Monday, October 12, 2020

Gallup Survey Showed 75% of Pakistanis Welcomed 1999 Coup

On October 12, 1999, Pakistani military toppled democratically elected Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. This action followed the Prime Minister's sudden decision to sack Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and the Prime Minister's simultaneous orders to deny landing permission to the Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777-200 that was bringing the Army Chief back to Karachi from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Polls conducted immediately after the coup showed broad public support for it. 

October 1999 Gallup Survey:

A Gallup poll conducted immediately after the coup showed that 75% of respondents supported the military takeover, while less than 10% supported restoring Mr. Nawaz Sharif's government. 

Gallup Pakistan Survey Report October 13, 1999. Source: Bilal Gilani

Benazir Bhutto's Reaction:

It was not just the ordinary Pakistanis who welcomed the coup that toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government. Here's how Pakistan's first woman prime minister late Benazir Bhutto reacted to it in 1999:

"Here, a coup has taken place against an unpopular despot (Nawaz Sharif) who was hounding the press, the judiciary, the opposition, the foreign investors. And when he decided to divide the army, the last institution left, the army reacted. Without going into the justifications of who is worse and the frying pan or the fire, I would like to say 'let's move forward'. This is a very dangerous period for a country which has physical bankruptcy and I would like to urge the western community to stay away from Nawaz Sharif, he is not liked by the Pakistani people"

Public Opinion Surveys:

There were frequent public opinion surveys conducted by multiple professional pollsters in Pakistan in the decade that followed the 1999 coup. One such credible survey was done regularly by Pew Global Research.  It showed that the majority of the people believed the country was headed in the right direction in Musharraf years. It also showed that people's satisfaction with Pakistan's direction has been in rapid decline. It fell sharply during the governments headed by the Pakistan People's Party. 

Source: Pew Research in Pakistan


Another survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan  in August 2013 showed that 59% of Pakistanis have a positive view of President Muaharraf (31%  say they hold a favorable opinion of him and another 28% say he was satisfactory). 34% had an unfavorable opinion of the former ruler. 

Pakistani Military's Popularity:

Multiple polls conducted over many years in Pakistan have consistently shown that the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis have high confidence in the Pakistani military. This is in sharp contrast to significantly lower levels of confidence they have shown in the country's politicians and bureaucrats. These results appear to reflect the Pakistanis' fear of chaos...the chaos which has hurt them more than any other threat since the country's inception in 1947. Indian Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has described this situation in the following words: "Despite numerous dire forecasts of imminently proving to be a "failed state" Pakistan has survived, bouncing back every now and then as a recognizable democracy with a popularly elected civilian government, the military in the wings but politics very much centre-stage .....the Government of Pakistan remaining in charge, and the military stepping in to rescue the nation from chaos every time Pakistan appeared on the knife's edge". Pakistanis are not alone in their fear of chaos. Chinese, too, fear chaos. "In Chinese political culture, the biggest fear is of chaos", writes Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani in his recent book entitled "Has China Won".   

PILDAT Survey 2015


2015 poll conducted by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development (PILDAT) found that 75% of respondents trust the country's military, a much higher percentage than any other institution. Only 36% have confidence in Pakistan's political parties.  


Gallup Poll Findings in Pakistan. Source: Gallup International

Here's a 2014 snapshot of how Pakistanis see various other institutions, according to Gallup International

1. Institutions - Less than one-third of Pakistanis have confidence in the national government, local police, and honesty of elections, and the ratings for those institutions have declined over the last six years. Pakistan's military is the one institution that has retained the confidence of an overwhelming majority (roughly 80%) of people in the country. 

2. Corruption - Eighty-one percent of Pakistanis see their government as rife with corruption. This is an increase of 13 percentage points over the last six years. 

3. Leadership - Approximately one in three Pakistanis approve of the leaders in the city or area where they live. Their approval of national leaders is lower - approximately one in five Pakistanis approve of them.

