It is because of the blatant neglect of the quintessential role of
education by our rulers that the country remains mired in poverty and
bedevilled by religious bigotry and terrorism
Almost a month
after Malala’s canonisation as Pakistan’s Joan of Arc, the news of her
heroic act is already beginning to fade away from the national
consciousness and the more mundane and ephemeral issues of politics are
elbowing it off centre-stage. The important issue of the accountability
of our past civilian and military leaders — especially the latter who
got off the hook even after the most egregious mistakes — raised by the
Supreme Court’s judgment in the Asghar Khan case, is of no mean
significance. However, the inspiring storyline scripted by the 14-year
old girl from Swat who braved the Taliban’s atrocious attempt to silence
her for good from her advocacy of the right to education, especially of
young girls, transcends the opportunity presented by similar
potentially transformative momentous events in the past.
For
slandering her name and her cause, Malala’s foes are relying on
Pakistan’s penchant for credulity of outlandish conspiracy theories,
especially when the protagonists find themselves in a corner. General
Musharraf’s infamous statement that Pakistani women “get themselves
raped” in Pakistan in order to obtain foreign visas, is perhaps the most
apt instance that comes to mind. He invented his ingenious conspiracy
theory in the wake of a lady doctor’s rape by an army captain in
Balochistan (whom he declared “100 percent innocent” without a trial)
and the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai a decade ago. Those now
soft-pedalling the dastardly attack on Malala by linking it to
Pakistan’s involvement in the war on terror and the continuing drone
attacks —condemnable as they may be in themselves — can hardly be
counted on the side of the teenaged activist.
Try as they might,
the Malala saga is, however, unlikely to go away, even if, God forbid,
she loses her ongoing battle against death or disability. Should she
survive and be able to lead a full and productive life, which everyone
hopes for, she could become a living legend and icon of our times in the
battle for the right to education for, not only herself and her
fellow-students, but for all who have been denied that right. She could
well trigger the sea change or tsunami that has been promised by some
pseudo-revolutionaries.
But, of course, it would be most unfair
to put the burden of such a gigantic task on her delicate shoulders and
evolving mind. It may well be necessary to allow her to complete her
studies in a relatively peaceful environment, notwithstanding her
expressed desire to take part in politics — a desire that needs to be
welcomed and nurtured among our youth, who have become victims of
cynicism, obscurantism and inaction. While the Taliban terrorists may be
the prime suspects for her attempted assassination, the body blow to
the cause for which she risked her life, has been inflicted by those
elites who have ruled the country for the past six decades and have put
education on the backburner, except as a source of their enrichment and
self-aggrandisement.
The poignant saga of the attack on Malala’s
life and the groundswell of support it has generated all over the
country has all of a sudden caused a metamorphosis in those who have
shown no credible responsibility in giving education its deserved place
in the national agenda and have frittered away the resources mobilised
for it at home and abroad. These persons and groups are no friends of
Malala or the cause she represents, notwithstanding their crocodile
tears. Malala will have to be discriminating in choosing her future
friends and foes. Otherwise, her agenda of change will be hijacked by
those whose fervour for education is linked to their own economic and
political interests, rather than making it accessible to all, especially
the poorest and most excluded sections of the population, including
girls.
Education, instead of being a tool for the emancipation
and empowerment of the poor, has become a multi-billion dollar business,
which caters principally to and is lobbied for mainly by the affluent
classes. It has also become in the past three decades a major conduit of
foreign aid, which is siphoned off and squandered through dubious
NGO-led and government-supported programmes, with minimal impact on
universalising education. The privatisation lobby has been heavily
backed by the IMF and World Bank, and more recently, by the channelling
of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman funds by USAID, whose educational agenda is
dictated by the needs of US strategic interests, rather than of national
development. However well intentioned these financial gestures may be,
they will remain counterproductive by strengthening the status quo and
by failing to make education a truly national imperative, which needs to
be attained without the prodding and carrot baiting of foreign donors.
These ‘friends’ will do Pakistan an immense favour by letting it make
its own choices in the social arena, even if it be at the cost of some
internal strife. The state’s abandonment of its obligations to education
and other social issues has been, to a large extent, aided and abetted
by foreign aid agencies.
Nonetheless, it seems improbable that
the Malala saga, regardless of its immediate outcome, will not play a
game-changing role in the social transformation of this country. It
could, if properly harnessed, prove to be a tipping-point in placing
education, especially for girls, at the centre of our development
agenda, which is currently buried under the debris of our internal
strife among rival political, religious and ethnic factions with the
sole aim of capturing economic and political power.
Indeed, it is
because of the blatant neglect of the quintessential role of education
by our rulers that the country remains mired in poverty and bedevilled
by religious bigotry and terrorism. If the government and other
political parties can translate their rhetoric and legislative actions
(such as Article 25-A on the Right to Education) in letter and spirit,
we would not need to have to protect Malala and her generation from the
Taliban bullets.
It would be a pity, however, if after her
recovery Malala is forced to disengage herself from the cause of girls’
education in Swat and is made to live a cocooned life, under the
auspices of either the security forces or her eager patrons in the west,
who may wish to use her as a pawn in the unholy clash of civilisations
contrived by them. It would be an even bigger misfortune if the ‘Malala
moment’ is allowed to be squandered into oblivion, as others, such as
that associated with Mukhtaran Mai and the dozens of episodes of
brutality towards women and denial of human and economic rights.
The writer is a former professor of economics at the Quaid-e-Azam
University, Islamabad and a writer on economic and political issues.
He can be reached at smnaseem@gmail.com