Repercussions of the Escalating Qatar-Gulf Conflict By Lal Khan: New Age Islam's Selection, 12 June 2017
New
Age Islam Edit Bureau
12 June 2017
• Repercussions of the Escalating Qatar-Gulf Conflict
By Lal Khan
• How to Look At Our Colonial Past
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
• The Dangerous Increase In Tolerance
By Andleeb Abbas
• Iran’s Reformist Leader
By Sahibzada M Saeed
• A Dark Age
By Munir Akram
• ‘Weak and Chaotic’ Leadership
By Hassan Khan
• Shaping the Pakistani Middle Class
By Mubashir Akram
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Repercussions of the Escalating Qatar-Gulf Conflict
By Lal Khan
12-Jun-17
On June 5th, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and others announced severing diplomatic relations with Qatar and cutting of air, sea and land links. The seemingly irrelevant alliance Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) suddenly seems to be perilously splintering. Wednesday’s attack on Iran’s national parliament and shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini has been blamed on Saudi Arabia by the Iranian hawks. The rivalry between the Saudi monarchy and the Iranian mullah aristocracy this has morphed into an acute crisis very few had envisaged.
There is panic buying in Qatari bazaars as 40 percent of the food supplies to Qatar get transported via the land route through Saudi Arabia. Qatari nationals have been ordered to leave Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s 1,000-strong military force in the coalition attacking Yemen has also been expelled from this ‘Islamic’ military alliance. The Saudis and Emiratis have accused Qatar of “embracing sectarian Islamic terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Daesh (ISIS), and Al-Qaeda and supporting Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the Saudi province of Qatif and in Bahrain.”
The Qatari monarchy has been challenging the Saudi domination in the region. Qatar is the world’s second-largest exporter of natural gas and will host the football World Cup in 2022. It also finances and hosts the Al Jazeera, the internationally prominent media network that broadcasts the views of Arab dissidents of the Egyptian and GCC regimes. However it shuns the voices of the Qatari dissidents. In the last decade Qatar eclipsed Saudi Arabia as a regional arbiter to resolve disputes, hosting warring factions from Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, and facilitating the Palestinians’ reconciliation talks.
Qatar, Kuwait and Oman are the three GCC states that still maintain relations with Iran. This irks the other monarchies. Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood rivals the Saudi and Emirati sponsored Salafists in Egypt further sours the relations. Large financial aid from the Qatari monarchs supported Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood regime that came into power after the ebbing of the 2011 uprising in Egypt. However when the second revolutionary upsurge rattled the led Al-Ikhwan regime the military took power with the Saudi support.
The Qatari elite could opt for Turkey’s support, as Erdogan is inclined towards the Muslim Brotherhood and having a military base in Qatar
The Saudis organised a grandiose reception for Trump inviting leaders from 55 Muslim countries to Riyadh as a venerated audience for his speech. They also doled out massive arms contracts for the US military industrial complex. Trump’s foreign policy advisers are presumably in favour of the UAE ruler’s quest for America to move its military base from Qatar to the Emirati Sheikhdom for years.
The Qatari elite could opt for Turkey’s support, as Erdogan is inclined towards the Muslim Brotherhood and having a military base in Qatar. However, Erdogan might not dare to confront the Al Sauds at this delicate juncture. Iran also has a defence pact with Qatar that obligates it to defend the Sheikhdom in the event of a Saudi attack. The clerical regime is also offering Qatar food supplies. Saudi bullying can further move Qatar into Iranian arms.
This will escalate the dangers of a military conflict between the two major theocratic Islamic sectarian rival powers on the opposite shores of the Persian Gulf. Such a conflict can trigger huge rise in oil prices generating a much deeper slump of the world capitalist economy. Kuwait’s Emir, Sheikh Sabah has been shuttling to capitals of the adversary regional regimes to defuse an escalating crisis but with no real progress. Trump initially tweeted supporting the Saudi actions: “Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!” However the Washington bureaucracy toned him down. Just the following day Trump offered his services as a mediator between the feuding Arab monarchs.
