Book Review: Pakistan a hard country by Anatol Lieven

Book Review: Pakistan a hard country by Anatol Lieven

The author seems to be detracting from the title of the book as he focuses more on the misfortunes and defections befalling the country’s feeble state structure. While portraying Pakistan as a weak state, he adheres to point that the country has surprisingly a strong society. This is why, he calls this phenomenon a “Janus-faced”. He strives to make a convincing case for the inner resilience of the state.

 

Following are some of the important points that need maximum attention. 

 

 

Weak State and Strong Societies

 

He presents various examples to make his point. He concludes that while state institutions are certainly fragile, and defunct in many cases, nevertheless the Pakistani society in its various forms has shown phenomenal resilience. Interestingly, both state weakness and society strength are basically two sides of the same coin and hence are deeply interconnected.

 

 

The power of Kinship

 

While tracing out the causes of  state institutions inability, he underscores that they are spineless primarily because the major actors in society have had no interest in a strong centralized state. Kinship is central to the weakness of the state. The Pakistani society still relies heavily on embedded traditional values that make no space for the formalization of rules in accordance with normally accepted concept of a modern democratic state. This “Kinship system” has become so powerful that it pervades almost all facets of peoples’ daily lives, most of the times overriding all the other elements around which Pakistani individual identity is generally believed to be premised. Religious, ethnic and political affiliations remain indubitably forceful mobilizing factors, but at the end of the day it is the kinship relationship of the individual that will eventually determine the most fundamental choices. If the kinship group is indeed the foundational unit within the Pakistani society, it logically follows that most of the country’s formal institutions must be deeply penetrated and influenced by it. Hence, it this clientelistic system that holds the texture of society together and helps prevent its sudden takeover by radical forces, while at the same time blocking the full development of social reform movements.

 

 

The privileged position of the military

 

Amidst the bleak landscape of Pakistani patronized-cum-inefficient institutions, Anatol Lieven is all praise for the military institution, calling it the stalwart of order, discipline and efficiency. The Military operation that the army launched during the Spring of 2009 in reaction to the daring push forward by the Swat Taliban Group that reportedly brought them within 70 miles of Islamabad, served as a stark reminder to the enemies of the state. And also to the skeptical international community that Pakistanis not yet ready to succumb to extremists.

 

 

 The Negotiated State

 

Anatol argues that every time new ruler whether Civilian or Dictator comes to the power promises to bring radical changes, altering the status-quo. But to their dismay, they all failed. Each time they find their regimes ingested by the same elite and religious group they promised to replace. Ironically, they involves in the same patronage politics which they despise and make a base for their election slogan. None of them is able to found a new mass party staffed by professional politicians, and ideologically-committed activists. Be it PPP, PML(N), General Zia or General Mushraf, everyone needs the support of the same local feudal lords, religious groups, and urban bosses, to remain in the corridors of power. This pattern has been haunting the country ever since independence.

 

          Also Read: Social decay, Pandemics and Punishment 

 

To bring the sweeping change, the country requires two things desperately, agues the author. Firstly, a strong Pakistani Nationalism akin to modern Turkish Nationalism is the hour of need- something that ethnically divided Pakistan does not have and cannot create. And secondly, a capacity of ruthlessness equal to that of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk and his followers in suppressing the ethnic, tribal and religious opposition.

          Also Read: Money heist and the curious case of xenocentrism in Pakistan.

 

In Pakistan, much like in India, the vast majority of human rights abuses do not come from state strength, but from state weakness. Even when they are committed by state policemen, they are not on the orders from the government, but are the result of individual policeman or groups of police preying on the population as their ancestors did the same for centuries. The overwhelming majority of human rights abuses in the country, according to the writer, stem from a mixture of freelance brutality, and exploitation by policemen, working either for themselves or for local elites. Even the hardcore criminals can get concession from the law, and can go sot-free in many instances. The same also applies to the persons who land in mega scandals of corruption. Therefore, the author believes that, for the law, the judiciary, and the police, authority is a matter of constant negotiation. Resultantly, the process of democracy is the victim of this negotiated mindset embedded firmly in the society. As long as the Pakistani political system runs on patronage and kinship, to cut this mindset out would mean gutting the Pakistani society like a fish.

 

The State law

 

He points out that the state’s law is felt by many ordinary people not just to be rigged in favor of the rich, and hopelessly slow, corrupt and ineffiecient, but also to be alien- alien to local tradition, alien to Islam, the creation of alien Christian rulers, and conducted by the elites for their own benefit.

 

Reviews of other books

 Book Review: Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State by Madiha Afzal


Book Review: The New Silk roads: the present and future of the world by Peter Frankopan

Book Review: "The Battle for Pakistan – The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood" by Shuja Nawaz