Sui Incident: A PR Disaster

Re: # 32
Correction:

When it is said to them, Dont make Mischief on Earth
La Tufsidoo means Dont make Mischief and not what I translated in post #31

``#20 by jay on March 17, 2005 1:30pm PT
yogiraj,

A woman is raped in Sui, no one is arrested, the president of the country says that the military is not invoved, he also says that the culprit should be hung. A very educated person, the author of this article says that the events point to a PR failure for the govt. All of the other pakistanis, like temporal agrees with this as indicated by his silence.

I point to this retrograde mindset that prevents any improvement in pak society. Well I have no hate, I am indignant. To me education means something, it means an ability to see through the sharade, a kind of a commitment to be objective, and to point out this fundamental meaning of education to the elites of pakistan.

May be you also agree that the issue in pakistan is one of PR failure, not that of the rule of law. Well you also belong to the species, homo erectus pakistanicus. Be temporals guest.
``

Jay

Agreed and accepted with some resevations sir. I am not that well educated though.

I asked a very simple question to the most ``balanced`` Pakistani called something as T 123 or 789. Honestly I do not want remember the numbers. The guy simply ducked. Said good question...and well ducked.

May be it can be asked also to urs and ylh, echo and mallik with some number.. and Big T with some number again, though the guy will duck..again.

And also to amit, ralph, arjun, sadna, dost, stuka and all the works if ``you`` get it. Not to FV though, because the question is definitely anti muslim. She will never anwer.


Before Islam was delivered by G...well.. a woman, actually a widow, used to run a business. She could hire men as her employees and they ``served`` her. She actually married one. She actually resided in what is called now (collectively) M&M (Mecca and Medina). Her husband never had ego issue about it. Actually they were happily married

What happened after that ... well neither T 123 or whatever.. wanted to answer in any way. Forget FV she will never answer anti islam questions. But well.. she (FV) is our own. Islam happened.

Actually they ``progressed``. When I ask FV to write an article how a woman can now get a driving licen.. in M&M well.. Real progress. You will get killed in pakistan if you ask this question. Well some one was killed when one such silly but honest question was asked. Was he not?. Do you want to know the name?. eh?

I do differ with you however on somethings.

I do ``think`` the small t (``imagine`` could be a better word). is a very decent human being. I do think YLH is not a bigot. YLH is a zealious, an idiot, a dreamer who could be riled up very easily with one alpha called (do you want to know the alpha is? funny all pun intended). ``J``. But he is no bigot.

Second disagreement sir

Pakistanies absolutely do NOT have a PR failure. Honesty failure yes. Woman (Human for us?) failure yes. They are doing best PR.

Could you read your own answer (copied above) again sir... A woman was raped... Blah. Sir, a woman was raped in front of whole village. What happened do you know? Just this week the alle culprits got free. You know why? The raped woman got lot of money after rape. From Canada I think. The money must have not been enough. The lease seems to be over. So pay more Canada or else..

By the way has any one offered lot of $$ or euroes for for sui victim??? If not ..then why should Pakistan relent on such a small issue??

Jay ... they actually are better at PR. When money is required they never shy away from openly begging or selling their ... Well...They do get all the money to sustain them. We should not be jealious about it, because we simply are incapable of doing it.

Third disagreement sir

I do not think, however, we should brand Islam as a problem. M&M yes. Pakistan yes. But not Islam. Please read how many shias were simply murdered in M&M (all Iranians) when ... well read Thomas Freedman`s ...

Sirjee... We should use your expertize ... For betterment of India. Forget Pakistan. They are beyond hope because they simply do not believe in humans. Anyone who is not musalman (by their definition) is not human. Moreover, even if you are ``M`` if you are ``WOE``man well... A great nation to ``FLY`` with.

Let me with due humilty and also honesty say sir, what happened in Sui happens in India, my/your country, too. Let us never ..ever..ever.. accept it. Never accept and make India M&M.. Where a woman will never get a driving licen... To start lett`s be very persistant and plod and plod and plod and see we have lesser and lesser Sui`s in India, my and your country. I know you must have tried your best to make that happen. But, honestly, yours and mine too, efforts were/are not good enough yet.

Forget Pakistan sir. Our hands will still be more than full with that.

Well I completely agree if they (pakistan) keep on creating trouble to us any more...well all bets are off and we too must have stick to beat up. But if they do not. Heck.. what is P...

Yogiraj

Nice article Riffat... Few comments from my side.

You said:

``If memory serves me right, it was in early 90s, a group of junior army officers stationed at Risalpur manhandled a local bus conductor and driver in Nowshera. Within a couple of days, the then army chief, General Asif Nawaz was out in the media personally apologizing to the public and the victims for the misbehaviour of army officers and promising the sternest possible punishment to the culprits. Later on, General Asif Nawaz was equally swift and steadfast when a Major murdered Sindhi peasants.``

That was the time when army had not taken the 100 or so U-Turns that it has since Musharraf Messiah came in. Neither had General Asif given away air-bases to Americans, unconditionally, with no questions asked. Neither had the nuclear scientist AQ Khan been humiliated the way has has been under this enlightened regime. Neither did General Asif hold a fake referendum to declare himself the all in all. Simply put, army had been away from the political scene for a while and they still held respect of the people. They knew they will be praised-not critiqued- if they take their own people to the task.