This burgeoning crisis is the outcome of the severe economic crisis that has hit the economies of these rich Gulf States with the collapse of the oil prices in the last few years and their existence is threatened by mass internal revolts. They cannot afford to dole out goodies to their tiny populations anymore.
The new generation of these despotic monarchical rulers are going berserk with the notion of increasing their power through sponsoring proxies of Islamic terror. Treachery is the new of diplomacy among these Gulf royalties. The imperialists dissected the Middle East into these tiny statelets with very little populations and massive reserves of oil and gas during the First World War and in its aftermath. Ever since the European and the US imperialists have plundered and subjugated these Gulf States through these puppet monarchies. Now these regimes are teetering on the brink.
The Arab revolt of 2011 shook these autocracies. The terrorist reaction that is devastating the region was fomented by these regimes in connivance of the imperialists. This policy has backfired as the rogue terrorist outfits are menacing their own royal masters.
But this situation can turn into its opposite. The masses in the Arab world shall rise again. The new upsurge can go the whole hog. Such a revolutionary resurgence of the youth and toilers can overthrow these reactionary and obscenely rich sheikhdoms, obliterating the imperialist lines drawn to divide the Levant and unite the Arab and other peoples of the region into a voluntary socialist federation of the Middle East.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/12-Jun-17/repercussions-of-the-escalating-qatar-gulf-conflict
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How to Look At Our Colonial Past
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
12-Jun-17
Mr Shashi Tharoor, the Indian politician and author, is a walking talking anachronism. I refer to his recent blistering attacks on British colonialism, all delivered masterfully in the Queen’s English. Surely Mr Tharoor belongs to that age of Indian Independence Movement, when Oxbridge graduates and London trained Indian lawyers would out-English the English while enumerating the many failures and crimes of the British Raj. It is anachronistic because India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are no longer colonies of the British and Mr Tharoor’s polemics do not fall in the academic category but purely political. As a politician he is seeking to reinvent himself as a great Indian nationalist, English speaking yes but steeped in the ancient wisdom of India. Consequently he has won praise from all quarters but especially from the resurgent Indian right which till not long ago hated his guts.
A balanced approach is necessary when approaching the past so that one does not become a sound bite for unsavoury propaganda of groups who wish to bring down civil governments and replace them with a fantastic dystopia of their imagining
As a Pakistani I could careless how this sexagenarian Indian politician seeks to reinvent himself but for the fact that recently a rabid group of Islamists, the Hizbut Tahrir, have latched on to his many pronouncements on the Raj to prove that Muslim rule over the subcontinent was indeed far superior to British Raj and that therefore Pakistan at the very least should establish Khilafah in its borders. Of particular interest to this group are the unthinking statements that passionate Mr Tharoor gave on a show hosted by Russia Today’s Afshin Ratansi. In it he claims, quite hysterically, that before the British came India was the richest country on the planet and that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s treasury was bigger and richer than that of all kingdoms of Europe. He also says that Indian GDP in 1700 was 27 percent of the global GDP. By the time the British left however, India was one of the poorest countries in world. Hizbut Tahrir operatives throughout Social Media and especially in the Pakistani cyber-sphere have shared his interview since then widely. Shashi Tharoor is being hailed by them as a truly enlightened man who has the courage to denounce the British Raj.
The problem with this statement is that it means nothing at all. In real terms the Indian GDP grew 144 percent during the British Raj. According to Agnus Maddison’s figures Indian GDP in 1700 in 1990 International Dollars was 90 750 million. In 1950 the Indian GDP in the same measure was 222, 222 million. Obviously this was not a great increase but the charge that India was poorer is arguable at best. The decline as a percentage of global GDP had more to do with the sharp increase in world GDP as a whole due to industrialisation. That the British did not industrialise India quite at the same pace as they industrialised Britain is true. But why would they have? They were an exploitative mercantile venture, which till the mid 19th century did not even give up the pretence of holding the subcontinent as a vassal power to the Mughal Empire, even if it was totally and completely untrue in reality. However to presuppose that India somehow would have industrialised faster under Mughal or native rulers is also quite untrue. In fact it was the failure of Mughals and their vassals to modernise and keep up with the world that led to them gradually ceding control of the country to a handful of British traders.
