Pakistan's Ambiguous Politics
OWEN, JOHN E.
PROBLEM CHILD OF THE WEST Pakistan's Ambiguous Politics By John E. Owen Pakistan today is the problem child of the Indian subcontinent. It has been a problem to itself and to India since...
...Thus the relationship struck up in 1962, when Peking became Pakistan's friend by attacking its enemy, has grown increasingly warmer...
...But many Pakistanis are obsessed with the government-inspired idea that India, of which they were a part less than two decades ago, is eager to attack them...
...He justified this on the ground that, "It is inconceivable that America can be a friend of both Pakistan and India at the same time...
...These words recall a speech made in July 1963 by Bhutto, in which he warned that China would come to Pakistan's defense in the event of an Indian attack...
...It has been a problem to itself and to India since 1947...
...Furthermore, East Pakistan has for long had some pro-Chinese sentiment...
...air base in Pakistan in May 1960, when it was learned that Gary Francis Powers' ill-fated U-2 flight had originated from Peshawar...
...Whether Pakistan will experience more internal stability under the new system remains problematical...
...To be sure, anti-American sentiment existed in Pakistan before the arms aid...
...There is also a strange egoism in the Pakistanis' belief that India wants to attack their country...
...foreign policy should be guided solely by Pakistan's interests, without regard for either the cold war or U.S...
...aid cut off than see aid to India increased...
...John E. Owen spent the past four years in East Pakistan as a visiting professor at Dacca University...
...Indeed, the attitude of many Pakistanis toward India is almost pathological, for it involves a persistent refusal to face political realities...
...For Pakistan regards neither Russia nor China as an enemy...
...True, Pakistan's problems in 1964 are not as vast as they were in 1947...
...Surely it is not strong among the masses of illiterate agriculturalists...
...There was a surge of bad feeling against the presence of a U.S...
...And in 1961 editorials in the government-controlled press, both in East and West Pakistan, expressed strong resentment over what was viewed as excessive U.S...
...sentiment took on new coloration...
...A few months later, Pakistan raised its diplomatic representation in Cuba to ambassadorial rank...
...Many Pakistanis would like to see India weakened or even destroyed by the Communist Chinese...
...some of the villagers are so isolated they hardly realize that the British have left the subcontinent...
...Last week he was accorded a similar reception...
...financial aid to India-though on a per capita basis the aid given to Pakistan was much greater...
...Then, too, the anti-U.S...
...But it was with the rush of arms aid to India following China's October 1962 attack that anti-U.S...
...Meanwhile, money that should be spent on national development is diverted to defense...
...And now China has announced its support of Pakistan's demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir...
...The tone of the editorials implied that U.S...
...A nation had to be suddenly created out of two areas separated by 1,200 miles of Indian territory, national consciousness had to be developed among 80 million Moslems totally unfit for self-rule, millions of refugees had to be resettled, and a viable political entity had to be built...
...Next, a border treaty was signed, together with barter and cultural agreements...
...has gained in terms of Pakistani cooperation, as was evidenced by its vote to admit Red China to the UN at the last General Assembly session...
...Actually, its political alliance with the U.S...
...Partition of the subcontinent solved none of the old difficulties and brought into existence a whole set of new ones...
...With the end of martial law in the spring of 1962, a new Constitution establishing a strong executive was enacted and a second attempt made to establish political parties...
...More recently, airline landing rights were granted the Chinese, whose experts have been studying aerial photographs of the border areas and inspecting the tea gardens in Sylhet, near Assam, the strategic region south of the Himalayas where the fighting with the Indians occurred...
...Foreign Minister Bhutto has strenuously denied that the latest visit by Premier Chou and Foreign Minister Chen Yi was in any way related to military collaboration with China...
...world commitments...
...But population increase, a shortage of trained manpower, and a lack of dedication to goals of constructive nation-building have worked to perpetuate and enhance the economic and political chaos in which the nation was born...
...Underlying this attitude is a complete ignorance of what life under Chinese Communist rule would be like...
