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| Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation of our land (Balochistan) and exploitations of our resources by Pakistani and Iranian Governments, and to bring their Human Rights Violations in Balochistan into the world’s Notice. |
"We are facing a credible threat"
By: Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Jan20, 2007
No state, individual or government can claim to have an eternal right to rule because their right to existence is
directly linked to the duty of and commitment to fairness and justice for all without discrimination. They are under a
moral, legal and social obligation to perform. Abandonment of this principle deprives them of their right to rule,
govern or exist. They also become a credible threat to the welfare and safety of the people.
Here too the government has lost, if it ever had, its right to exercise power in the name of the people due its
illegality and obsoleteness. Having lost its right to exist, it has become compulsively repressive and oppressive.
Organized and systemic repression has become an absolute necessity for it and it is exclusively preoccupied with
preserving its perks and privileges. Its intransigence and obduracy has increased in proportion to the worsening of
the situation and conditions.
Since its survival depends on repression, all the organs of state have actively undertaken the obsessive
implementation of repression because without the harsh and ruthless approach towards dissenters and
protestors, it would be exposed to an increasing tendency of dissent and opposition from the oppressed people
and this would undermine its ability to rule.
Due to its overriding need to suppress dissent, the infrastructure for remedying and solving problems has either
broken down completely or been severely curtailed. The people have no hope of redress for their grievances, no
atonement of injustices and no solution to their miseries. Moreover when they protest or oppose the injustices, they
come up against the brute force of the state.
The front page picture of a protesting shalwarless Mohammad bin Masood, who by no stretch of the imagination
was a threat to the well being of the state, being beaten and manhandled by at least seven policemen has not only
shamed the people of this country but also put their lingering doubts to rest about who this country belongs to.
The picture is not only an indictment of the ruling classes and of their absolute disregard for the sovereign rights
and self-respect of the people they are supposed to serve and work for, but also representative of the way this
country continues to be governed by rulers who consider their rule here as part of Divine Will.
It certainly must have been a rude shock to the sensibility of those who still saw a ray of hope in these ‘enlightened
moderate’ rulers who have chosen to indefinitely burden the people with their hollow promises and even hollower
actions. It should now be abundantly clear to even the most diehard optimist that this country is in for rougher and
turbulent times in the foreseeable future.
What happened in Rawalpindi on December 28th is neither random nor isolated; it is a part of a well thought out
and organized approach to the problems facing the ruling junta. It is an overt symptom of grievous underlying
affliction. The more isolated and more out of touch with reality the junta becomes, the more brutal it becomes.
The mayhem, the viciousness, the corruption and the breakdown of institutions are symptoms of a state and its
rulers abjectly failing in their moral obligation of providing a just, safe, fair and equitable system of governance to
the majority of the people. And this is exactly how the scenario always unfolds in a failing state.
The most disconcerting factor is that the rulers are not having sleepless nights worrying about the future of this
country. Moreover their over-extravagance, in deadly combination with proverbial sleaze and incompetence, has
added to the problems of the people, who face increasing problems of state terrorism, inflation, economic and
social insecurity, crime wave, sectarian killings and a complete breakdown of government services.
To rub the proverbial salt in sore wounds, there is vulgar opulence on the one hand and an increasing social and
economic insecurity on the other. A section of the population close to the ruling apparatus does thrive and it
projects its prosperity as the prosperity of the country. It should however be remembered that it is because of the
cushioning of a minority and the rampant injustices against the vast majority that the inevitable and inexorable slide
towards a failed state begins.
As the junta’s insecurity increases, it begins using excessive and indiscriminate violence as a tool of governance.
The Army operations in Balochistan and killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the operations in Waziristan including
the Bajaur and Damadola tragedies and the latest Zamzola area incident are all an outcome of this sense of their
insecurity.
The recent incarceration and trial in camera of Sardar Akhtar Mengal and his being put in an iron cage is because
the state wishes to convey the message that those who dare to confront it or resist the junta’s high-handedness
will be given no quarter. They fail to comprehend that the iron cages and enforced disappearances will only help
temper the steel and intensify the Baloch struggle.