As I have said before the British did not come to India for altruistic reasons. They came for commercial exploitation of this region. Yet despite all their evil intentions they brought about a social revolution in the very fabric of Indian society. Karl Marx wrote this about British colonization of India on June 25, 1853 in the New York Daily Tribune: “England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan, was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution.”
This is where anachronism of politicians like Mr Tharoor becomes a liability. In 2017 the people of this subcontinent, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are not waging an independence struggle. We were born free as citizens of self governing independent republics, whatever the messy history that led us here. The epic battle for self rule, which was fought together by such great men and women as Naoroji, Gokhale, Tilak, Jinnah, Gandhi, Annie Besant, Sarojini Naidu Ambedkar, the two Nehrus, Azad and Ghaffar Khan, has been won decisively. As free citizens of independent and sovereign republics in South Asia we no longer need to score points against the British Raj. As free people we can now look at history dispassionately and assess the good, the bad and the ugly of British Raj and the period before that.
The British, evil and self serving as their motivations might have been, nevertheless found time to build a whole host of universities, hospitals, courts and irrigation canals which survive to this day. One does not list the railways in this because they presumably did that to facilitate their own troop movements. Even Congress that great organisation that sparked the fire for self rule amongst Indians was founded by an Englishman. Perhaps unwittingly but most definitely the British birthed the national consciousness that was to later inform nationalists and political activists in the subcontinent. More importantly they left us a legal system and such ideas as the writ of habeas corpus, of mandamus, of quo warranto and certiorari. This was a novel idea for a region which had till then only been ruled by autocrats and despots. Ask yourselves this: The Mughals left so many monuments, tombs, pleasure palaces and mosques. How many schools, universities and hospitals did they make? What good was Emperor Aurangzeb’s treasury if it was not spent on the welfare of the people?
So yes remember the British excesses by all means. Their crimes were many but also remember that British rule is a necessary link in the chain, which makes us what we are today. A balanced approach is necessary when approaching the past so that one does not become a sound bite for unsavoury propaganda of groups like Hizbut Tahrir and others who wish to bring down civil governments and replace them with a fantastic dystopia of their imagining.
Source; dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/12-Jun-17/how-to-look-at-our-colonial-past
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The Dangerous Increase in Tolerance
By Andleeb Abbas
June 11, 2017
Intolerance is a trait that we all condemn. But does that mean that its opposite, ie, tolerance is what we should embrace? It depends on what our choice for tolerance or intolerance is, on what we consider ethical or unethical and on what we consider acceptable or unacceptable. The growing tolerance to absorb, accept, value and celebrate indiscipline, inequity, injustice has made this society a tale of ridiculous depravity where every day we achieve a new low in what is the worst that can happen to us.
If there was an insensitivity index that could measure the response of the society on social issues we would find a shockingly high read on it. Being human is about being four-dimensional, ie, body, mind, heart and soul. The body to live, the mind to think, the heart to feel and the soul to go beyond, and, all these four need some functional pre-requisites. When the main focus of attention is the body and the other parts are not being catered to there is little to choose between animals and humans. Everyday such shocking incidents happen all around us and the reaction is normally so minimal both in scale and duration that the incident becomes a norm.
Be it minor girls being raped, or housemaids being tortured, or billions of rupees of cash pouring out of bureaucrats’ homes, the tolerance level for such social atrocities has increased. In fact, it has reached levels where they are just gossip scandals to be shared on videos that are quickly overtaken by hundreds of other videos showing the latest affair or divorce of a celebrity. Bomb blasts are a common occurrence and will only be noticed for more than a few hours if the number of deaths exceed 20. Anything less is tolerable and forgettable. Road accidents that kill or maim hundreds of innocent people do not even register as they are reduced to just a temporary ticker on television. The protesting public will just flash across screens till they are beaten or killed to command more attention. This high tolerance for crime, corruption, inequity, and tragedy is a serious case of human failure.
