Talking to DawnNews, veteran journalist Agha Murtaza Poya called America, India, and Israel an ‘axis of evil out to destroy Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.’
There is absolutely nothing new or original about Poya’s grand ‘geopolitical’ assessment, but when such unsubstantiated claptrap comes from a respected journalist, what common sense or responsibility can one expect from the hoards of TV anchors and print journalists whose figurative 15 minutes of fame have already overstayed their cacophonic welcome.
It is a ‘fame’ gathered from cheap fist-clenching demonstrations of populist nonsense and so-called political discourses that are thoroughly anti-intellectual in nature and akin to deal more in sardonic barbs and thrilling sound bytes for an audience that seems not to have the patience, or for that matter, the capability to enjoy a more rational discourse.
TV screens and the pages of some newspapers are choked with hosts, journalists, and ‘experts’ dishing out the most worn out clichés that can be wonderful fodder for fast food spy fiction, consequently announcing the demise of any semblance left in this society to actually understand international and local politics as a dynamic science instead of reading it as a rapid-fire script of a racy James Bond film.
Accusations are conveniently floated about ‘corruption’ and ‘foreign hands,’ and not even once have they been proven as something more concrete than drawing room gossip or obsessive finger-wagging.
Thankfully, those sickened by such baloney have gotten down to systematically dismantling the many myths and conspiracy dribble that are smugly rolled out as ‘facts.’
Take the books written on the subject of Islamists and terrorism in the region by well known author Ahmed Rashid. In Decent into Chao (2008), Rashid uses reliable sources to turn the already known narrative of Pakistan being its own worst enemy into an elaborate and convincing intellectual and journalistic exercise.
But myth-busters – including Rashid, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Dr. Mubarak Ali and others – may seem ‘too dry’ in their style compared to the many compelling babblers, journalists, and columnists who have turned spouting populist twaddle and worn-out conspiracies into an industry. Now, however, the myth-breaking brigade have found their own shock troopers.
This is a vital development in which sanity in this respect seems to be evolving a muscular side to challenge the sheer brawn of gaseous drawing room jocks such as Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat, Mubashhir Luqman, Shahid Masood, Ansar Abbasi, et al.
Urdu columnist and TV host Hassan Nisar and investigative journalist Aamir Mir have been the frontline shock troopers. They have continued to dent the jocks’ numerous theories not only with arguments rooted in facts, but also with a punch.
In his book, Talibanisation of Pakistan, Mir, like Rashid, uses the most convincing investigative tools, smartly gathering on-ground facts from various competing intelligence agencies in Pakistan to lay out a harrowing narrative that puts Pakistan’s many schizophrenic intelligence agencies smack-dab in the middle of all that has gone so terribly wrong with Pakistan in matters of extremism and terrorism.
Mir’s book is a warning, but without the holier-than-thou approach that many of his detractors usually take.
The more we remain in denial about our own agencies’ historical dabbling in civilian political matters, and the many deadly games that these agencies played moulding armies of fanatical and violent Frankenstein Monsters, the deeper we shall tumble into the bottomless pit we have managed to dig for ourselves.
Interestingly, every time certain awkward truths about our own political and societal failures start to become a hot topic among the amoral chattering classes, there are always those who suddenly up the ante of their respective TV shows and their newspaper ‘scoops’ and columns, diverting the attention of the people either back to the wrecking and scheming ways of ‘foreign hands,’ or, of course, the Kerry-Lugar Bill and the NRO.
I’ve been associated with both investigative and desk journalism for more than 15 years now, and I know how vulnerable to exploitation journalists can get; quite like the politicians we so self-righteously bash. And even though I have very little experience with electronic journalism, one can quite easily point out the cynicism that cuts across it.
In 2007, the army (for the TV news channels) became the villain and the lawyers our saviours; terrorists were dealt with velvet gloves, even glorified as men who were creatures of circumstance instead of the cold-blooded murderers that they really are.
