A national narrativeAssimilation or xenophobia?
Economy and security often become twin problems because one complements the other. A stagnating economy means more deprivation and subsequently more crime, while worsening security automatically deters investment and economic activity. This realisation is apparently one reason why the prime minister has placed so much emphasis in talking the insurgency to an end, rather than fighting it. Peace must be preserved at all costs, so we can get along with nation building.
Understandable, but we still remain a nation without a national narrative. And this is where, paradoxically, the entire talks episode with the Taliban did not help matters much. In times of crises, especially existential problems like our insurgency, the country must have a clear vision, which is achieved by mobilising various arms of the government.
Take the polio vaccination example. Regressive forces projecting the anti-polio drive as a foreign conspiracy to spread impotence, or target people for drone strikes, have been far more successful in ‘selling’ their narrative to the people than the government, even though this particular issue is a pretty straight forward matter.
Similarly, in the years that the insurgency was gaining momentum, and ground, TTP elements leveraged radio and internet to impress their particular brand of religion on the masses, with a considerable degree of success. It was only when matters got dangerously out of control that a reactionary measures were taken.
And now, when the talks took off, the government’s desperation to seem successful made it overlook the damage such half cooked policy measures can do. Not only did the Taliban not stop attacking, but their sympathisers were allowed unprecedented prime time space, and their foreign funding and proxy nature were hidden under the garb of shari’a and jihad rhetoric, which left much of the public far more confused than before, with practically nothing to show since the talks have effectively petered out.
Yet even now there is no effort to build a progressive national consensus. We still do not know whether the country is to fight for its original secular nature, one which assimilates all cultures and religions, or become a xenophobic theocracy, with zero tolerance except the firebrand extremism of a very small but unruly minority.
The ruling party is advised to take the failure of the talks as a serious turning point. For public consumption they can make the case that the inability of the insurgents to reconcile with the state leaves few choices. And one very important feature of the new approach will be building nationwide consensus on important matters.