The spike in the crime rate, the deterioration in education standards, the appalling service delivery in public sector organisations, the exploitation of consumers at the hand of traders, the increase in the religious, class and gender divide are all a consequence of high tolerance for letting things be till they become social evils. Whether it is the blatant cheating in academia or the tragic murder of Mashal Khan, the story remains the same — ignore and look away from the minor social and institutional deviations and they will gain a critical mass which then will define how the society works.
The recent uproar on the rampant cheating in the school board examinations is creating a ripple due to the social media revolution of videos getting viral. Imagining an academic world in this country where exam papers are not leaked out and students are punished for buying or copying them is ridiculous. According to many estimates, almost 70% students cheat in exams and almost 85% plagiarise assignments. This is such a common occurrence that when there was a scandal of a Pakistani doctoral thesis being penalised for plagiarism it came as a surprise.
Transparency International report 2017 states that 70% Pakistanis pay bribes to people in the police and courts. Overall, according to the report, the bribery rate in Pakistan is 40%. Service users that paid a bribe by institutions in Pakistan include 75% to the police; 68% to courts, 61% to government’s water, sanitation or electric services departments; 38% to identity documents, voter’s card, permit from government; 11% to public clinic or hospitals; and 9% to public schools. The bribes are not just to get legitimate work done but also to get jobs, postings and transfers. This institutional corruption is tolerated without batting an eye and the tragic part is that analysts will implore that undue attention should not be paid to it and that we must focus on “public issues”.
However, public issues are a manifestation of a deeper virus that untended systemic rot infiltrates in the moral fabric of the society. It is the high tolerance to this institutional decay that is responsible for these evils. Positions in key institutions are auctioned on connections or on sale. In lower positions like drivers and peons the rate for getting a job is minimum Rs100,000. From Wapda to public universities, this is the norm. From vice-presidents to vice-chancellors, the tolerance level for accepting illegal appointments is at an all-time high. And it takes the shocking murder of Mashal Khan to wake up the society, the police to set up an inquiry and the Supreme Court to issue a suo-motu notice. The JIT report on this incident clearly shows that it was not blasphemy but the illegal appointees of people with criminal records that planned this activity. The report revealed what we already know and tolerate by looking the other way.
It is understandable that the poor are fighting a battle for survival where load-shedding and a meal a day are major issues. What is not understandable is the tolerance of the intellectual diaspora who dismiss corruption as part of a social DNA and thus unchangeable. Just blaming politics or the police and courts will not solve the problem as it is the collective tolerance of the society to wrongdoing that gives space for crime to flourish. Mashal Khan was ditched by each one of us to fight a lone battle — and the battle started much before mob lynching incident. He was the one who protested against the university mafia; he was the one who could not tolerate the deviation of standards and illegal practices on campus. He was the one who had the courage to stand up against the corrupt gangs. And tragically he was the one who paid the price for the apathy and tolerance that we, as members of this society, are constantly justifying.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1432310/dangerous-increase-tolerance/
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Iran’s Reformist Leader
By Sahibzada M Saeed
June 12th, 2017
IRANIAN reformist President Hassan Rouhani has been re-elected with 23.5 million (57%) votes while, his closest rival Ebrahim Raisi, who was representing the conservative faction of Iranian society, has got 15.8 million votes. Hassan Rouhani is considered as a moderate and reformist president and according to expert opinion his victory is the victory of ‘moderates’ against the ‘hard-liners’. In 2013 elections, when he was elected first time as the president the economic conditions were not satisfactory in Iran. Leadership in Tehran was facing multiple sanctions and political pressure from the West. In this situation, President Rouhani has initiated the policy of ‘opening up’ to rebuild Iranian economy and to reduce its international isolation.