The same year, when late Benazir Bhutto met with Pervez Musharraf, she was mocked and put down as a ‘puppet of America.’ Soon after her tragic death, she suddenly became a heroine, and whole documentaries were dedicated to her.
In 2008, the army was still the villain and democrats became supermen. Terrorists were still seen to be fighting a noble war against America, and those who were blowing themselves up in mosques and schools were ‘Indian agents.’
In 2009, after the government and the army finally took decisive action against the terrorists, the army returned to the TV screens as heroes. Terrorists, meanwhile, became an elusive cross between barbarians and men funded by foreign powers. Last year’s supermen, the elected democrats, on the other hand, become ‘corrupt,’ ‘incompetent,’ and a laughing stock.
Suddenly, for TV news channels in Pakistan, it seems democracy isn’t all that cool anymore. They’re back indulging in Pakistani journalism’s all-time favourite pastime: looking for those ‘dark clouds’ of army intervention to ‘control corrupt politicians.’ They just never tire of this hollow, reactive exercise. It’s been going on ever since 1958.
The electronic media claims these somersaults are undertaken in the fine name of ‘democracy,’ and ‘freedom of speech.’ But the truth is, much of our electronic media is simply driven by what is better described as a mobocracy! Even a casual glance at any ‘talk show’ should suffice as proof.
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Well done Mr. Nadeem, good to know there are thinking people in Pakistani media.
Chithra Karunakaran
Your comment dated 1/9/09 refers. Can you please name the 14 consulates that you claim India has ’strung along Pakistan’s border’. Sraight answer please!
Thank you.
Great article. Please increase your writing frequency. We need more stuff from people like you.
I never knew how embarrasing it could be until i started living in Kuwait. People looking at our channels in Pakistani hotels and smiling back. Not much favor is done by Jazeera and NDTV either.
While its true that many of our problems are the cause of our own wrong doings, to blatently state that these powers does not have any vested interest in the region is utterly irresponsible. We should keep in mind the ground realities of whats happening in Pakistans troubled Northwest.
Great work Mr. Paracha. An excellent written article. Well it is a high time for Pakistani leadership to take wise decisions for the sack of the motherland, for the betterment of the nation and for the progress of Pakistan. INSHALLAH we’ll soon come out from this situation. Ameen
I wish there are more write-ups like this from either side of the border. There are vested interests who want to keep the fire burning. The bold and objective journalist like Mr Pracha is a rare commodity, a blessing in these murky times. India and Pakistan have to learn to live in peace. There is no other choice. We both are the countries which have great number of citizens who are below the poverty line. Instead of wasting the scarce resources on defense the money could have been spent to built the nations. It is never too late to make a beginning. Let us live in love and peace and defeat the religious fanatics together.
I agree 100% but no body will believe.
Concerning what Anil Says: October 29th, 2009 at 17:31:- I am grateful for your comment on this wonderful article and yet i must suggest that God has for quite a while been defined by the human species as an immaterial force that never has and never will have the desire to interfere in material matters. Remember the song: “I am a material girl and this is a material world.”
Great analysis. I do hope our reporting improves. It’s damaging to our knowledge and hence our national intelligence as people who can speak well continuously utter falsehoods to improve their ratings. They are the anti national ones.
Dear Sir,
While there is certain level of truth in assertions made in this blog, there are some inaccuracies as well. Just as democracy is not perfect, free media cannot also be told to toe a certain line. One can have a view and can vociferously say it as many times as one likes and let the public be the judge. Just like democracy, free press is a new experiment for Pakistanis, over time Pakistanis will be able to see through the rhetoric. Channels like Fox News in an established democracy like USA show that views of people no matter how ludicrous they are, they cannot be stopped from being aired. So you must learn to live with it.
Paracha Sahab is doing an excellent job.
So you think anyone that holds a view different from yours shouldn’t get any airtime?
Isn’t that kind of Taliban-ish?
