FEW will not have been moved by images of flood-ravaged Pakistan.
Now in their second week, the floods are believed to have affected one-third of Pakistan’s land and just over one-tenth of the entire population. In a nation of more than 170 million, that is an astonishing number.
According to the UN, the Pakistan floods represent the greatest natural disaster in the organisation’s 62-year history.
Yet out of this grief comes a unique opportunity to develop a positive link between Pakistan and the West and, by extension, improve our collective international security.
Given its political instability, the threat of terrorism, and its nuclear arsenal, we can ill afford to let Pakistan collapse. A major global program highlighting the need to help Pakistan would send a powerful challenge to the perception, keenly stoked by al-Qa’ida, the Taliban and other Islamist groups, that the world is out to get Pakistan.
Australia , along with Saudi Arabia, the US, Britain and Canada have been quick to pledge humanitarian assistance. The US has also provided helicopters for relief missions, although the scale of its airborne assistance has been greatly curtailed by the decision to escalate the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. China, on paper one of Pakistan’s strongest allies, has pledged a paltry $US7 million ($7.8m) thus far. India, which has pledged only $US5m of its total $US500m aid budget, has missed a monumental opportunity to develop bridges at a time when real and imagined torrents continue to divide the subcontinent’s two largest nations.
But all of these pledges are a fraction of what is required to provide the food, medicine, temporary housing and other assistance urgently needed. It is also a small fraction of what was raised for the Haiti earthquake earlier this year, the Asian tsunami of 2004 or even the earthquakes that hit neighbouring Kashmir in 2005.
Not only do the flood victims deserve more, the goodwill generated by our charity would be a major victory in the battle for hearts and minds our leaders, generals and security officials so often tout in the so-called war against international terrorism.
To understand the importance of goodwill, remember that ordinary Pakistanis feel besieged by a world that considers them a terrorist threat even though more of their lives have been lost to terrorism in recent years than anywhere else in the globe.
Consider, also, that a recent Pew Research Centre survey revealed that an astonishing 59 per cent of Pakistanis view the US as an enemy. The greatest security concern for Pakistanis is India, according to the poll, not al-Qa’ida or the Taliban.
More than security concerns, however, Pakistanis are wary of persistent inflation that has made staple foods such as wheat and dhal a luxury and a chronic shortage of energy that leaves homes and businesses without electricity for large periods of every day. After the recent floods, those concerns have magnified.
The floods have destroyed Pakistan’s prime grain belt in southern Punjab, costing what the World Bank estimates conservatively to be $US1 billion in lost wheat crop. In truth, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Only in time will a more accurate picture of the devastation emerge, although the total economic, human and political losses may never be discovered.
But it is already clear that the floods have united Pakistan’s disparate ethnic, linguistic and religious communities as never before in a shared experience of grief. The disaster has not discriminated against ethnic Punjabis – long resented by other minorities for dominating the state – Sindhis, Pashtuns or Balochis, the latter two already ravaged by destructive insurgencies. Dangerously, all Pakistanis have now developed a shared sense of resentment towards civilian officials who appear helpless to assist them while the military and civil society, including questionable Islamist charities, pick up the humanitarian slack.
The humanitarian side of things is already happening in earnest. Along with increasing that assistance, however, it is now time to start major publicity campaigns to highlight the situation in Pakistan. Just as occurred after the Asian tsunami and the Haiti earthquake, we must all play a part in raising awareness, donating to charities and organising local and international events such as concerts involving Pakistani and world entertainers. Rather than just focusing on the plight of Pakistan, moreover, it would help for the international media to promote a more positive image of Pakistan. Thankfully, there is no need to invent it. All they need do is focus on the tireless efforts of Pakistan’s civil society, welfare organisations, government and military personnel, often working side by side with humanitarian workers from all over the world, including Australia. This would demonstrate the truth that, like most of us, Pakistanis are not terrorists but hard-working, decent people.
Resentment is a powerful political weapon in Pakistan. For too long, anti-Western sentiment has been exploited by Pakistan’s elite and Islamists to divert attention from their own responsibilities to the nation. Unfortunately, we in the West have too often blindly supported those very groups out of a misguided sense that only they can offer stability. But out of this miserable monsoon comes an opportunity to prove that we are committed to the wellbeing of Pakistan. In so doing, we help protect our own security too.
Mustafa Qadri is an Australian journalist based in Pakistan
[This first appeared in The Australian newspaper on August 17, 2010: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/aiding-pakistan-will-protect-wests-security/story-e6frg6ux-1225906031662]