In this regard, his first step was the historical nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 to curtail country’s nuclear programme for the sake of relief from the sanctions. Without the shadow of doubt, it was very meritorious diplomatic move in which Iran has played its cards very smartly. More than that, the enviable beauty was the reaction of Iranian nation over the deal. The whole Iranian nation came out to celebrate it as the victory and expressed their complete approval and accord with their leadership. And this accord and organization has again been witnessed in this election.
After Islamic revolution in 1979 till the present, Iran has faced multiple intricacies in the shape of international isolation and economic sanctions. Almost 38 years long economic disorder and political pressure at structural level has created uncertainty among the people. Unemployment and lack of investment in human development sector has complicated the situation at domestic level. In these circumstances, President Rouhani’s opening up was the fittest and the most suitable diplomatic maneuver.
If we go back to the modern history of People Republic of China, from the century of ‘humiliation’ to Chinese civil war and till the death of Chairman Mao, China has suffered a lot under the Western dominance to international isolation. But Chinese economic reforms by the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping revolutionized the economic sector of China. From 1978 onwards, he opened up the closed Chinese economy to the world and under his policies millions of poor Chinese were emancipated. And he is called the architect of modern China.
The present day Iran is not so different from 1970s China. After a long hardship and international isolation, the process of lifting sanctions is underway. Reelection of Hassan Rouhani depicts that people of Iran want improvement of economy along with political and social freedom. No doubt that Hassan Rouhani is the visionary leader and he knows the mindset of Iranian youth. International isolation of Iran in this globalised age is not vigorous for current Iranian generation. Today, Iranian youth is highly optimistic for domestic and regional peace and prosperity. Iran is an important regional player and no regional as well as extra regional power can nullify its central significance in the region.
Despite all these anticipations, still there are lot of obstacles ahead for President Rouhani. For instance, Trump Administration with its hard stance over the nuclear deal is slightly unbecoming. Similarly, Trump’s recent visit to the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia and $110 billion arms deal with Riyadh is defiantly worrisome for Tehran. Likewise, crisis in Syria and structural level pressures over Tehran on supporting Bashar regime is also a serious diplomatic challenge. So, in this scenario President Rouhani should be very meticulous in order to serve Iranian national interest in a better way. Along with it, there are various development opportunities for Iran at the regional level, through which Iran can get countless economic benefits. Especially, regional connectivity projects like One Belt One Road has the potential to interlink different regional states. In this regard, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a very remarkable project.
For Pakistan, Iran has very much significance. Iran is our brotherly neighbouring state; we share common faith, culture, values and enjoy admirable bilateral relations. In the context of regional geo-economics situation, today this is the dire need of time for Islamabad and Tehran to reengage each other and must sort out disagreements. And more than that, both states must be aware of all those state and non-state elements who want to create uncertainty trust deficit between the two countries. In this regard, we the people of Pakistan really appreciate the efforts of President Hassan Rouhani and his team for boosting our bilateral relations and we are highly optimistic for further cooperation and collaboration.
Source: pakobserver.net/irans-reformist-leader/
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A Dark Age
By Munir Akram
June 11th, 2017
IN the 14th and 15th centuries, Christian Europe was divided by the rivalries of the kingdoms of Spain, France and England, the Holy Roman Empire and the squabbling papal and city states of Italy. They were unable to unite in halting the advance of the ascendant Ottomans who reached the gates of Vienna and were stopped there more by Sultan Suleiman’s demise rather than credible Christian resistance.
Today, the roles are reversed. It is the Muslim world which is unable to unite to fend off the domination of the West. The crisis between Qatar and its GCC partners is reminiscent of the rivalries of Italy’s papal states and role of external powers in determining the destiny of its weak rulers.
The Islamic world, wracked by multiple conflicts and crises, is traversing a period akin to Europe’s Dark Ages.
Today’s vulnerable Muslim world is wide open to the influence and domination of external powers.
