Beyond Stated Positions

Thank Allah for small mercies, our neighbourhood general is talking the talk. Once again. From dictator toCEO to president to statesman? His offer to drop the dead weight of the UN resolutions on Kashmir is a welcomestep and should be seized and sealed before he can change his mind. A good appetizer for the SAARC summitwhich may be a feast or famine depending on the many subcontinental unknowns.

But for now, Gen. Pervez Musharraf has managed to get his troubled country positive headlines. This inaddition to a few sympathetic editorials in the US media on the attempt on his life in Rawalpindi on Dec. 14.But he was quickly upstaged by Saddam Hussein and his dental cavities.

Pakistan has been running a serious image deficit for more than a year despite repeated officialendorsements from the Bush Administration. While the spokesmen insist Musharraf is cooperating, those moresenior and more knowledgeable keep leaking the dirty secrets to the media.

They are frustrated by the general’s penchant for running with the hares and hunting with the hounds.Although acknowledged as a prime partner in the war on terrorism, Pakistan in the American mind has becomemore associated with augmenting terrorism than fighting it. US raids have turned up Pakistani officersensconced with Al-Qaeda. Taliban leaders are riding around on motorcycles delivered by the ISI in Quetta. Thearmy rank-and-file is not always willing to crackdown on militants. No matter how many times US officialsrepeat that Pakistan is an indispensable ally, embarrassing tales keep traveling.

It must have finally got to the general -- all this negativism about Pakistan. After all he sees himself inthe image of Ataturk, a redeemer of his country, a political innovator who stays two steps ahead of the game.But it’s no fun if your peers don’t see you that way. When they sup with you only because they must, theyroll out the red carpet but clearly wish it were someone else, when their forced smiles hide clenched teeth,when the Queen’s Commonwealth bars you. The Americans deal with you because ignoring Pakistan could meanworse trouble. You desire adulation but can see the distant derision in their eyes.

The general wants respect and a place in history. You might say which leader doesn’t? Right, but in somecases, the desire cuts through other stuff. Bill Clinton was clearly driven by it, except he couldn’t resista young intern. He worked hard on peace in Northern Ireland, taking the momentous step of giving Gerry Adamshis first US visa. Tony Blair craves a spot in the history books as a valiant crusader who worked so earnestlyand so hard to keep the trans-Atlantic alliance together in the face of determined unilateralism by the Bushmen.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee surely wants to be the man to make peace with Pakistan and earn not just a spot butseveral chapters in the history books. Despite the western media’s general tendency to equate the twocountries, Vajpayee’s Lahore bus trip, the Agra summit and the latest Srinagar peace offering have madeIndia the peacemaker and Pakistan the whiner.

Musharraf feels the pinch as India slowly settles in western consciousness as a country of whiz kids, aTrojan horse of potential. The acknowledgement is obvious and goes beyond official certificates. And he isnothing if not competitive. He won’t be able to survive if Vajpayee got the Nobel peace prize alone. But heis also shrewd enough to know that Vajpayee is his best bet to start a serious dialogue.

The general has begun to understand that India can sustain the costs of Kashmir and the slow bleed. It willprosper inspite of the constant pricks. Its economic links with the rest of the world are growing daily, evenits relationship with Washington is moving toward greater strategic depth. The paradigm of the world’sengagement with India is not dependent on a negative but on a host of positives. He knows the story forPakistan is different. The world doesn’t want his country to become another Afghanistan, a total trainingground for militants, a disjointed enclave with only pockets of order. The US engages with him because it hasto.

Therefore the step forward towards peace, an offer to leave "aside" the UN resolutions which Musharrafknows can only be implemented if his forces vacate the parts of Kashmir they occupy. Besides there is the small matter of a split Hurriyat not being able to deliver even a hypothetical plebiscite. Any pragmatist knows theUN resolutions have been deader than dead for decades even though Pakistani diplomats must ritualisticallyraise them every year at every forum to everyone who might listen. The Americans and even Kofi Annan spelt outtheir position on them long back and the general himself has earlier been on record that it was time to movebeyond the "stated positions" The general has now therefore signaled his desire to end the ritual,shed some dead weight and decided to go beyond "stated positions"

India will hopefully respond wisely. Will he walk the walk? The prospects for peace may have just gotbrighter but I am not holding my breath.