Why is Pakistani Military Popular?

The popularity of the military among Pakistanis' appears to reflect their fear of chaos. Pakistani military has helped the nation defy the most dire predictions of Pakistan's demise. Political, military, religious, ethnic, sectarian, secular, conservative and liberal forces are constantly pushing and pulling to destabilize it but Pakistan remains resilient with its strong nationalism that has evolved after 1971. 

A recent example is Pakistan Army's efforts to defend the state by its anti-terror operations Zarb e Azb and Radd ul Fasad that dramatically reduced the level of violence and significantly improved security in the country. It resulted in increased confidence of businesses, investors and consumers in the economy.  Another recent example is the military's active role in Pakistan's success against  pandemic caused by the deadly coronavirus

Terror Stats in Pakistan. Source: satp.org



Here's how India's ex cabinet minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has described Pakistani military's role in defending national integrity:  

"Despite numerous dire forecasts of imminently proving to be a "failed state" Pakistan has survived, bouncing back every now and then as a recognizable democracy with a popularly elected civilian government, the military in the wings but politics very much centre-stage, linguistic and regional groups pulling and pushing, sectarian factions murdering each other, but the Government of Pakistan remaining in charge, and the military stepping in to rescue the nation from chaos every time Pakistan appeared on the knife's edge." 

Pakistanis are not alone in their fear of chaos as being their biggest enemy. Chinese too fear chaos, as described by former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani in his recent book "Has China Won":

"In Chinese political culture, the biggest fear is of chaos. The Chinese have a word for it: luàn. Given these many long periods of suffering from chaos—including one as recent as the century of humiliation from the Opium War of 1842 to the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949—when the Chinese people are given a choice between strong central control and the chaos of political competition, they have a reflexive tendency to choose strong central control". 

Summary: 

Pakistani military remains the most popular institution in the country, according to multiple polls conducted over several decades. In October 1999, the military coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was widely welcomed in Pakistan. A Gallup poll conducted immediately after the coup showed that 75% of the people supported the military action. Only 10% of the respondents in the poll supported restoring Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government. These results appear to reflect the Pakistanis' fear of chaos...the chaos which has hurt them more than any other threat since the country's inception in 1947.  Indian Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has described this situation in the following words: "Despite numerous dire forecasts of imminently proving to be a "failed state" Pakistan has survived, bouncing back every now and then as a recognizable democracy with a popularly elected civilian government, the military in the wings but politics very much centre-stage .....the Government of Pakistan remaining in charge, and the military stepping in to rescue the nation from chaos every time Pakistan appeared on the knife's edge". Pakistanis are not alone in their fear of chaos. Chinese, too, fear chaos. "In Chinese political culture, the biggest fear is of chaos", writes Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani in his recent book entitled "Has China Won". 





15 comments:

Rashid A. said...

Lt. Gen. (R) Shahid Aziz in his book “ یہ خاموشی کہاں تک“
says the whole coup was planned BEFORE MUSH EVEN LEFT FOR COLOMBO, and the airplane being denied the landing was a drama.

https://twitter.com/ansaraabbasi/status/1315653656159682560?s=21

With so much deception and propaganda, no wonder the survey would produce the desired results.

Here is another view:
https://twitter.com/amberrshamsi/status/1315697972370432001?s=21

Riaz Haq said...

Rashid: "With so much deception and propaganda, no wonder the survey would produce the desired results."

Here's a high-profile victim of Pakistani military propaganda in 1999: Benazir Bhutto


"Here, a coup has taken place against an unpopular despot who was hounding the press, the judiciary, the opposition, the foreign investors. And when he decided to divide the army, the last institution left, the army reacted. Without going into the justifications of who is worse and the frying pan or the fire, I would like to say 'let's move forward'. This is a very dangerous period for a country which has physical bankruptcy and I would like to urge the western community to stay away from Nawaz Sharif, he is not liked by the Pakistani people".

https://youtu.be/paOPw8jCsLQ

Ahmed said...

