Mahdi will arrive when the battle between the Muslims and the non-Muslims intensifies.
This is a political scenario threatening to undo the social fabric built since the end of the Second World War. That fabric was based on tolerance namely the tolerance between different faiths, races, gender and culture. A clash of civilizations can lead to Armageddon where there will be no winners on earth. But perhaps the religious extremists are not searching for winners on earth.
The challenge for the world community is to emphasize the values of tolerance, moderation and inter-faith understanding on which rest the pillars of a less violent world.
However, the bombing of the World Trade Centers and the events in Iraq have complicated the issue. The attacks on the World Trade Centers led to suspicion against Muslims and a loss of civil liberties. The events in Iraq led to a counter suspicion by Muslims as to the purposes of the war. The inability to find weapons of mass destruction and the Abu Ghareb abuses undermined the reasons given for the Iraq war.
While attention is focused on terrorism and militancy, the issues of poverty alleviation are relegated to the back burner. Today big business seems to be in the driving seat. One report in the media recently claimed that, “Twenty years ago, CEOs made an average of 40 times more than the factory floor worker. Last year it was 400 times more, and is now climbing to a multiple of 500”.
This staggering rise in the fortunes of those on top, while those below suffer, can turn into a festering sore that erupts. The recent Indian elections demonstrated that a stock market economy alone could not make India shine. The Indian electorate went against all predictions as the peasants, laborers and middle classes came out and voted for change. Similarly in Pakistan, the talk of stock market rises and forex increases hides a more troubling picture. This is a picture of increasing poverty, hunger, misery and frustration. The numbers of young people killing themselves out of hunger was twelve hundred in six
months. These are the catalogued numbers whereas the real figures are higher.
In Pakistan, the average income has been shrinking. The cost of living is sharply rising. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a common citizen to pay fat utility bills and buy basic necessities of life. The Pakistan Economic Survey admits that poverty figures have increased since democracy was derailed in 1996. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an alarming rate. The War Against Terrorism is primarily perceived as a war based on the use of force. However, economics has its own force, as does desperation of families that cannot feed themselves. A more stable world depends on the ability to use force when necessary and also to seek political solutions when possible. After all, force is a prelude to a more favorable negotiating position in a political settlement.
Militancy and greed cannot become the defining images of a new century that began with much hope. As the body count rises in Iraq, as a leading NGO pulls out of Afghanistan and as a suicide attack takes place against Pakistan’s Prime Minister designate, the time has come to pause and reflect.
By returning to the simple values of democracy, the will of the people, broad based government and building institutions that can respond to the people, the social malaise can be addressed.