Very well written article. Nadeem, we need more of this for Urdu Readers, who are far away from reality. Unfortunately Pen and Gun have joined hands in our society. An Urdu edition of “Dawn” from all provinical headquarters would be a very good idea.
Nevertheless, I agree that Pakistan is its own worst enemy, we don’t really need any external enemies, yet keep an eye on those, highlight those, write about those external factors that are striving hard to destroy Pakistan..
Nadeem, I have the feeling that you only publish those comments that include loads of praise for you. Am I right?
I only want to ask one question: It has been proved time and again that India is involved in many problems that we have today, especially in Balochistan but I fail to understand why our media and so called famed journalists (English, Urdu, TV or whatever) are so reluctant to point finger towards India? Why India has 14 consulates in Afghanistan? Why all in those cities that are close to Pakistan border?
Read Colin Powel book where he writes the way India is penetrating in Afghan affairs, soon Afghanistan will be an Indian colony.
Do you know the reason why Afghanistan was the last country to recognize Pakistan and why Afghanistan has traditionally been so much Indian influence? I will wait for your response on this issue.
24/7 on the Air
The entire world media has entered the realm of 24/7 air and digital news, so are we surprised that Quantity frequently trumps Quality?
Agha’s use of Bush’s “axis of evil” metaphor makes him a Bush follower? How ironic. Atleast 24/7 media exposed Agha’s paranoia.
Here in the US, 24/7 news ’somersaults’ can give you a migraine.
Solution? turn it off, get over it, get a life, take a jog, help others, don’t be corrupt, participate actively in building civil society. That’s democracy.
I get a lot of my news from Dawn online and I really appreciate it.
Chithra KarunaKaran
try to think positive. Media has changed a lot in Pakistn. Gave us voice and idenpendent minds with expression. At least I carry same views about your writing as you think of others. Show patience and understand reality. Criticism is always easy. Try to do better next time.
TV and radio is the medium of entertainment. They broadcast, what majority of people want to hear. It is a business. Majority of Pakistanis are not educated and can be manipulated to think that their daily problems are the result of America, India and Israel. So, it will continue to go on until such time average Pakistani wakes up and realize whats going on.
Its rare to read such a sane article. NFP, good job. U have pretty much summed it all. Hope to C more of such sane articles here. May Allah bless u all.
NFP always picks up negative (only) aspects of (almost) everything. Never describes the positive side.
its great to read quality. when our Urdu media matures up this much only then can we expect a revolution if there is to be one. and off course we need leaders who are not billionaires.
The fact of the matter is that media, electronic or otherwise, has evolved over the years and has become more of a business. There never has been anything so powerful in history as media (the way it is today) that can sway the public sentiment and attention. What our media have realized with these evolving times, is that people love getting entertained. Hype and glamorize anything and everything and you will definitely get the highest viewer/reader ratings.
Corruption is the biggest problems of Pakistan. In nations where there is chaos and confusion you need leadership that has integrity, educated brain and capacity to take moral high ground. Sadly Pakistan is traped in an unjust & corrupt system. Nations with no system can turn, if the man at the top has brains and integrity – Mahatir of Malaysia and Mandela of South Africa are examples of our times that our leader are not be able to deliver.
Well done, Nadeem. This is the most honest analysis and this artical help me to prepear my presentation.Thanks a lot.God bless you!!!!!!!!!!1
Excellent Nadeem Sahab.
A very well-written and insightful article. Thank you, NFP. Just wish that your articles are translated into the vernacular and distributed amongst the masses whose minds are being polluted by these conspiracy-theorist clowns.
After all is said and done, we are proud of our media. It has performed brilliantly when comapred against the likes of US, UK, EU ans Indian media.
It is sensational; controversial, provocative. That makes good television as long as truth is sacrificial victim.
The critcism directed at the Pakistani media has not been constructive so far.