Sir Riaz

I am not much interested in politics but as far as I know Gen Shahid Aziz was a supporter of PMLN party ,so he will obviously defend PMLN Leader Nawaz Shareef .

Sir the question arises that if this whole millitary coup in the country was well planned in advance by Pakistan millitary before the journey of Gen.Musharaf from Karachi to Colombo started ,then why later when Nawaz Shareef become PM of the country ,he didn't mention this issue in public or in Parliament ?

These supporters of PMLN must be asked that the scheme which PMNL government started in 1999 which titled as " KARZ UTARO MULK SAWARON" ,and all the money which was collected by this government from the people of Pakistan in the form of taxes ,where did that money go ?

samir sardana said...

Pakistanis DESPISE CHAOS and INDIANS revel in Chaos.The Indian CHAOS is created, synchronised and orchestrated by the State and the Hindoo Elite to divert and distract attention from the REAL issues - poverty,hunger,NEGATIVE GDP,Galwan,COVID,Corruption by the State .....

The CHAOS in Pakistan,is in part ORCHESTRATED by foreign powers,who feel that they are getting their way,with the ruling dispensation.This is manifested by Coups,FATF,IMF and terror.But the primary reason for the same,is that the Pakistani elite,do not kowtow to the WEST,any more - as their empirical record of self - interest and betrayal,bears ample testimony to their perfidy,and their innate desire,to create and control puppets.

India on the other hand has always been played by the Americans and USSR and is now the lapdog of the USA and Israel.Hence,the Americans ensure that,there is no REAL CHAOS in India - as there too much at stake,for the Americans - for India to go down the tube.

The Chinese have STILL NOT understand the Indian Lapdog syndrome.dindooohindoo

The CCP and the PLA have to understand that,the Indians and the Indian nation,will ultimately become the lapdogs,of the USA and Israel.

If you analyse Indian History - this culture of servility and slavery of the Indian Weasels, will become evident, even to a lay reader.

The years of Nehru and Indira Gandhi,and their foreign Policy and Strategic goals,were conditioned by the Cold War - wherein the Indians had OUTSOURCED their strategic thinking, to the USSR.It was a romantic utopian age - which is dead.

Most of the so called Indian Thinkers ( Excluding Nehru and Indira Gandhi),were Soviet Spies.NAM was the epitome of the concoction,of the vacillating Indian Weasels - who could NOT take a stand with either side - and hence - NAM (Numb,Asinine and Mad).

Then came Modi,the son of a dishwasher,and like many Indian Kings,in the last 2000 years,a man of limited IQ,but overweening ambition and dreams of divinity - which were accurately assessed,by the Americans and the Israelis.

India needs a massive restructuring and refurbishment,of its military technology - which CAN ONLY BE DONE,BY THE USA and ISRAEL.Further,the economic future of the Indian Nation,lies with the Americans.They have to ally,with the Americans and Israelis.

The Servile Indian People,as a race, are in love with the White Man,and are BASICALLY ANTI-ISLAM,and idolise,the Israeli brutalities in Palestine.

The Persians were living in fantasy land with the Indians,and supporting the Indians against Pakistan (which is the neighbour of Iran). They ACTUALLY thought that they had a COMMON CULTURE AND HISTORY and that the WEST DID NOT understand them ! The Persians thought that their DNA and the Oil sales to India,will make India a RELIABLE PARTNER.

BUT THE INDIANS WILTED UNDER AMERICAN PRESSURE ! What were the Persians thinking ? Who Played whom ? The Persians forgot what their Great King Cyrus,said about Hindoos

The wisdom of the “children of Cyrus,Darius and Xerxes”,encapsulates the “transcendence of Human thought”, the “Deuterosis of the Dindoo”, as under:

A “Persian dictionary”,titled “Lughet-e-Kishwari”,published in Lucknow in 1964,gives the meaning of the word Hindu as “chore [thief], dakoo [dacoit],raahzan [waylayer], and ghulam [slave].

