Londonstani reports collection

[davidbfpo]

A thoughtful comment article, which could fit a number of threads. Hat tip to Abu M and the comment is on Afpak Channel:http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts...erate_majority

His penultimate paragraph:

For decades internal and external actors have been exploiting religious fervor in Pakistan for political gain. That feeling has morphed, evolved, and developed a life of its own. The future of Pakistan will be decided by the outlook adopted by its people. And as of yet, that outlook is still being formed. Right now, despite the best efforts of extremists, the majority of Pakistanis see the core principles of their faith revolving around peaceful coexistence, social justice and community service. If the public sees Barelvis and Deobandi leaders marching their communities to war, the groups will threaten their own legitimacy. On the other hand, if extremists succeed in redefining what is considered "Islamic" and convincing ordinary Pakistanis that differing views of religion are worth fighting and killing over, the consequences will be devastating for Pakistan, and disastrous for the world.

He adds this on what the West can do:

A few months ago, I read Hilary Synnott's International Institute for Strategic Studies report Transforming Pakistan. I thought at the time that Sir Hilary's suggestion that the international community basically take it on itself to transform Pakistan was unrealistic and an even bigger disaster waiting to happen. However, I'm beginning to think that a major game change is needed and the only question remains who the real domestic partners should be. The best option, and the most willing potential allies, are the general public. The question is how to approach them and how to tool the options avaiable to the international community so that they actually work effectively.

The above comment comes from the article and there is a poor discussion on:http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...-pakistan.html

[subrosa]

londonstani says:

but politics makes democratically elected leaders unwilling to upset influential groups. After the bombings, a Deobandi gathering that included a former leading member of the sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi issued a statement threatening to make the provincial Punjab government pay in the polls if it acted against their interests.

Iftikhar Hussain a provincial minister and an outspoken critic of the taliban had to pay with his son's life plus eight others at the funeral. I guess this is another reason why the leaders dont want to upset the militants.
if they can make the leaders pay in the polls and kill thier families...makes me wonder who is really in control there?
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...r_kills_36.php

hopefully londonstani's article will help develop the will to reach out to the general public there. the million dollar question is 'how to approach'. that should be a thread of its own!

[fnord]

First of all, I cant believe that the last 9 years have failed to come up with an o-plan for how to engage the Pakistani populace. At this point, I fear it may be too late, since the oppos have 8 years in advance prep of hearts and minds. A couple of ideas, though:
* Use the film and media industrial might of the west. Finance bollywood style romances where the brave lad (who is a member of the frontier corps)has to rescue the beautiful girl from the bad mujahedin, aided by the good mujahedin of course, while being opposed by the bad army people and being helped by the good army people.
* Use the soft power of computation and get a freaking low budget high-yield education program going. At the moment, the madrassas are the sole alternative to education for lots and lots of folks, give em an alternative.
* Engage the muslim part of the coalition of the willing. It may be too late now for Afghan, but where o where is the western financed muslim peace corps? WHy havent we focused much more on five-10 years plans to build sustainable infrastructures (that includes human resources)? To me, that is the great mindboggling question of the 2001-2005 period when Afghanistan was relatively quiet, why wasnt there an equal amount of effort put into educating midlevel buerocracy as there was into building security forces?
* Reexamine the concepts of aid. Currently way way way to much is redirected back into western contractors pockets. Microfinance, Unix computers, easy irrigation, these are things that are needed on base level. Thats how you build trust.

But I fear its too late.

[omarali50]

I think you are focusing on the details, but you have to get the big picture before you can do the details. Pakistan's army (and its really the army that still runs policy in this arena) has certain notions about its own strategic needs. These notions are first and foremost India-centric. Once you accept certain "strategic concepts" that are regularly taught in military academies, then this obsession even makes some kind of sense. But in another country one might have had think tanks and civilian politicians with other priorities and greater vision watching over the generals. That adult oversight is lacking in Pakistan. Instead, the generals live in a world where they are the only people who really know the score on strategy and "national interest" and everyone else is a fool or a tool. Left to their own devices, they will ALWAYS look for ways to carry on their zero-sum game with India. For whatever reasons (incompetence? oversmart theorizing? Stockholm syndrome? short-sighted self interest? corruption?) the US lets this stupid game continue and tries its carrots and sticks around it. That is not going to work. Plain speaking would probably work better, but I guess the US establishment has its own habits of thought and plain speaking to third world countries is not one of them....not even when they actually dont need "unobtainium" from under the gooks' sacred tree.....

[davidbfpo]

Londonstani now has his own blog, which explains his mission as:

As Londonstani comes from a media and foreign affairs background, this blog tends to lean towards getting things done by trying to understand people and speaking to them. (As opposed to shooting them, which is expensive - and not very nice.)

Link:http://www.londonstani.com/