There is so much of anger frustration and helplessness among Pakistani intelligensia against these t.v anchors who keep on throwing allegations and charges against every one and have taken the task upon themselves to Push all pakistanis into despair. They never see any thing good about Pakistan or its people.I only wish that general public can get a forum where they can know how common public not only hates them but considers them traitors of Pakistan.
I love the way NFP picks the anchors/journalists he does not like and mentions them. I have to point out to him that the anti-American and anti-government sentiment has spread out to so called liberal people on media as well. Shame you did not mention the likes of Talat Hussain, Nasim Zehra and Kamran Khan etc. Well-respected journalists, who don’t fit in your analysis. So you completely ignore them. Nice.
Mr Paracha you are brilliant and also honest. As a ex-pat I admire your honesty, bravery and above else high intellect. There are far too many fly-by night analysts, pundits and gurus in Pakistan media. What we need is plain truth and you do it everytime. If only 10% of population started acting and speaking honestly in Pakistan then we would have a revolution and improvement in all spheres of our lives, May Allah bless you.
OLD SAYING- NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU INFERIOR OR INSECURE WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION.
We have to understand that Talibasition has infiltrated every face of Pakistan’s life whether it is army, political parties or press.
Hi NFP,
A desperate call for sanity in Pakistani Media, Keep up the good work. But this message is intended for those fellow Indians and other Nationals who read this blog. We do not need to criticize the short comings of Pakistani society and we do have our own short comings in India. It is the responsibility of Pakistani people to choose what is good for them. Whether they struggle to clean up their system or bear the bomb blasts in places in the country. The only thing we can do is to force our government to protect us better.
Thank you Mr.Paracha. As usual your topics are unique, your comments are hard hitting, and you are like a surgeon’s knife. Pakistani media is in its infancy. If given a chance to survive, say for one generation, they will grow up and learn to behave like adults. I hope!
Amazing stuff keep it up mate!
It felt like Mr. Paracha has taken every word from my mind, or for that matter, from the minds of countless others who can think outside the box. Thanks dude, you really have the courage to challenge and point out the obvious’ which seem so elusive to a great majority blinded by deep rooted stereotypical thinking.
In my experience living in multiple countries, both advanced and developing, media never “educates” the masses when it comes to controversial current issues. However, mob-journalism is more easily identified in educated societies than those where conspiracy theories not only survive but find new blood to suck on every day. Good read NFP, but you should trying a more simply writing style so that many more can go along these journeys with you.
Very very honest and deeply analised article. This kind of article is the need of hour in Pakistan and will gradually bring the people together to face the probolem it faces now.
Well done Mr.Pracha. Keep it up.
salam sir,
I felt that from the begnning of the creation of Pakistan we yet not recognized our enemies because we are always being confused by the Officials, when they say India is targetting we start blaming india when they say Israel we start blaming Israel and so on. But thats our lack of sight. Well studing the media as whole i found that Pakistan is on the target and those who are targeting us are our so called friends. There is no taliban, no extremist & no islamic terrorist but those who dont want to see the existance of Pakistan as a nation. A muslim can never kill other muslims but nonmuslims can as they are the biggest enemy of islam.
Where as pointing out Agha Murtaza and the book you mention its concerns are based on nothing. what is right is right either we accept it or not.
But thats just my point of view.
regards
Excellent arrticle. I wish more and more people in Pakistan read your articles. By not accepting that there is a problem and blaming others for whatever goes wrong is the biggest problem Pakistan is facing. The only way Pakistan can handle the problem is by rectifying the mistakes and not blaming others for their problems.
Excellent article! Its thinking like this can save PAKISTAN. This is a difficult time for Pakistan so they must believe in themselves not the false propaganda of electronic media. I am sure one day there will be peace and every country in South Asia will be able to prosper. Our real enemy is illiteracy, poverty and distrust. May god give strength to people of Pakistan to get through this testing time.
