On the foreign policy front we need to tread the road less travelled
Every now and then I encounter many brilliant, good willed and upright people who mistake jingoism for patriotism and narrow and harrowing chauvinism for nationalism. It is pertinent that these folks understand that peaceful co-existence is not a choice, it is the compulsory condition for any state that wants to uplift the lot of its inhabitants
Those of you possessing a bent for verse written in foreign languages, I hope a poem or two by Robert Frost must’ve popped up and left its mark during your stay in the realm of ‘sweet poesy’. In one of his widely read poems, ‘Mending Wall’ a neighbour insists on wisdom inherent in raising boundaries and fences as it was handed over to him by his father and repeatedly reminds his interlocutor of benefits of erecting fences, one of them being a time-tested formula that keeps neighbours dear to each other. Or, to quote directly from the poem, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’. In the wake of the Torkham Border incident I was reminded of Frost when a friend quoted this line on social media.
Well, dear friend, dare I remind you that fences alone don’t make good neighbours. They never did and they never will. There are other, more vital ingredients required for the peace recipe than borders covered with barbed wire and concrete bunkers.
In a recent fence-related issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan a major of Pakistan army succumbed to his wounds, and on the other side of Durand Line four Afghan soldiers died in a cross border skirmish. The cause that incited the hostility was a construction of gate and check post on Pakistani side of Torkham border to regulate and keep a check on people and cargo crossing the border. Before the ceasefire agreement both sides blamed each other for escalation of aggression and held the other wholly responsible for leading peace astray. According to latest reports from Torkham, the firing has come to a halt, the passions that ran high have subsided and, for the time being, saner, sounder sense has prevailed,
Our government’s resolve on foreign policy is loud and clear as week in and week out, our very graceful, soft spoken foreign office spokesperson Mr Nafees Zakaria while answering every other question reiterates that Pakistan stands for regional stability and solving all bilateral issues by talks and negotiations. The restraint, decorum and diplomacy practiced in the aftermath of the arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav by our state, government and army was exemplary. The same restraint should be followed to shed present quandary. As in Pakistan, all stakeholders that make, being held responsible for, initiate, implement and call the shots when it comes to Pakistan’s foreign policy must be on the same page as well as opt the same line of action.
During the Yadhav episode, our government didn’t break off ties or ruled out talks with India; we recorded our protest on all the relevant forums and asked India to stem the state involvement in terrorist activities inside Pakistan. We showed the world that Pakistanis are capable of presenting their case before world both forcefully and diplomatically.
PM Modi’s surprise visit last December on the prime minister’s birthday and resultant bonhomie between two countries will bear fruit only if the masses of two countries are allowed to interact without the overly-skeptical, cumbersome visa regime. If fences are hard to tear apart then it is about time that we increase the number of gates and decrease the number of guns that mount our borders.
Our government’s resolve on foreign policy is loud and clear as week in and week out, our very graceful, soft spoken foreign office spokesperson Mr Nafees Zakaria while answering every other question reiterates that Pakistan stands for regional stability and solving all bilateral issues by talks and negotiations
Since their inception, both Pakistan and India have tried every trick up their sleeve and every sleazy tactic in their armoury, ranging from fighting two full-scale wars and many low intensity battles, pulling each other’s leg on international forums, acquiring nuclear capability to levelling things out and still spending billions of dollars on acquiring weapons. I didn’t want to quote Einstein’s full definition of insanity here, as you can google it yourself. It’s about time that we try a different way of doing business with each other. I assure you it will usher in a new era for one and a half billion people of the subcontinent.
In modern times political-economic alliances are the way forward for any country. Pakistan and India and other smaller countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, etc, have an organisation that is far from achieving its full potential. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) can be reinvigorated by making trade and business a priority among its member states. Just by channelling the zeal and zest presently spent on publicising perceived wrongs and invisible scars can let us better work to achieve things tangible and mutually beneficial.
Every now and then I encounter many brilliant, good willed and upright people who mistake jingoism for patriotism and narrow and harrowing chauvinism for nationalism. It is pertinent that these folks understand that peaceful co-existence is not a choice, it is the compulsory condition for any state that wants to uplift the lot of its inhabitants.
So, dearest sirs and ma’ams, fences, since time immemorial, are put in place to keep ‘others’ and ‘them’ out and ‘we’ and ‘us’ in. The very act of putting up fences, erecting walls, demarcating and delineating boundaries, raising forts and then guarding them with extreme prejudice betrays a cagey, insecure and paranoid mindset apprehensive of its neighbour’s intentions.
Pakistan has to exist among its neighbours. Our elected PM Nawaz Sharif, much-loved General Raheel Sharif, spooks at intelligence agencies and suited booted lads of foreign office are intelligent, patriotic folks. And I am darn sure that they are very well aware of an ancient maxim written in stone that states can change their friends but not neighbours. There is another not-so-ancient maxim and it goes something like, good fences alone don’t make good neighbours. Honest and candid mu