The Baloch and Pashtuns have been labelled anti-state to provide justification for brutality against them but they
are not the only victims of state violence. Members of civil society too are not exempt from high-handedness. Not so
long ago, Asma Jehangir and others were manhandled while protesting. Journalists, lawyers and teachers are
often at the receiving end of police batons. The logic behind this is that this use of force will deter others from
expressing dissent in howsoever mild a manner.
But then what else can be expected from the lot that wields power at present. The Centre is ruled by a coalition of
cutthroat turncoats and goons turned politicians led by the Chaudries of Gujrat, who serve their Commando
General without compunction and questions. The provinces of Punjab and Sindh are a microcosm of the Centre,
while Balochistan is ruled by a coalition of wily religious leaders and conniving politicians. NWFP suffers at the
hands of religio-political entities who want to stay glued to power at all costs.
More alarmingly the tone, tenor and thrust of Musharraf’s rhetoric has increasingly begun resembling the
perniciously self-righteous strain of Milosevic’s and Mugabe’s rhetoric, while the country, though not yet Yugoslavia,
Zimbabwe or Somalia, is slowly and steadily on that path and will become like them if present policies continue.
There is a credible threat of this scenario materializing.
If all the above ingredients are not enough to unfold social, economic, political and ethnic cataclysmic events here
and to push us over the brink of the abyss of catastrophe, then the breaking up of Yugoslavia and the calamitous
situation in Somalia are not due to the follies of their leaders, their armed forces and the conniving opposition, but
because of some witchcraft, black magic and voodoo spell cast by people with an evil eye.
Tailpiece: At times out of revulsion at Washington’s brutality and arrogance, I wish that Bush were allowed to be the
President for a third term so that he could, due to his unparalleled follies, truly accomplish the mission to make the
US go belly up like the Soviet Union and rid the world once and for all of the malevolence of its power.
On January 17th the Cabinet here, yes a truly wooden and petrified cabinet (pun intended), has decided that the
sitting spineless and fossilized Assemblies will re-elect the incumbent Commando President this year. Looking at
the track record of this present junta, I would say that yet another term for him means it is curtains for Pakistan.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle
http://www.thepost. com.pk/OpinionNe ws.aspx?dtlid= 78950&catid=11
By: Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Jan20, 2007
No state, individual or government can claim to have an eternal right to rule because their right to existence is
directly linked to the duty of and commitment to fairness and justice for all without discrimination. They are under a
moral, legal and social obligation to perform. Abandonment of this principle deprives them of their right to rule,
govern or exist. They also become a credible threat to the welfare and safety of the people.
Here too the government has lost, if it ever had, its right to exercise power in the name of the people due its
illegality and obsoleteness. Having lost its right to exist, it has become compulsively repressive and oppressive.
Organized and systemic repression has become an absolute necessity for it and it is exclusively preoccupied with
preserving its perks and privileges. Its intransigence and obduracy has increased in proportion to the worsening of
the situation and conditions.
Since its survival depends on repression, all the organs of state have actively undertaken the obsessive
implementation of repression because without the harsh and ruthless approach towards dissenters and
protestors, it would be exposed to an increasing tendency of dissent and opposition from the oppressed people
and this would undermine its ability to rule.
Due to its overriding need to suppress dissent, the infrastructure for remedying and solving problems has either
broken down completely or been severely curtailed. The people have no hope of redress for their grievances, no
atonement of injustices and no solution to their miseries. Moreover when they protest or oppose the injustices, they
come up against the brute force of the state.
The front page picture of a protesting shalwarless Mohammad bin Masood, who by no stretch of the imagination
was a threat to the well being of the state, being beaten and manhandled by at least seven policemen has not only
shamed the people of this country but also put their lingering doubts to rest about who this country belongs to.
The picture is not only an indictment of the ruling classes and of their absolute disregard for the sovereign rights
and self-respect of the people they are supposed to serve and work for, but also representative of the way this
country continues to be governed by rulers who consider their rule here as part of Divine Will.
It certainly must have been a rude shock to the sensibility of those who still saw a ray of hope in these ‘enlightened
moderate’ rulers who have chosen to indefinitely burden the people with their hollow promises and even hollower
actions. It should now be abundantly clear to even the most diehard optimist that this country is in for rougher and
turbulent times in the foreseeable future.