Today,India Supports Israel - UNCONDITIONALLY.The Israelis have made the HINDUS BELIEVE,THAT THEY ARE 1 OF THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL ! Just like they conned Cyrus,to believe,that he was their Messiah,

India is a Poor Backward nation of heathens and menials,ruled by corrupt Politicians and Banias.All their ill gotten wealth,is laundered in the West.The CIA has DIRT on EVERY Indian politician and tycoon.The Indian Media is also worthless.

Such a nation is a PRIME CANDIDATE,TO BE A PERMANENT US ALLY.The Americans waited and watched from 1947,as they knew the fatal flaw of the Indian DNA - and they see the logical corollary,in the state of India - as of Today

IT IS A WASTE OF TIME,FOR THE PLA TO COUNSEL OR NEGOTIATE,WITH INDIA.IT IS A US STOOGE AND A US LAPDOG.

Rks said...

Agree with. PM was a manipulative person. He manipulated with all things. Even made financial statistics look rosy.

samir sardana said...

Y did Nawaz take the help of the Jindals ? Who are the Jindals ? They are Bania Marwari Filth from Rajasthan.They were scrap dealers - BUILT UP BY THE INDIAN STATE.They are Indian Assets,who have bribed the entire Indian Media,Polity,Bureaucrats and the lower Judiciary.

The weakness of Nawaz was his steel business,and his dreams of making a steel/metals empire,in the world.The Indians used the Jindal Bania to co-opt Nawaz.If you analyse the pattern of Nawaz's activities,his over-reach happened,after his proximate contact,with the Jindals.dindooohindoo

The Jindals have looted the banking system,and the Indian state,bankrupted SOEs and private entities,and then,bought then for a pittance - after outrageous CDR/OTS with the bankrupt Indian Banking system - that is the Business Model,of these Bania Marwari Filth.

Thereafter,the Bania vermin,raise import barriers on steel,to protect their businesses,and also,ban iron ore exports - to crash local prices,of ores and increase steel profits.At the Last STEP, they use Indian Banks to fund their overseas expansions.

And the dumb Indians are mute spectators.

Even the Pakistani Hoi Polloi,are not aware of much - BUT THERE IS THE PAKISTANI ARMY ! And so,they made the move ! Nawaz had in mind,the same Bania Business Model !

In the entire world,Nawaz could find ONLY THE JINDALS ! That reflects the state of mind and the state of overconfidence !

Of Course,there is no doubt about the financial and business acumen and genius of Nawaz - but the bet on the Jindals,was a disaster !

While the Pakistani mediaand polity excoriated Nawaz - for his Bania link - NO ONE pilloried,the Bania in India - there was a hushed "know it all" silence !

Y ?

Simple !

The Bania Jindal,was an Indian Asset,and he did his pimping contract !

As a matter of Philosophy a Muslim (besides an "Indian" Muslim),should not BET on vermin - irrespective of faith.

It is these Banias who fund,finance and sponsor the entities (VHP/Bajrang Dal/Durga Vahini....),who lynch Muslims and which,DESTROYED,THE BABRI MASJID.It is the Politcal puppets of these Entities,who assist the Banias,in their mass plunder,of the Indian Masses - and, in turn,these Bania vermin - pass of the cash,to the said entities and their dubious trusts and temples.

If a man of the intellect of Nawaz,DID NOT know of the above - then there is a PROBLEM




samir sardana said...