Not anymore. The good will balance of the army within the people of Pakistan has shrunk to its lowest level (since probably the defeat of 1971). You just need to compare the attitude of people towards the army and how drastically it has changed in the last 5 years.

I believe what this current regime thinks is that it cannot take the chance of even having a proper investigation done for the rape - even if the said Captain is innocent - because they think they just cannot afford more bad PR. They are probably thinking.. hey what if after the investigation the captain really comes out to be guilty... what then? we (army) can`t afford another humiliation. One constable Nazir Dogar was enough.

That`s why from day one the emphasis has been on wanting to hush up the case. Army just doen`t want another public humiliation, and it will do anything to stop that from happening. Although, in the process it has probably accumulated even more humiliation than it would have if it had handled the matter properly!

You say:

``The ability of individual officers to act with near impunity as regularly reported by the print media is frightening. Here they are, army officers to demonstrate and impress the civilians with professional integrity and they are among them who ought to be investigated and locked up.``

Exactly. In Pakistan all that matters is who carries the bigger gun. So, when Pakistan Army`s Corps Commanders feel like taking over the country. they go ahead. No law, no regulation, no constitution, not even their own oath has ever held the treacherous lot back. Why then should not a piddly Major General also follow suit and have a cop beaten up and chained because he dared ask tinted paper to be removed from the general`s car. And why shouldn`t the junior officers also follow suit? Why should they not beat up a cop who dares ask them to produce a valid driving license or tries to give them a ticket for violating the red light? And why shouldn`t the Baluch tribes also follow suit? Why shouldn`t they attack convoys, kill FC men and lodge rockets into Sui installations, if they can? What moral right do the Generals have to ask Bugti, or the NWFP tribals to obey the so called law? Which law? Which law did Pak Army ever adhere to? Or what law does Pakistan Army adhere to? What law should the rest of Pakistanis adhere to? Why should anyone else obey any law when the army doesn`t?

In Pakistan you can go ahead and do whatever well mighty pleases you if you can get away with it. And you can get away with anything as long as you have the guns on your side. That is the only law that holds true in Pakistan. And if the military can make use of it, why not the bugtis, why not the NWFP tribals, and why not anyone else who can?

You say:

``Can we blindly trust the narration of Mr. Akbar Bugti? We shouldn’t.``

I agree with you.. We shouldn`t...

But there is one group of people who should not have any qualms in readily accepting Bugti`s accusations... Musharraf supporters.

If Musharraf supporters can keep on believing a compulsive liar who has gone back on almost everything that he promised in the last 5 years - and that also promised on live prime time TV- then what`s wrong with believing Bugti`s assertions? At least this group should have nooooooooo problems whatsoever in accepting Bugti`s word. They`ve been happily accepting every lie from a much more treacherous and compulsive liar. Bugti`s an angel in front of Musharraf and his Goebblesique ISPR.

``Actually, what really perturbs me is my deep-held belief that Mr. Musharraf as an individual is a benevolent and compassionate guy.``

Actually.. I remember exactly the same thing being said about Zia.. that he was personally a very humble, down-to-earth, honest kinda` guy.. and paanch waqt ka nimazi also, mind you. He would serve you curry & rice himself if you ever had lunch with him.

The thing is all these personal qualities don`t matter much without any proper system of accountability, checks & balances..and also doen`t say anything about the competence of a person to administer and rule a country. Zia managed to royally screw the country even with his humbleness & down-to-earthness.. and Musharraf is doing the same.. even with his benevolence & compassion.

``He did take proper and personal notice of the gory incident in Meerwala. This time around, his indifference, his silence is perplexing.``

Yeah.... and the answer to his ``perplexing`` behaviour is preyty obvious. And that is what you have already stated: PR.

Meerwala case did not involve any army personnel.. just local feudals & goondas. Hey, nice opportunity for Musharraf to jump in and look like an enlightened & moderated ruler. So he jumps right in, has the ``accused`` guys arrested, and his government wins accolades from NGOs & western governments. A lot of pats on the back for a job well done.

Fast foward the time about a year or so, an ``army`` captain gets ``accused`` (note that Meerwala guys were also ``accused``, but were put in jail straight away). But is the captain arrested? Noooo.. he comes on TV for interviews.. pleads that he has nothing to do with the incident. And Musharraf himself says that he`s seen the investigation results and he`s sure the captain `aint guilty.

The only & obvious difference between the two cases is the involvement of army personnel in the second case.

What if a civilian (let`s say maybe an engineer-or a technician- working at Sui`s plant) had been accused of rape? Would he have been given the same royal treatment by the generals like the captain has been given? Would he have been able to get his voice all across Pakistan by getting interviewed by GEO? Would Musharraf have ever said that he`s seen the investigation results and the engineer/technician is not guilty? You can bet that would never have happened.

I believe that what the army thinks is proving a captain guilty would be bad PR in the current environment of the country (because of the already depleted respect that they have left with the people of Pakistan) so they try to hush up the matter as much as possible. But arresting the accused in Meerwala case is good PR, so they went ahead and did that.

I can bet if the accused in Meerwala had been a few captains & lieutenants, this same enlightened General and his ISPR machinery would have done everything in their power to malign the victim and protect their wardi-walas.