First, in many Muslim countries, there is crisis of political legitimacy. Governance structures, mostly bequeathed by departing Western colonists, have corroded. The authoritarian regimes in the GCC and Iran were untouched by the Arab Spring; but most are vulnerable domestically to both democratic and ideological challenge.
Egypt has reverted to military rule. Turkey’s populist leader battles internal and external opposition. External intervention in Libya has yielded a civil war and the emergence of the militant Islamic State group and other terrorist groups. Similarly, Syria has been destroyed by external intervention and a brutal sectarian and ethnic civil war. The fiction of Iraq’s unity is preserved by the presence of Iranian militias, US military support and the war against IS. The US-installed Afghan regime is weak, corrupt, divided, and militarily beleaguered. Ironically, among OIC members, Pakistan is one of the few which, despite corruption scandals, retains a modicum of democratic legitimacy.
Second, violence is spreading across the Muslim world. Global terrorist groups — IS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, etc — are now active participants in civil and cross-border conflicts and pose a threat to global stability.
Muslim nations are not the main sponsors of global terrorism; they are its principal victims. Some major powers have fought terrorists selectively and at times used them for partisan purposes. No effort has been made to stop state terrorism or to differentiate between terrorists and insurgencies which, like the Afghan Taliban, have local, negotiable goals. Most important, no concerted effort has been made to address terrorism’s ‘root causes’: persistent injustices against Muslim peoples eg in Palestine and Kashmir, or poverty, ignorance and social alienation which create recruits for terrorism, including over the internet.
Third, the crises within the Islamic world have been exacerbated by ideological and doctrinal differences. The most vital schism is between Sunni and Shia power. This schism was dormant until Iran’s 1979 ‘Islamic Revolution’. It rose to the fore in the Iraq-Iran war. It was manifest in the Afghan civil war between the Afghan Taliban and the Northern Alliance. It was, however, the US invasion of Iraq, its dismantling of the Sunni-dominated Baath party and army and the organisation of one-man one-vote elections that enabled the Iran-sponsored Shia parties to gain central power in Iraq and extend Iranian influence across the Levant and beyond.
Iran’s rise is anathema to its Sunni rivals: Saudi Arabia, the GCC and Egypt. Turkey has also been uncomfortable; although it has been obliged recently to moderate its rivalry and secure Tehran’s cooperation to forestall Kurdish separatism. Pakistan’s once close ties with Iran also deteriorated over time due to multiple reasons: Islamabad’s termination of peaceful nuclear cooperation, competition for influence in post-Soviet Afghanistan, Iranian ‘interference’ with Pakistan’s Shia community, cross-border events in Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan and Iran’s sudden reversal of support on Kashmir in response to Indian ‘incentives’.
But the sectarian divide is not the sole ideological rift within the Muslim world today. The Muslim Brotherhood and its populist ideology have become abhorrent to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE. Hamas, the Palestinian affiliate of the Brotherhood, has suffered collateral damage. On the other hand, Qatar and Turkey have espoused the Brotherhood and Hamas, offered refuge to their adherents and support to them in the Libyan civil war. Such Qatari divergence was evidently the main reason for the Saudi-UAE break with Doha.
Last, but not least, today’s weak, vulnerable Islamic world is wide open to the influence and domination of major external powers. The recent Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh was, more than anything, an illustration of the susceptibility of most of the assembled Muslim nations to US domination. Russia also enjoys critical influence with several Muslim countries, including Iran and Turkey, due to its military power and growing role in Syria and the region. So far, China has remained aloof from inter-Islamic differences. Its desire seems to be to use its economic and financial power as a force for greater cohesion with Muslim countries.
What seems most dangerous for the immediate future is the hard-line positions being adopted by the Trump administration on most international disputes and crises, including North Korea, South China Sea, Syria and Iran. If implemented, these positions, particularly the formation of an alliance against Iran, are likely to lead to the intensification of the conflicts affecting the Muslim world.