This is for the Indian Limpets,who call Pakistan a failed state

You Pee has a population of 200 million,and a Nominal GDP of USD 240 Billion (which includes large amounts of govtt expenditure).dindooohindoo
Pakistan has a population of 200 million,and a Nominal GDP of USD 280 Billion - and with 3 times the land mass of You Pee - highlighting latent potential

Maharashtra has a GDP of USD 400 Billion - but that is all on paper.Mumbai is the Corporate HQ,and so,the GDP gets aggregated in Maharashtra.It has a port and so,all manufacturing is naturally viable in Maharashtra (as it also the central hub of India).The Maharashtra state earns some tax revenue from these units - but the units leave behind enough poison and pollution,to doom the people of Maharashtra ! On most metrics of developmental economics,Maharashtra is behind Pakistan, and on all parameters,it is behind Punjab (of Pakistan)

Bottom Line - India has 70000 cases of Covid,a day,and Pakistan has,less than 2000

Bottom Line - The Price of Petrol,Diesel and Kerosene,in India,is 60 - 80% HIGHER,THAN THAT,IN PAKISTAH (ON PPP - id.est., in USD terms)

Indian Palm Oil rates,are also,at least 50% higher,than that in Pakistan

What do we have here ?

Let us ignore the Indian NPAs,of Rs 20,00,000 crores

The Indian Failed State is recovering its bankruptcy,and the loot of the Banias and Brahmins - by levying taxes,on essentials like oils - on 1.2 billion people - which leads to a situation,where the said essentials,cost 50-100% higher,than the Cost to the Consumer in Pakistan

FAILED STATE ?

Only a failed state diverts attention from REAL ISSUES to SSR,Rhea,Drugs,Ram,Love Jihad ..............

Riaz Haq said...

Breaking an old taboo, Pakistan begins to reckon with its powerful military


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-military-criticism/2020/10/21/fb2afbf2-1246-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html

Sharif shocked the country by denouncing the army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, at the first rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement. In a stunning departure from Pakistani norms, the three-time premier accused Bajwa of backing his removal from office on corruption charges in 2017 and rigging the 2018 elections. It was the first time an establishment politician had ever made such accusations.

“General Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government and put the nation at the altar of your wishes,” Sharif said in Urdu. “You rejected the people’s choice in the elections and installed an inefficient and incapable group of people,” leading to an economic catastrophe. “General Bajwa, you will have to answer for inflated electricity bills, shortage of medicines and poor people suffering.”

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There are also signs that some alliance members are not comfortable with Sharif’s anti-military diatribe. On Saturday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party and son of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, called the military establishment “part of history” and said it was “regrettable” that Sharif had mentioned any of its generals by name.

“We do not want their morale to go down,” he said of the armed forces. “We want a real and complete democracy, but we do not look to the umpire’s finger, we look to the people’s signal.”

Even Sharif’s outspoken daughter, Maryam, who lives in Pakistan and whose husband was arrested briefly Monday after the rally in Karachi, has stressed that she is not “anti-military.”

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst in Lahore, predicted that while the current confrontation could weaken Khan politically, it might actually increase the military’s influence.

“Traditionally, Pakistan has been a security state whose survival was the foremost concern,” Rizvi said. He noted that even today, “inefficient” civilian rulers continue to rely on the army for emergency and humanitarian interventions.

“The political forces were always weak and divided,” he said. “Now this division is getting wider, which will harm democratic institutions, too.”

Riaz Haq said...

Excerpts of "Has the West Lost It?" by Kishore Mahbubani

This is also why many Asian countries, including hitherto troubled countries like Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines, are progressing slowly and steadily. In each of these four countries, various forms of dictatorship have been replaced by leaders who believe that they are accountable to their populations. Many of their troubles continue, but poverty has diminished significantly, the middle classes are growing and modern education is spreading. There are no perfect democracies in Asia (and, as we have learned after Trump and Brexit, democracies in the West are deficient, too).

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Pakistan is one of the most troubled countries in the world. Virtually no one sees Pakistan as a symbol of hope. Yet, despite being thrust into the frontlines by George W. Bush after 9/11 in 2001 and forced to join the battle against the Taliban, ‘Pakistan experienced a “staggering fall” in poverty from 2002 to 2014, according to the World Bank, halving to 29.5 per cent of the population.’25 In the same period, the middle-class population soared.

