Anwar Ahmad

In evolving to the liberal-capitalist democracy, reckons Francis Fukuyama, humankind has reached perfection. Hence, the end of history. Given the ascendancy of the West and the intellectual and material decline of illiberal dictatorships, criticism of Fukuyama's formulation has mainly been conceptual. There are no alternative working models to cite in refuting his conclusion.

Tied to his thesis is the less loudly articulated claim of the supremacy of Western civilisation from which the liberal-capitalist democracies have emerged. The opposition to this claim is also based more on moral and spiritual grounds - questioning, like the one time darling of the West, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the purpose of life which has been reduced to frenzied consumption and unbridled acquisitiveness.

These polemics aside, the West is currently the dominant civilisation. Whether it is being presumptuous in claiming eternity for its ascendancy is also more an academic debate. What is of immediate relevance for the vast majority of humanity, deprived of the benefits of liberalism, capitalism as well as democracy, is whether to embrace the Western model in totality or in parts. This has been Pakistan's dilemma as well, and of the Muslim world.

The quest for Pakistan was born of the Muslim experience of a ruling minority fearing a Hindu revivalist backlash (which came to fruition in the ascent to power of the BJP). There are three views on what shape the Pakistan dream should take. One, a secular-liberal democracy. Barring the democracy part, this calls into question the wisdom of separation from India which too is, in theory, a secular-liberal democracy.

Two, a Muslim theocracy. This finds no sanction in Islam, which does not envisage a church or a clerical order much less its domination of the state. Moreover, Pakistan's founding fathers were specifically against any such contraption. Finally, Pakistan's religious parties have never succeeded at the polls - whereas the Hindu fundamentalist BJP has won in the 'secular' India, and the Jewish fundamentalists in Israel.

Three, a moderate, progressive, equitable, morally responsible and spiritually alive Islamic democracy. This is the ideal most people would find closest to their heart and human condition. It explains the separation from India, and also finds sanction from the legacy of the founding fathers. But the contemporary Muslim world does not offer working models to translate this ideal into reality.

Amid the resulting ideological confusion, the secular-liberals and the orthodox-obscurantist clergy have been vying for power. From 1947 to 1977, the former were ascendant while the religious militancy was boosted during the US-sponsored anti-Soviet Jihad in Afghanistan. However, the self-serving "Islamic" facades of General Ziaul Haq and later Nawaz Sharif notwithstanding, decision-making remained in the hands of the same liberal (or, superficially Westernised) elite - particularly on the crucial economic fundamentals.

It was the failure of this power elite to give the country a just, equitable and efficient system of governance, and the resulting economic collapse and galloping poverty during the last two decades, which created more space for Muslim militants. Similarly, the inability of the apologetic elite to promote the Kashmir cause (ZA Bhutto being an exception) transferred this emotive mantle to the militants. Unlike the sedentary liberals, they were willing to die for what they believed in and, thus, revived what had seemed a lost cause after the Indian-led vivisection of Pakistan in 1971.

But the militants lacked modern knowledge and the intellectual freedom to craft a convincing model of governance and, thus, failed to win popular support. People admire their simplicity, courage and defiance of a duplicitous and arrogant West, but are unwilling to entrust their fate to these medieval beings. The bogey of Pakistan's Talibanisation has, thus, been more an attempt by the discredited elite to cover up its own continuing failure (and a reflection of its fear of losing its privileges).

The reluctance of the people to join the ongoing anti-US street protests led by the militants is an illustration of that. This does not, however, translate into majority support for the US view or its destruction of Afghanistan. Most people are neither convinced that the US-UK have evidence against Osama Bin Laden, nor do they support the militant prescriptions. The polarisation and the looming battle within is, thus, between the secular-liberals and the religious militants. Both represent the fringes of the inherently moderate Pakistani society, and are equally intolerant of each other.

The liberal-secularists are relieved that Black Tuesday has broken the bond between the military and the militants and would like the former to wipe out the latter. This desire underestimates the zeal and resistance potential of the militants, and the cost such a conflict would exact of the society. The experience in other Muslim countries (Algeria, Egypt, Turkey Iran, Afghanistan) shows that suppression, even if works temporarily, comes at the cost of the very values it seeks to promote (mainly, democracy).

Besides, the clash is avoidable and, perhaps, even unnecessary. The most viable and lasting cure for radicalism is social equality, shared economic prosperity and an uncomplicated democracy. Deliver these essentials and people will have no time for the zealots.

The Madrassahs, the bug-bear of the secular-liberals, are a case in point. As President Musharraf has been emphasising, these provide the biggest welfare network in the world (in a country where half the population has been driven below the poverty line by a venal kleptocracy and an inimical new international economic order). Yet, the secular-liberals would like the Madrassahs to disappear because they also teach medieval values and a worldview in which they figure as lackeys of an exploitative West.

It escapes the secular-liberals that had they set up alternate institutions for the poor, the Madrassahs would not have acquired the dominance they have. Even now, if the decrepit public education system improves, the economic grows and the job-market offers opportunities for, say, technicians, either the Madrassahs will retool themselves or lose students. If the overall environment can be changed, the state will not need to forcible change the moribund Madrassahs.

This issue will, hopefully, be a central component of the new "long haul" relationship the West is professing to build with Pakistan. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in fact, informed the House of Representatives that the debt-relief and aid President Musharraf has sought is not to buy weapons but to put in a better education system. Perhaps the fear of the Madrassah-militant linkage will finally compel Pakistan's overgrown security state to attend to the pathetic state of the education system. If this turnaround can be supplemented by the miracle of a responsible democracy, the likelihood of a confrontation with the militants - a mini 'clash of civilisations,' seen by some as inevitable - will be minimised.

The current geo-political situation also cautions against embarking on a crackdown on the militants. The liberal cause is being pushed by the US which has alienated the people by its brutal and bewildering response to the Black Tuesday. In the process, it has exposed the fragility of its economic foundations and, crucially, of its democratic underpinnings and civilisational ethos. The most admired American values have cracked under pressure.

The eagerness with which the otherwise pugnacious Congress and the supposedly free and unsparing US media have fallen in line with the official jingoism is frightening indeed. As dissent, the soul of democracy and freedom, disappeared, to ask for evidence against the 'prime suspect' became "terrorism-denial" (less culpable only than the Jewish holocaust-denial). To question why is a sin, even as thousands of innocent Afghans - women and little children - are being blown to bits by the "high-tech bully" (Senator Joseph Biden).

The shameful apathy towards these "unworthy victims" (John Pilger) after shedding copious tears for the "worthy victims" of Black Tuesday has poisoned public opinion against the US and the lofty values it professes. The painful memory of the Iraqi massacre (around a million killed or starved to death) has been revived, and Palestine and Kashmir continue to bleed.

Against these odds, the Pakistani government has taken a momentous decision to delink from the extremists. But the moderate-liberal cause (the two can co-exist as parallels, or blend together to become indigenous and vibrant) is not being helped any by the American Osamas - cold-blooded killers like Defence Secretary Rumsfeld and the chief Pentagon advisor Richard Perle. Nonetheless, the healing within must begin to preclude a conflagration.

The writer is a freelance columnist

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