Pakistan’s main preoccupations are: TTP and IS terrorism, Afghanistan and India. It appears that Pakistan will face challenges in addressing these issues. President Ghani’s recent atrocious accusations against Pakistan obviously had clearance from his US patrons. Trump’s refusal to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Riyadh was no accident. The Pentagon’s pre-emptive identification last week of Pakistan as host of a Chinese military base is another negative signal.
While addressing its own priorities, Pakistan cannot ‘play possum’ on issues involving the Islamic world. Such abstention does not behove the Muslim world’s second largest nation, its largest military power and its only nuclear weapon state. Pakistan has consistently concluded that its national and security interests can be best advanced by promoting unity and cooperation among Muslim countries. Today, more than ever, Pakistan is obliged to play an active role to develop viable avenues for conflict resolution and cooperation among the Islamic nations and, hopefully, lead the way to a new age of enlightenment in the Muslim world.
Source: dawn.com/news/1338770/a-dark-age
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‘Weak and Chaotic’ Leadership
By Hassan Khan
12-Jun-17
The Tories have just been mortally wounded and bruised by what is considered to be the most divisive general elections in the United Kingdom’s modern history. In other words, it’s the last nail in the coffin of Prime Minister Theresa May’s embattled leadership. Her ‘strong and stable’ mantra has miserably backfired with calls for her resignation mounting rapidly. It’s truly a ‘weak and chaotic’ leadership.
The party’s failure to secure a simple majority implies that its top leadership was largely unprepared and perhaps overconfident, to say the least. Now with just 318 seats, the party has opted to form an unholy alliance with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that is historically known for its far-right tendencies. Is this what the British people wished for? Absolutely not for this was supposed to be more like a second referendum on the much despised Brexit. May’s decision to call a surprise snap election was akin to placing her hands in a lion’s mouth that eventually dealt her a heavy blow. The biggest factors were May’s insistence to have the mandate as an ‘elected’ prime minister and push for a ‘hard Brexit’ that would have economically drained the country by a large margin.
On the other hand, Jeremy Corbyn has managed to defy all odds and secure a much stronger mandate for Labour. The press and the media were largely unfriendly to him and repeatedly called for his removal from the party’s leadership. However, it seems like karma played in a strange manner since the same voices are now focused on May’s removal. Corbyn’s success is mainly owed to the younger generation that wished to remain in the European Union (EU) and was fed up with the protectionist and isolationist policies of the Tories. Strangely, a certain orange-faced individual comes in mind when speaking of such things.
Jeremy Corbyn has managed to defy all odds and secure a much stronger mandate for Labour
Nevertheless, this generation vowed to teach the ruling party a lesson that would be remembered for decades to come. With young voters’ turnout reportedly exceeding 70 percent, the Tories got obliterated. Yes, they did manage to remain the largest party but at the cost of their own snobbish and arrogant behaviour. They might have formed a government but the real powerbrokers are based in Belfast not London with only 10 seats. Once this small group pulls out its support, the government would collapse like a house of cards. It does remind one of how US television series House of Cards portrays fictitious US President Frank Underwood trying to climb the power ladder through unnatural means. The comparison is quite uncanny.
Labour has formally entered the era of Corbynism while leaving behind the remnants of the Blairites. While Corbyn’s support base is largely socialist, it did not deter most young people — regardless of their inclinations — to provide much needed lending hand to his leadership for the sake of the UK’s future. Being a grassroots political worker and a staunch ally of the late Tony Benn — the prime minister Britain deserved but never had — Corbyn is known as a man of principles unlike May who took multiple U-turns on various occasions.
Just recently, three terror attacks took place in London and Manchester and the onus lied on the Tories for cutting down police spending and putting the country’s security in jeopardy. Ironically, the attackers in these incidents were already ‘known to the security services’.
The point is that false promises and politically misleading policies would eventually come back to bite hard.