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When countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have begun marching steadily towards middle-class status for a significant part of their populations, the world has turned a corner. Indeed, the statistics for the growth of middle classes globally are staggering. From a base of 1.8 billion in 2009, the number will hit 3.2 billion by 2020. By 2030, the number will hit 4.9 billion,27 which means that more than half the world’s population will enjoy middle-class living standards by then.

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No other region can show such a sharp contrast between its dysfunctional past and its functional future, but Southeast Asia is not an exception. South Asia, another strife-ridden area, now probably has only one dysfunctional government, Nepal. As documented earlier, even Pakistan and Bangladesh are progressing slowly and steadily. In the neighbouring Gulf region, the news focuses on the conflict in Yemen. Yet, next door to Yemen, another nation, Oman, has been gradually making progress for decades. Oman’s per capita GDP has increased from US $9,907 in 1980 to US $15,965 in 2015.33

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Take the Islamic world, for example. They feel that the West has become trigger-happy since the end of the Cold War, and they resent it. Even worse, most of the countries recently bombed by the West have been Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. This is why many of the 1.5 billion Muslims believe that Muslim lives don’t matter to the West. As indicated earlier, the West needs to pose to itself a delicate and potentially explosive question: is there any correlation between the rise of Western bombing of Islamic societies and the rise of terrorist incidents in the West? It would be foolish to suggest an answer from both extremes: that there is an absolute correlation or zero correlation. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If so, isn’t it wiser for the West to reduce its entanglements in the Islamic world? Some of these entanglements have been very unwise. During the Cold War, the CIA instigated the creation of Al-Qaeda to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The same organization bit the hand that fed it by attacking the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Sadly, America didn’t learn the lesson from this mistake. In an effort to remove Assad in Syria, the Obama administration transported ISIS fighters from Afghanistan to Syria to fight Assad.58 To ensure that the ISIS fighters had enough funding, America didn’t bomb the oil exports from ISIS-controlled zones in Syria to Turkey. Through all this, America declared that it was opposed to ISIS. In fact, some American agencies were supporting them, directly or indirectly.59

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Riaz Haq said...

Full Q&A: ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’ author Michele Gelfand on Recode Decode
Gelfand studies why some cultures desire rules, why others avoid them and what gets the best results.

https://www.vox.com/2018/11/28/18115426/michele-gelfand-rule-makers-breakers-book-recode-decode-kara-swisher-podcast

A distinguished professor at the University of Maryland, Gelfand studies why different cultures (in families, in different countries and within companies) accept different levels of rule-making. On the corporate level, she said an overly strict rule-abiding culture can lead to PR disasters like United Airlines dragging a paying passenger off one of its planes. But that doesn’t mean the inverse is the right way to go, either.



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I started seeing some of these contrasts, so I wanted to try to actually assess it with surveys first, in this case it was across 30 nations, try to put countries on a continuum. Even though all cultures have tight and loose elements, their rule makers and rule breakers, some cultures — in our data, Japan, Germany, Austria, Pakistan — had much stronger rules. And other cultures — like New Zealand, Netherlands, the United States in general, Brazil, Greece — they were much more permissive.

I was really interested in, why did this evolve? It has to have some functionality. So, I started measuring, as I was collecting this data across 30 countries, 7,000 people, the history of these nations. How many times has the place been invaded in the last 100 years? Japan has had a lot of conflict. Germany’s had a lot of conflict. United States, we’ve had our conflicts, but we haven’t been worried about Mexico or Canada invading us for centuries.

I also measured population density. How many people per square mile? Places like Singapore have 20,000 people per square mile. Places like New Zealand have 50 people per square mile, more sheep per capita than people. Even as far back as 1500, like, how many people were living in these places?