What happened in Rawalpindi on December 28th is neither random nor isolated; it is a part of a well thought out
and organized approach to the problems facing the ruling junta. It is an overt symptom of grievous underlying
affliction. The more isolated and more out of touch with reality the junta becomes, the more brutal it becomes.
The mayhem, the viciousness, the corruption and the breakdown of institutions are symptoms of a state and its
rulers abjectly failing in their moral obligation of providing a just, safe, fair and equitable system of governance to
the majority of the people. And this is exactly how the scenario always unfolds in a failing state.
The most disconcerting factor is that the rulers are not having sleepless nights worrying about the future of this
country. Moreover their over-extravagance, in deadly combination with proverbial sleaze and incompetence, has
added to the problems of the people, who face increasing problems of state terrorism, inflation, economic and
social insecurity, crime wave, sectarian killings and a complete breakdown of government services.
To rub the proverbial salt in sore wounds, there is vulgar opulence on the one hand and an increasing social and
economic insecurity on the other. A section of the population close to the ruling apparatus does thrive and it
projects its prosperity as the prosperity of the country. It should however be remembered that it is because of the
cushioning of a minority and the rampant injustices against the vast majority that the inevitable and inexorable slide
towards a failed state begins.
As the junta’s insecurity increases, it begins using excessive and indiscriminate violence as a tool of governance.
The Army operations in Balochistan and killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the operations in Waziristan including
the Bajaur and Damadola tragedies and the latest Zamzola area incident are all an outcome of this sense of their
insecurity.
The recent incarceration and trial in camera of Sardar Akhtar Mengal and his being put in an iron cage is because
the state wishes to convey the message that those who dare to confront it or resist the junta’s high-handedness
will be given no quarter. They fail to comprehend that the iron cages and enforced disappearances will only help
temper the steel and intensify the Baloch struggle.
The Baloch and Pashtuns have been labelled anti-state to provide justification for brutality against them but they
are not the only victims of state violence. Members of civil society too are not exempt from high-handedness. Not so
long ago, Asma Jehangir and others were manhandled while protesting. Journalists, lawyers and teachers are
often at the receiving end of police batons. The logic behind this is that this use of force will deter others from
expressing dissent in howsoever mild a manner.
But then what else can be expected from the lot that wields power at present. The Centre is ruled by a coalition of
cutthroat turncoats and goons turned politicians led by the Chaudries of Gujrat, who serve their Commando
General without compunction and questions. The provinces of Punjab and Sindh are a microcosm of the Centre,
while Balochistan is ruled by a coalition of wily religious leaders and conniving politicians. NWFP suffers at the
hands of religio-political entities who want to stay glued to power at all costs.
More alarmingly the tone, tenor and thrust of Musharraf’s rhetoric has increasingly begun resembling the
perniciously self-righteous strain of Milosevic’s and Mugabe’s rhetoric, while the country, though not yet Yugoslavia,
Zimbabwe or Somalia, is slowly and steadily on that path and will become like them if present policies continue.
There is a credible threat of this scenario materializing.
If all the above ingredients are not enough to unfold social, economic, political and ethnic cataclysmic events here
and to push us over the brink of the abyss of catastrophe, then the breaking up of Yugoslavia and the calamitous
situation in Somalia are not due to the follies of their leaders, their armed forces and the conniving opposition, but
because of some witchcraft, black magic and voodoo spell cast by people with an evil eye.
Tailpiece: At times out of revulsion at Washington’s brutality and arrogance, I wish that Bush were allowed to be the
President for a third term so that he could, due to his unparalleled follies, truly accomplish the mission to make the
US go belly up like the Soviet Union and rid the world once and for all of the malevolence of its power.
On January 17th the Cabinet here, yes a truly wooden and petrified cabinet (pun intended), has decided that the
sitting spineless and fossilized Assemblies will re-elect the incumbent Commando President this year. Looking at
the track record of this present junta, I would say that yet another term for him means it is curtains for Pakistan.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle
http://www.thepost. com.pk/OpinionNe ws.aspx?dtlid= 78950&catid=11
