Gefährlicher als die Taliban…
… sind nach Ayesha Jalal Naivität und Realitätsverlust der pakistanischen Politiker und Medien. Sie schreibt in “Dawn”:
Whether reading newspapers or watching any of the newly set up television channels, it is impossible to avoid the sinking feeling that comes from a realization of an ever-widening gulf between ground realities and the sharply varied perceptions of them among Pakistanis. Being in denial about the threat posed by the expanding web of militancy gripping the northwest of the country is a relatively minor problem compared to the naïveté expressed in some newspaper columns and television talk shows about settling matters with the militants through political dialogue and accommodation.
It is true that purely military solutions never work and have to be supplemented by political approaches in order to resolve intractable conflicts that have got out of hand. Yet, history is replete with evidence that there can never be lasting peace unless all sides in a dispute acknowledge some sort of constituted authority and agree to work within its legal parameters. However well-meaning, suggestions by certain ‘experts’ in Pakistan to bring the bands of armed men galvanized around the likes of Maulana Fazlullah in Swat and Beitullah Masud in South Waziristan into the political fold, are ultimately wrong headed.
Unless they agree to lay down their arms and accept the writ of the state, it is futile to expend energy on engaging in political dialogue with such elements. Talking to random armed militias that are devoid of any legitimate authority – popular, lay or religious – defies all logic. These elements have no qualms about taking human life or destroying public and private property and have shown themselves to be enemies of not just education for girls but all forms of knowledge.
Als besonders dramatisch schildert sie die Selbstaufgabe der Demokratie:
If talking to armed militants has become to some extent a matter of pragmatic necessity, such negotiations cannot be conducted by undermining the legitimacy of parties and popular representatives that won the confidence of the people in the north-west frontier regions as recently as the elections of February 2008. That reference to the people had been a substantially free and fair one and its verdict ought not to be set aside lightly. The electorate rejected the politics of religious extremism by a substantial margin. The recent assassination attempts on Awami National Party leaders and killings of elected representatives by the extremists are instances of a lethally armed minority holding to ransom the will of a democratically inclined majority. To concede to such intimidation would be to acquiesce in a virtual coup by religious extremists.
Mittlerweile verhandelt Sufi Muhammad, der Schwiegervater des Talibanführers Fazlullah, mit ihm über die genauen Modalitäten der Machtübergabe.
Bei dem als “Friedensprozession” bezeichneten Einzug Sufi Muhammads am Verhandlungsort wurde der der Journalist Musa Khan erschossen.
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