The human bomb enigma
22/05/2007
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Suicidal attacks have played an important role in history and war strategy. The Japanese Kamikaze pilots used it against the Allies, the Chinese against the US with their human wave attacks in Korea, the Vietnamese with their suicidal groups as in the Tet offensive. The weaker opponents have always used this tactic to demoralize a larger and brutal enemy, forcing it either to quit or to change policies.
Suicide bombing is a relatively new phenomenon but has become the deadliest form of expression of dissent and opposition. Its use is in proportion to the real or perceived intransigence of the dominant party in conflict.
The suicide bombing on May 15th which claimed nearly thirty lives was the 21st bombing since 2006. It took the death toll past 240, with scores injured. They were mostly sectarian and indiscriminate, I am not talking about Iraq but about this Land of Pure. Such attacks are bound to become more deadly and widespread as the technical know-how proliferates.
It should be realized that suicide bombing is not a spur of the moment decision but a meticulously planned and calculated act on the part of the person. He/she has ample time to consider all the consequences. Quite a few must be getting cold feet and deciding to not to go ahead with the planned suicide but yet there are many who do.
We need to look into the minds of the human bombs and also examine the society that produces them before something can be done to curb them. Suicide bombing cannot be simply explained away as the desire for a place in Paradise because certainly the roots are deeper and for sure it finds a support system within the society that promotes and sustains it.
We will have to understand why it is that recruits for the human bombs are increasing here along with the increase in fundamentalism and bigotry; these last two are both state-born and bred and they pose the greatest threat to civilized life here.
The struggle for this country was vague and ambiguous without a definite charted course for the future. Moreover there were deep cultural, national, linguistic and social differences among the regions that formed this country. The creation of this state on very fuzzy and nebulous premises prompted the state functionaries who were alien to the existing cultures and values to try to concoct an ?ideology? which could be made to fit all and which could not be opposed due to its sanctity.
They tried to paper over all differences with a single design wall-paper to conceal the deep fault lines. They rubbished every existing culture and value in the name of Islam and made it the ideological basis of Pakistan. A new culture and a new history which could be called ?Pakistani? were forwarded but this resulted not only in accentuating the existing differences but also in creating the twin-headed monster of fundamentalism and intolerance.
Since partition, generations have been brought up on a heavy diet of the glorious days of Islam and hatred for its immediate neighbour simply on the basis of religion. When you portray invaders like Mohammad bin Qasim and Mahmood Ghaznavi as worthy heroes to the detriment of the local culture and history, which is rich and tolerant, when you teach children that crushing a neighbouring country simply on the basis of religion is justified, when you suppress minorities with impunity, you justify bigotry and intolerance in all aspects of life and make people accept intolerance and bigotry as the natural order of things. Those who have not succumbed to this warped mindset are a credit to the inherent goodness of people.
Intolerance and bigotry was imbued into people?s minds with the purpose of creating uniformity. A uniformity which they thought would help them rule securely and eternally. They succeeded admirably in retaining the rule but in the process have endangered the very basis of their existence.
This force-feeding of intolerant ideology when combined with economic deprivation, the rich-poor divide and over all economic instability drives the subjects towards despondency and pessimism. Sooner or later these translate into actions like suicide bombings and other indiscriminate violence against society.
Intolerance is always indiscriminate and violent in its expression and it has taken a firm hold on society. Did those protesting blasphemous cartoons ponder what crime had those innocent people committed against Islam whose properties and vehicles they destroyed during the protests? Did those who committed these crimes even pause for a moment to reflect on the gravity of their crime? No, they were satisfied that they were well within their rights because that is what they were taught to uphold and practice. The same holds true for those who joined hands on May 12 th to shed innocent blood and then even refused to show remorse.
You can?t expect people brought up on the staple diet of intolerance and bigotry to develop a sense of right and wrong. These are the types of people that this state has wilfully produced to back up its policies of strategic depth and Jihad. The Afghanistan and Kashmir fallouts have contributed to this deadly atmosphere of fear and terror but not by themselves; the governments here meddled when they shouldn?t have. If you sow the wind you shall reap whirlwinds.
The retreat of civil society in the face of the relentless assault of fundamentalist brigades coaxed on by the state has helped intolerance to thrive at the expense of human and social values. The state has connived and abetted in strengthening the forces of darkness and their policies have raised the spectre of increasing suicide bombings because the groundwork is already done for the instigators of suicide bombers.
Here it has been a never-ending story of the erosion of tolerance and civil society. When rulers decide to use religion for self-preservation and that of the state, naturally it will be bigotry and fanaticism which will prevail at the expense of tolerance and democracy.
The question arises if there is any hope of escape from vicious intolerance and bigotry and their devastating consequences. I think there is and I list a few measures below.
Intra-faith dialogue here and in other Islamic countries is the urgent need of the hour. The Sunni-Shia conflict has intensified and become increasingly vicious and a cause for the needless sufferings of the people. The differences need to be bridged but unfortunately this conflict is funded and supported by different Islamic countries with agendas of their own.
As long as indiscriminate repression, enforced disappearances, looting of resources, building of cantonments, rampant corruption, rigged elections, subservient bureaucracy, spineless judiciary and a politically interventionist army are the norm and there is bending backwards to appease the US, the WB and the IMF, as long as Kalabagh Dams are built against the people?s will and Bundar and Budda islands are given away to multinationals without consent, and as long as the rule of the King?s party and its coalition goons continues, there is going to be a continuous slide towards anarchy with increasing bigotry and intolerance and a substantial increase in ?suicide bombings?. All this has to come to an end forthwith. Unless civil society takes a leading role and sends back the armed forces to where they belong and along with that promote tolerance by practicing it institutionally, there can be no hope of salvation.
Along with these corrective measures, society has to work consciously towards becoming democratic not only on paper but in implementation and application. Unadulterated lip-service as has been the norm till now is largely responsible for the steep rise in bigotry and its accompanying evil of gangsterism and terror.
Social and political role models will have to practice the tolerance, propriety, honesty and democracy they preach. The people have now learnt to see through deceit and deception.
If the ?liberals? and ?enlightened moderates? continue to conduct themselves as they did on May 12th in Karachi and Islamabad, there is hardly a hope that either intolerance and bigotry or the menace of suicide bombers will end. In fact the very ship they have commandeered may sink into the murky and turbulent sea of their own deeds.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle |
