Eggs Laid by Tigers
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Curious letter to the editor
Here is a letter to the Editor of the Chital News published Mach 9. I don't know what to make of it. Ideas, anyone? The letter reminds me vaguely of Budapest when we were there shortly after Communist rule ended and folks everywhere were talking about the meaning of democracy. I suppose that Taliban authority has not reached Chitral (for one thing it was snow-bound all winter) and I suppose the police reflect the views of Islamabad.
I'll keep you posted, interested or no. The letter sounds like a people under threat, struggling to remain free to their interests.
Durell
CHITRAL NEWS Home page
Imperatives of Peace and Crime Free Society -letter
In the desert of turmoil and uncertainty, Chitral happens to be an oasis of peace and personal safety but underneath there are cross-currents of hatred and intolerance which can disturb the fragile peace, if sincere efforts are not made to neutralize the negatives and re-enforce the positives. So far we are either taking it for granted or at the most trying to maintain it through negative re-enforcements.. A recent example of this mindset will bear me out. A grade two student was trying to hide a picture of a religious figure hanging around his neck, which was distracting him from his studies, He was told to leave the picture alone and concentrate on his studies. In response the student said that his playmates did not tolerate the picture and would pull it out when they see it. This increased my curiosity and I decided to understand the factors which poisoned innocent minds and made them hate other religious figures, who did them no harm. I was shocked to find that these innocent minds had been poisoned by their parents and religious leaders. Given this background, I find it difficult to believe that extremism is foreign sponsored. At the most it can be said that the hay is locally made and only match box is provided by elements hostile to Pakistan, who can be local or foreign.
Another important aspect of my reflection over this situation was even more revealing of the culprit mindset. Despite having lived in independence for more than 60 years we yet have to come out of the fear syndrome, which is a historical hangover. It is a measure of the failure of the state that it has yet to give genuine sense of security and religious freedom to its people. State functionaries still try to maintain peace at the cost of the vulnerable, through re-enforcing the fear syndrome and in the process justice becomes the biggest casualty and psychological hold of the arrogant communalists gets re-enforced on people's minds.
It is time that saner elements in the society asserted themselves and challenged the hold of communalists and retrogressive elements to rediscover the real Chitral -a Chitral where people are respected for what they are and not for what they believe in.. In the final analysis religion is a private matter-a bond between man and God and is context bound. A study of comparative religions makes it clear that all religions have come to promote virtue and goodness. Religious methods to achieve these objectives may vary but the essence remains the same. If the taste of pudding is in the eating, then we Muslims have to learn a lot from others through dialogue and harmony. For this dialogue, to be meaningful, factionalism has to be eliminated by reviving the institution of caliphate to unite the Muslims and provide leadership to the dominant sect of Islam.
It is time that we wake up to the challenges of the emerging world order and sincerely worked for genuine peace. This will be possible when our children are socialized in the dynamics of peace. Religiosity comes in a package. By demonizing one religion, we can not save the other. No one can claim to monopolize the truth, which is said to be relative. By interfering in the Divine domain to reward and punish we are doing no service to Islam. To remain correct in the Divine scheme of things we should not allow ourselves to be used by political adventurers and power seekers. Our children are innocent and deserve to be groomed to respect diversity and pluralism and that is the only way to integrate with and benefit from, the ongoing process of globalization.
Coming to achieving the objective of crime free society, there is no denying the fact that without public cooperation police can not succeed in bringing about crime free society. The success of Citizen- Police Liaison Committee in Karachi prompted policy makers to incorporate it in the Local Govt.. Ordinance. In pursuance thereof Citizen-Police Liaison Committees (CPLC) were established in Chitral also but due to lack of monitoring these have become non functional.
Apart from the above, the police need to change some of its procedures to truly become our heroes because of their valour during the war against terrorism.. Under the flawed procedure performance of police officers is linked with the number of cases registered by them. This means that greater the numbers of registered cases, the brighter are the chances of promotion for the police officers. In civilized societies police are rewarded for bringing down crime rates and for establishing crime free societies. In our present context it is the other way round, which needs to be corrected.
Chitral is a peaceful area where very few crimes take place. But under pressure from above and to show ‘performance police is forced to register cases, some of them laughably petty. This tendency pits police against the people making public cooperation with the police in more serious cases next to impossible. This tendency needs to be curbed and for this, besides, activating CPLC, police performance must be judged on the basis of decreasing crimes and not the other way round. If this is not done police will be compelled to manufacture cases and harass people resulting in still widening gap between the citizens and the police. It is time that police procedures are changed to make it proactive rather than reactive as at present. Only a proactive police force can create people friendly image for itself.
Chitralis and Chitral police are groomed in the tradition of peace and harmony and as such they are naturally programmed to be people friendly. If conductive and enabling environment is created, they have the potential to be role model for the entire country.
Islamuddin,
Garam Chashma, Chitral.
08 March 09.
_____________________________________
durell douthit
ddouthit@mac.com
I'll keep you posted, interested or no. The letter sounds like a people under threat, struggling to remain free to their interests.
Durell
CHITRAL NEWS Home page
Imperatives of Peace and Crime Free Society -letter
In the desert of turmoil and uncertainty, Chitral happens to be an oasis of peace and personal safety but underneath there are cross-currents of hatred and intolerance which can disturb the fragile peace, if sincere efforts are not made to neutralize the negatives and re-enforce the positives. So far we are either taking it for granted or at the most trying to maintain it through negative re-enforcements.. A recent example of this mindset will bear me out. A grade two student was trying to hide a picture of a religious figure hanging around his neck, which was distracting him from his studies, He was told to leave the picture alone and concentrate on his studies. In response the student said that his playmates did not tolerate the picture and would pull it out when they see it. This increased my curiosity and I decided to understand the factors which poisoned innocent minds and made them hate other religious figures, who did them no harm. I was shocked to find that these innocent minds had been poisoned by their parents and religious leaders. Given this background, I find it difficult to believe that extremism is foreign sponsored. At the most it can be said that the hay is locally made and only match box is provided by elements hostile to Pakistan, who can be local or foreign.
Another important aspect of my reflection over this situation was even more revealing of the culprit mindset. Despite having lived in independence for more than 60 years we yet have to come out of the fear syndrome, which is a historical hangover. It is a measure of the failure of the state that it has yet to give genuine sense of security and religious freedom to its people. State functionaries still try to maintain peace at the cost of the vulnerable, through re-enforcing the fear syndrome and in the process justice becomes the biggest casualty and psychological hold of the arrogant communalists gets re-enforced on people's minds.
It is time that saner elements in the society asserted themselves and challenged the hold of communalists and retrogressive elements to rediscover the real Chitral -a Chitral where people are respected for what they are and not for what they believe in.. In the final analysis religion is a private matter-a bond between man and God and is context bound. A study of comparative religions makes it clear that all religions have come to promote virtue and goodness. Religious methods to achieve these objectives may vary but the essence remains the same. If the taste of pudding is in the eating, then we Muslims have to learn a lot from others through dialogue and harmony. For this dialogue, to be meaningful, factionalism has to be eliminated by reviving the institution of caliphate to unite the Muslims and provide leadership to the dominant sect of Islam.
It is time that we wake up to the challenges of the emerging world order and sincerely worked for genuine peace. This will be possible when our children are socialized in the dynamics of peace. Religiosity comes in a package. By demonizing one religion, we can not save the other. No one can claim to monopolize the truth, which is said to be relative. By interfering in the Divine domain to reward and punish we are doing no service to Islam. To remain correct in the Divine scheme of things we should not allow ourselves to be used by political adventurers and power seekers. Our children are innocent and deserve to be groomed to respect diversity and pluralism and that is the only way to integrate with and benefit from, the ongoing process of globalization.
Coming to achieving the objective of crime free society, there is no denying the fact that without public cooperation police can not succeed in bringing about crime free society. The success of Citizen- Police Liaison Committee in Karachi prompted policy makers to incorporate it in the Local Govt.. Ordinance. In pursuance thereof Citizen-Police Liaison Committees (CPLC) were established in Chitral also but due to lack of monitoring these have become non functional.
Apart from the above, the police need to change some of its procedures to truly become our heroes because of their valour during the war against terrorism.. Under the flawed procedure performance of police officers is linked with the number of cases registered by them. This means that greater the numbers of registered cases, the brighter are the chances of promotion for the police officers. In civilized societies police are rewarded for bringing down crime rates and for establishing crime free societies. In our present context it is the other way round, which needs to be corrected.
Chitral is a peaceful area where very few crimes take place. But under pressure from above and to show ‘performance police is forced to register cases, some of them laughably petty. This tendency pits police against the people making public cooperation with the police in more serious cases next to impossible. This tendency needs to be curbed and for this, besides, activating CPLC, police performance must be judged on the basis of decreasing crimes and not the other way round. If this is not done police will be compelled to manufacture cases and harass people resulting in still widening gap between the citizens and the police. It is time that police procedures are changed to make it proactive rather than reactive as at present. Only a proactive police force can create people friendly image for itself.
Chitralis and Chitral police are groomed in the tradition of peace and harmony and as such they are naturally programmed to be people friendly. If conductive and enabling environment is created, they have the potential to be role model for the entire country.
Islamuddin,
Garam Chashma, Chitral.
08 March 09.
_____________________________________
durell douthit
ddouthit@mac.com
Archives
January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 December 2009 January 2010 April 2010 October 2012
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]