...Another educated Pakistani told me that his country would rather have its own U.S...
...Since the people are unaccustomed to parliamentary democracy, and suffer both a lack of political sophistication and widespread illiteracy, there is reason to doubt whether any democratic type of rule will work...
...Yet even if the Kashmir issue were settled in favor of Pakistan, it is likely that the basic hostility toward India would remain...
...editorials may emanate from the authorities who control the press, and there is reason to believe that some student demonstrations against United States Information Service centers have been instigated by the government...
...Prime Minister Nehru has openly stated that India does not want Pakistan and would not take it even if offered...
...To have to cope with Pakistan's problems in addition to its own would avail India naught...
...For what is involved is a clash of cultures, a hatred of the inferior for the superior, and a vindictiveness that makes a virtue of revenge...
...It has never been ideologically allied with the U.S...
...in any real sense...
...It is even conceivable that an unwritten military agreement between Peking and Rawalpindi already exists...
...We would rather be ruled by Red China than by India," a Bengali intellectual informed me, "because we have had foreign rule for so long, this would just be one more...
...President Ayub Khan has had to face restive discontent, especially in East Pakistan, and one of the principal leaders of the Opposition is his own brother, Sardar Bahadur Khan...
...Moreover, given this background of political immaturity, which is devoid of any long tradition of entering into agreements and fulfilling treaties, Pakistan's current behavior toward the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in general and this country in particular is not surprising...
...It is difficult to estimate how extensive or enduring anti-American feeling actually is in Pakistan...
...It often is immature in nature, reflecting the insecurity and collective inferiority complex of a small nation...
...All Pakistani political behavior has to be evaluated in the context of the country's relations with India...
...With the simultaneous Cuban crisis, letters and editorials critical of President Kennedy's bold action appeared and many pro-Castro sentiments were uttered...
...At the time, the country's Foreign Minister, Z. A. Bhutto, made the same charge...
...has yielded far more concrete benefits for Pakistan than the U.S...
...In 1956 when Chou En-lai visited Dacca to receive an honorary degree from the University, he was greeted by large crowds...
...Now it is a problem to the Western alliance as well-and not merely because President Ayub Khan has just spent eight days entertaining Communist China's Premier Chou En-lai...
...In view of the political inexperience of its people and the absence of statesmanlike leadership during its first decade, Pakistan's continued existence is an achievement in itself...
...Neutralist sentiment in the Cabinet sought to bring pressure upon President Khan to revise his proWest stand...
...Yet the idea has persisted among many Americans that Pakistan is a loyal ally and a proven friend...
...After a Constitution drafted in 1956 soon proved unworkable, almost four years of martial law did little to solve the nation's troubles, though it did provide some measure of stability...
...The enemy is India, and Pakistan's new-found friendship with China reveals, in effect, just how seriously it regards its SEATO commitments...
...A major question in current U.S.Pakistan relations turns on the issue of how far Pakistan actually is proWest...
...But a more telling clue to the present state of relations between Peking and Pakistan may have been provided by Chou's remarks upon arrival at Rawalpindi airport: "The continuous development of friendly cooperation between our countries is not only in the interests of the people of China and Pakistan but also conducive to the defense of peace in Asia and the world...
...It began with the arrival of Chinese technicians in Pakistan...
...Similarly, anti-Indian propaganda is maintained by government pressure for political purposes...
...At the very least, this is a possibility that cannot be ignored in assessing Pakistan's allegiance to the West...
...To date, it has served its interests to be linked with the West, but whether Pakistan can be trusted to support Western interests is another matter...
...Talking with a group of Pakistani professors, newspaper editors, and a university vice-chancellor in October 1962, shortly after the Chinese attacked India, I was struck by the fact that all of them were convinced India had deliberately started the war merely as a means of getting increased Western arms aid for later use against Pakistan...
...Editorials and letters in newspapers became increasingly vicious, American motives were everywhere questioned, and Pakistanis roundly declared they had been "betrayed...
Vol. 47 • March 1964 • No. 5