Last June, David Cameron, George Osborne and Michael Gove were the casualties for their failed Brexit gamble. Exactly a year later, Theresa May has joined their ranks. She might think that her troubles are over but this is just the beginning of the end in light of an extremely weak mandate and an EU leadership waiting to hound her in Brussels. Hard Brexit officially died an unnatural death on June 8 and Britain is likely heading for a soft Brexit to much relief of those under the age of 30.
Corbyn may be the opposition leader but he certainly won the hearts of the people which is unprecedented in recent history. As for May, the only option left is to resign and pave way for a more capable leader to take the helm of party’s fractured leadership.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/12-Jun-17/weak-and-chaotic-leadership
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Shaping The Pakistani Middle Class
By Mubashir Akram
12-Jun-17
Across the world, political and corporate elites may rule, but these are the middle classes that determine the course of their societies and nations. Middle class is a vertical connection between the elite and people in the lower layer of the society, and is absolutely not about just a certain number of people that thrive within a peculiar stratum of income. This is not a lifestyle but rather an approach towards life that shapes the belief system of a nation, and is truly a powerful social force that creates domestic and international narratives that identify the nations globally. A stronger middle class means a stronger nation.
Simplistically speaking, it is in the very nature of the middle class to struggle incrementally harder in the economic sphere, and this contributes a tremendous amount of value into the social life. When the middle class grows, nation grows with it, and this becomes a constructive cycle that is sustained by the sweat, and in cases, blood of individuals from this stratum. Societies degenerate into chaos where the middle classes shrink in their influence, and this is what has happened to Pakistan.
Most in Pakistan correctly associate middle class to a certain degree of income, and a lifestyle. While elite busy them in ruling or misruling the political and economic spheres, the poor strive for survival.
Though in opposite directions, objectives of both these strata are narrowly focused and people there hardly ever deviate from their set courses. Whereas, the middle class has to be an aware stratum that not only is striving for survival, but also is worried about adding value to society in whichever way possible. Hence, not from the landed elite or business gentry, a larger number of entrepreneurs hail from this class across the world, and even with a tinge of their corporate interests, they keep contributing toward a common good of the human society.
Pakistan’s economy is taking a positive turn. In recent reports, the State Bank of Pakistan and the World Bank noted that the economic middle class has substantially grown in number. From a consumerism approach, the State Bank reported a combined increase of 22 percent in purchases of the comfort goods and services. While, the World Bank reported that the poverty rate that was at 69 percent in 2002 is now a mere 29 percent, and is decreasing. The economic middle class is now 40 percent of the total population ie 80 million people. This almost equals the total population of Germany.
But an economic upturn cannot be enough. Pakistan once had a thriving middle class that drove the “market of ideas.” It produced shapers of the grassroots society across Pakistan. The economy was not as promising as it seems today, but society was much more promising in comparison to what we have today. The society had the creative courage to differ with what the State narrowly dictated otherwise. People believed in the power of ideas. Now, most would believe in the ideas of power.
The state and society need to come together in reshaping the local narratives along the progressive and tolerant paradigms
Pakistan was struggling, but did that constructively and earned name in the comity of the nations. Society was much more open, and the urban populations tolerant. People generally took interest in their individual beliefs, and not the faiths of the others. Despite a relative dearth of economic opportunities, the society donned a modern middle class attitude.
The fatigue from the mindless and gory violence that is continuing for over 15 years, and the relative calm of the recent past offer a unique opportunity to help recreate a progressive middle class outlook of Pakistan. Not denying that the society grew massively intolerant over the past four decades, the economic middle class now is grappling with various ideas and narratives.
The state and society need to come together in reshaping the local narratives along the progressive and tolerant paradigms. Otherwise, economic upturn would only produce thick and filled wallets of people with thin and empty brains.
The latter is an ideal guinea pig for the obscurantist elements to politically market a violent renaissance by stroking ‘the enterprise of guilt’ that the unthinking rich usually have in abundance. Either we shape the shape now, or keep drifting for another four decades. The choice is clear.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/12-Jun-17/shaping-the-pakistani-middle-class
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-press/repercussions-escalating-qatar-gulf-conflict/d/111501