Nadeem,
You have delivered the “message” again. I wish there were a 100 Nadeems and 100 Dawn papers to push this reality infront of the people in the face of unrelenting, &subverted analysis being pummelled into the brains of innocents.
Mr paracha has tackled a serious issue and has tried to justify it in various ways but generally the content is not very balanced or strictly accurate. There is some truth in it but more so a strong language and ’sensationalization’, of which he accuses other jounalists and especially the print electronic media. ?so what is the difference. He seems to put all th burden on the media and even tries to defend the politicians and ‘the foreign forces’iindirectly which may be a tough job.
Perhaps he could have taken a more balance approach by outining the realities such as ‘there was no extremism before the americans invaded Afghanistan’. It is not possible to counter this very strong ‘fact’
The problems are due to combination of internal and external factors, though the main factor may be our own incompetence, dishonesty, extreme corruption,ingnorance, perpetual interference and inappropriate use of military and their intelligence in political matters. The ‘ foreign forces’ definitely play a role but only because we are willing to let them do so. Mr Paracha has perhaps played too much stress on the ‘extremists’ etc by ingnoring the very fact that extermism is the ‘end product’ and not the ’cause’ of our successive governments’ incompetence and foreign involvement in our affairs. Mr Paracah could have analysed the issue in a fair manner by taking a balanced and unifrom approach but it seems that he has ‘one point’ agenad and wants to prove that only.
Perhs he would tolerate my comment, realise the ground realities and simply not to add another argument in order to subdue many other journalists.
Thanks for showing the problem,is there anyone in Pakistan left who can hnt towards the solution?
I like NFP’s ideological commitment. He is right about somersaults of Media. But not all the time these gaseous drawing room jockeys are wrong and all the time our roadside hero NFP is right. Truth lies as always, somewhere in between.
Mr. Paracha, you are only accentuating the bane side of the Media whereas its boon side is far praise-worthy. Media is playing very positive role for overall well being of the society. It is playing the true role of opposition. This highlights the core issues of the peoples. However, there is a lot of room available to bring in improvements but by and large role of media is positive. The shortcomings will automatically be overcome by the time when peoples will realize that it is overemphasis on any issue and this change is coming with the passage time. I see the role of Pakistani media is quite auspicious and bode well.
Other great one from NFP
Strong governing body of media is very important, so media can work within a code of conduct & ethics.
Currently Pakistan Urdu-media is feeding wrong views to the nation, this trend need to be change especially this sensitive time.
Once again Mr Paracha has delivered a brilliant article. I fully agree with his analysis of electronic media.
However, in print media too there have been some (like Ms Shireen Mazari)- not all but definitely some – journalists who have followed the same trait. They first hero worshipped Musharraf, then reluctantly praised lawyers movement, after that reluctantly praised democracy (but never praised elected leaders – good bad or ugly but leaders ELECTED by people of Pakistan)and now instead of openly criticizing Taliban – they would rather look for American conspiracies in everything.
Of course, the likes of Dr Farouk Saleem in Jang, Mr Paracha himself and Mr Kamran Shafi of Dawn have proved their worth by always sticking to truth – even if unpopular it may be sometime.
And amongst all of that, Mr Paracha has that fantastic style that makes you read the most unpalatable truth with a smile on your face and accept it gladly.
Great work Mr Paracha, do keep it up.
I won’t say watch your back (like your other well wishers) as I am sure you would rather write what is right. Come what may.
God bless you!
This is one of the best articles I have read in about Pakistan in a long time. It is my opinion that Pakistani journalists and media in general does a great disservice to its people in NOT bringing the truth about Pakistan’s strengths and weaknesses. Really the whole country is in a total denial about the Frankenstein monster in the form of Taliban and other organizations created and further supported by the military and intelligence agencies. As long as Pakistani people are not informed the truth, there never will come a time when Pakistan can look ahead to become a prosperous nation and play a role in the world. Until then it will be a small time banana republic !!