And I measured natural disasters, mother nature’s fury. How many times have you had to deal with disasters that other places don’t have to succumb to?

------------

I’ll just give an example. We did this very simple technique where we collected daily diaries from people in the United States and people in Pakistan. And they have really extreme stereotypes of each other. Pakistanis think Americans are half naked all the time. They don’t just think we’re loose, they think we’re exceedingly loose. Americans think Pakistanis ...

If they think of Pakistanis at all.

Yeah, if they know where it is.

And if they think of it in any way, whatsoever.

Yeah, that’s right. That’s right, because we’re really ...

“Aren’t they Indians?” You know ...

I mean, there was the question of like, “Where is that?”

Ugh, they don’t know where it is.

They don’t think about Pakistanis as playing sports or reading poetry. They think about them as excessively tight. So what we did was a very simple intervention to get them out of those echo chambers, because they just meet in the media. They don’t see each other for their daily lives. We randomly assigned people in Pakistan ...

They “meet in the media” is a really good point.

Yeah, they, I mean, we can easily within a week ...

“The media!”

They’re bad. Big bad wolf. We basically gave them, for a week’s time, in Pakistan, daily diaries of Americans. They were not edited, so people were still waking up with their girlfriends and still drinking more. Americans saw daily diaries of Pakistanis. They were still in the mosques more, but they saw so much broader range of situations that they were in.

By the end of the study, the cultural distance that they perceived between each other was dramatically reduced. The stereotypes that they had of each other was dramatically reduced, and they said things ...

Riaz Haq said...

Meanwhile, the country’s military – always a key player in Pakistan’s politics – receives stunningly high ratings. Fully 87% say the military is having a good influence on the nation, up from an already high 79% in 2013.

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/08/27/a-less-gloomy-mood-in-pakistan/

Riaz Haq said...

Kishore Mahbubani makes several points in his interviews:

1. The United States with about 240-year history likes to pass judgement on China which has over 2,400 year history. What makes the US think China would listen to the American advice?

2. The West is in the habit of judging everyone, including the Chinese. The Chinese have just had the best 30 years of their history. Would the Chinese listen to the American advice on "democracy" and political freedoms after they have seen what happened to Russia when the Russians decided to adopt democracy in 1990s and their economy collapsed?

3. More than 120 million Chinese tourists go to other countries freely and willingly return to China every year. Would they return freely if China was an oppressive stalinist regime? The fact is that while the political freedoms have not increased there has been an explosion of personal freedoms in China over the last 30 years.

Riaz Haq said...

Excerpt of Our Man, Richard Holbrooke's biography by George Packer

Pakistan’s generals, not its politicians, defined the national interest. General Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of army staff, and General Shuja Pasha, head of the ISI, were Punjabis from the lower middle class. The military offered a path upward to hardworking Pakistanis like them, and it taught them to despise the civilian politicians as privileged, selfish, undisciplined. Kayani was a chain-smoking golfer with a strategic mind that remained stuck in the 1950s, when the existential threat to Pakistan came from India. He had studied at Fort Leavenworth and admired the U.S. armed forces. He had all the time in the world for his American counterpart, Admiral Mullen, who made twenty-seven trips to Pakistan as chairman of the Joint Chiefs and always dined alone with Kayani at his house in Rawalpindi, the cantonment city next to Islamabad, patiently trying to understand what Pakistan wanted from the United States. Kayani had less interest in seeing Holbrooke.


Packer, George. Our Man . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Riaz Haq said...

Remarks by President #Biden at Virtual Meeting on #Military Deployments Supporting Hospitals for the #COVID19 Response. #POTUS said: "We were joking earlier — no, it wasn’t really joking: When you need something done, call on the military" https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/13/remarks-by-president-biden-at-virtual-meeting-on-military-deployments-supporting-hospitals-for-the-covid-19-response/?utm_source=twitter via @whitehouse

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everyone. I want to begin by thanking the Secretary of Defense and our FEMA Director for joining me today. We were joking earlier — no, it wasn’t really joking: When you need something done, call on the military. (Laughs.) We’ll get FEMA — we’ll make sure it gets done.

