Go down history and you will find that all new interventions and sea changes have been affected by those that have a different iconoclastic view of life. Go to Luther who demolished Rome's legacy. In came the Presbyterian system and the Church of England. Germany helped the Lutheran system. Take the case of Martin Luther King the activist who spoke of 'I have a dream' while in Birmingham Jail. He went on to become the person who lost his life to an assassin but won the blacks the rights to equal rights.
What could be a greater sacrifice than to change the course of hundreds of years of oppressive behaviour? Why speak of Nelson Mandela who stayed in jail for his convictions against Apartheid. And then why mention that he forgave the white rulers and allowed Rev. Desmond Tutu to set up a truth and reconciliation commission. White men could wash off their sins by telling the truth. Why speak of Malala who may change the course of thinking about the way we have viewed Taliban. Rebels bring forth radical and rebellious changes. The historical fact is that we have so far tried to oppress those that do not see eye to eye with our own way of thinking. In former East Pakistan, the chief of Mukti Bahini, the student rebel leader was from the area where I was the administrator. Monem Khan had him in jail for eight long years without a trial. During the course of his incarceration he had done Masters in two subjects and had taken a degree in Law. His father, a very feeble old man, who was a tobacco weigh man [Tolla] went on a one-man hunger strike. The police arrested him for civil action that threatened no one. He was not a threat and the bar came to me to tell me of the event. I had him set free as there was no cause for action under 109/151 of the Criminal Procedure Code. When the son was finally set free he came to see me to thank me for being fair to his father. The reason I had not allowed the Law and order agencies to incarcerate him and helped him out of a dilemma. We know that he then led the rebellion against our own forces.
Such men and people are to be remembered for their deeds and for their unselfish manner of doing things. Those that break obsolete rules need not be the people that are scoundrels. It is the middle of the road decision-makers that are to be treated as the scum of the earth. It takes courage to defy existing authority. It is usually painful and in a system that is full of Orwellian thought and language the difficulty is more so. Persons doing the unthinkable are few and these are the people that will take the country far, not the run of the mill. A number of intangibles have to be worked out.
What does this revolutionary age demand from us? The crucial issue is that the human is capable of active action and not passive aspect. Humans can choose what to do and what not to do. In psychological terms the what not-to-do is also a learning aspect but it has to be related to danger and to dangerous situations. I was told that democracy is the best way to rule the country and there is no end to autocratic anchors telling us that democracy has to be saved. The question then is those that have brought us to this end should be allowed to take us to the pits of the world. We can't and we won't let that happen. That was disastrous miss alignment. If on the one hand we have an international presence how do we guarantee that that would be properly negotiated? Was the war on terror properly negotiated? Or did we capitulate and succumb to one telephone call at midnight? Hear the politicians' cynical views on what they have done or better still what the others have not done. It has gone so bizarre that they refuse to understand and decline to see. The answer and the questions are at odds with each other. Shouting match takes place and one wonders why the anchor people do not go deaf.
Profound actions are needed. History will not be on our side if we do not plan for the next thirty years or so. The run of the mill persons will not deliver. The scoundrels that are living as parasites will no longer be able to get to their place if things go any more wrong. It cannot be done by the IMF, the WB or by any of the CGIAR [consolidated group of international agriculture research] organisations like the FAO and their cohorts. The research institutions have been given offices and valuable investments of the government have been handed over to them for personal benefits and not for public benefits. It has now become questionable to determine how these were given to them. It is a quid pro quo. These organisations then hand over benefits to these parasites.
This shift is psychological from being certain to being uncertain and this transformation is stressful and on the other hand this could emerge with strong opportunities. Our internal situation vis-a-vis the provinces is alarming. Gone are the days of intervening harshly with the law enforcement forces. Gently does it. Have we not learnt our lessons from our previous outings? Can we think differently? Can we have an economy that is caring and humane? Has any one tried to understand the culture from within? Have we understood the Balochi mind? Have we sat down and tried them as friends. Have we cultivated them and people of the other provinces? Have we understood horizontal inequality as against vertical inequality? But we will leave this for the next time. Have we learnt to explore ideas? Systems will appear from spontaneity. Creativity comes from accidental actions and exponential experiences.
Jung it was that talked of Enantiodromia - a friction of opposites. Energy will appear from all our friction points-friction being dealt with as a positive aspect of life. When progress has to be viewed it must seem ragged and the precise actions will not be there no matter what the Public Accounts Committee or the NAB or anti-corruption organisations may have to say and do. It is in the head of the individual and he must be given space. As the nuclear physicist Niel Bohr said 'Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to change the existing system for better that what it is at that point in time. Conformity to old ideas is lethal; it is rebellion that is going to make Pakistan better. Old institutions cannot rescue us for they are obsolete and bone dry. On the hard side imagine how the Hizbollahs were able to defeat the mighty Israel army. They were innovative, flexible and radical rebels.
What does my Pakistan demand from me-must surly be the biggest question of my life. Can I be smug? My country demands from me all that I can give to build it-by radical and rebellious means but with the giving hand and not the grabbing hand.