Look, we’re about to get a COVID-19 briefing from military and medical teams on the ground in Arizona, Michigan, and New York. They’re part of a major deployment of our nation’s armed forces to help hospitals across the country manage this surge of the Omicron virus — this surge that’s having an impact on hospitals.

Like all healthcare workers, they are heroes, and I’m grateful for what they do.

But before we begin, I want to provide an update on our fight against COVID-19 and announce new steps.

First, the update. I know we’re all frustrated as we enter this new year. The Omicron variant is causing millions of cases and record hospitalizations.

I’ve been — I’ve been saying that, as we remain in this pandemic, this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And I mean by this: Right now, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are testing positive, but what happens after that could not be more different.

If vaccinated people test positive, they overwhelmingly have either no symptoms at all or they have mild symptoms.

And if they’re — if you’re unvaccinated — if they test positive — there are — you are 17 times more likely to get hospitalized.

As a result, they’re crowding our hospitals, leaving little room for anyone else who might have a heart attack or an injury in an automobile accident or any injury at all.

And yes, the unvaccinated are dying from COVID-19.

But here’s the deal: Because we’ve fully vaccinated nearly 210 million Americans, the majority of the country is safe from severe COVID-19 consequences.

That’s why, even as the number of cases among the vaccinated Americans go up, deaths are down dramatically from last winter.

For example, before its vaccination requirement, the United States — excuse me — United Airlines was averaging one employee dying a week from COVID-19. After implementing its requirement, it has led to 99 percent of its employees being vaccinated. United had 3,600 employees test positive, but zero hospitalizations, zero deaths in over 8 weeks.

But as long as we have tens of millions of people who will not get vaccinated, we’re going to have full hospitals and needless deaths.

So, the single most important thing to determine your outcome in this pandemic is getting vaccinated. If you’re not vaccinated, join the nearly 210 million American people who are vaccinated.

And if you are vaccinated, join the nearly 80 million Americans who have gotten the booster shot, with the strongest protection possible.

Vaccines are safe, they’re free, and they’re widely available. So, do it today, please, for your sake, the sake of your kids, and the sake of the country.

Now, I don’t like to, you know, outline the next steps we’re taking against — I’d like to outline the next steps we’re taking against Omi- — the Omicron variant.

Vaccinations are obviously the most important thing we are doing, but they are not the only important thing.

Riaz Haq said...

Watch: 'Pakistan Is My Second Favourite Country,' Says Mani Shankar Aiyar
Aiyar presents a picture of Pakistan that is not just different to, but almost the polar opposite of, everything Indians have been told about and led to believe of Pakistan.

https://thewire.in/south-asia/mani-shankar-aiyar-karan-thapar-pakistan


In an interview to discuss his four years as India’s Consul-General in Karachi, a key part of his recently published autobiography Memoirs of a Maverick, as well as his overall view of Pakistan – a country he has visited 40 times in the last 40 years – Mani Shankar Aiyar says Pakistan is his second favourite country.

In an extensive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Aiyar presents a picture of Pakistan that is not just different to, but almost the polar opposite of, everything Indians have been told about and led to believe of Pakistan. He shatters the false misconceptions and outright lies that colour the traditional Indian perception of our western neighbour.

This interview is full of the most delightful stories and anecdotes, told with Aiyar‘s riveting sense of drama and laced with his irresistible humour.

Many of his stories will astound Indian viewers because they speak of a Pakistan we know nothing about. They portray a country that far from being narrow and fundamentalist is fun-loving, welcoming of Indians and Hindus and where Islamisation has not impinged on the right of people to drink alcohol in their homes. And, boy, do they!