Hillary visit: beginning of soft-power diplomacy?
Shamaila Farooq
The US-Pakistan relations have been tied to each other in traditional
ties for the last sixty years. In the words of US Secretary of State,
Ms. Hillary Clinton during her recent visit to Pakistan, “The US and
Pakistan remained allies and friends since Pakistan’s inception;
although there have been high points and low points in our relationship
ships, from onwards we will try to put it on stronger foundation as a
way going forward.
This visit took place at times when Pakistan’s military is critically
engaged in South Waziristan against Taliban insurgents ; lives of
hapless citizens have turned into a hell due to terrorists’ suicide
attacks, and more importantly the anti-American sentiment has come to
that level that it has been expressed, for first time, vigorously
through media particularly against the Kerry Lugar Bill. The visit was
therefore of much importance than usual as it may have sharp impact on
the US foreign policy towards Pakistan. Ms. Clinton visited the country
in an unprecedented manner this time. Never in the history, had any US
official spent the time had she spent in Pakistan. It reflects that
Obama administration attaches much importance to public diplomacy to
achieve foreign policy objectives particularly in “war against
terrorism”. In one such interaction with civil society, she exchanged
views with prominent women from different sectors comprising women
parliamentarians; representatives of public-private sector
organizations, university teachers and students through an extended
session; “Our Voice”, moderated by a panel of female journalists the day
when she was concluding her visit.
Amongst array of questions raised by audiences some concerning with
Pak-US diplomatic relations but mostly from what civil society see
social problems and the role of the US, actually brought on surface the
real issues and perspectives from both sides- to some Secretary Clinton
replied while some she deliberately dropped. Mr. Richard Holbrook also
answered to some critical questions before the arrival of Secretary
Clinton. For example, a university teacher from a local institution
raised a question to Mr Holbrook that if the US was really sincere with
Pakistan, why it had stopped scholarships to the FATA people under FATA
Livelihood Development Program while the only solution to increasing
menace of terrorism was education. A surprise to all of us, he didn’t
know the answer; a grey area of how and to whom the US aid is going to
in the name of development of FATA. A student of Social Sciences from
Peshawar University asked for Hillary’s views on how would the US define
“terrorism”; whether bomb attacks by the Taliban or the US drone attacks
on Pakistani civilians? Ms. Clinton, with little unrest on her face
replied; “No I did not.”
She was also asked why the United States micromanaged Pakistan’s
affairs, why there was such a deep “trust deficit” as the participant
went on saying, “we are at war which is not ours but imposed on us. As
you had only one 9/11 while Pakistanis are facing 9/11 daily. In such
circumstances how would it be possible for the US to regain that lost
trust and the damage done? Ms. Clinton said they agree there was a trust
deficit but on one hand it was true that both US and Pakistan have a
common enemy. “Your enemy is not your enemy simply because they are our
enemy,” she said, “they have agenda to control a large part of your
country and challenge the writ of state which has nothing to do with the
US”. She went on explaining that the US also believe that the extremist
and terrorists Pakistanis are fighting have been made part on civic
territory over the last decade with the funding of Al Qaeda. “I have
read in newspapers that Pakistani military is fighting in South
Waziristan, they are not only Pakistanis but foreign fighters who have
joined the Taliban,” she remarked. Over the last eight years, she added,
we have not been understanding war as helpful in some of what you are
facing. We had focused on across you border (read Afghanistan). While we
know that Pakistan has strong ability to fight for itself but the
present establishment wants to be more cooperative to support Pakistan
what it is doing, she added. Ms. Clinton’s visit, in own words seeks to
extend the relation ship from government to people more comprehensively.
“I don’t want to talk about security alone: my visit intends to see the
US assistance with investments in key sectors such as electricity,
education and boosting employment and business opportunities so that we
would ensure that we are investing on people of Pakistan.”
Participants were concerned about the distribution of US aid amongst
IDP’s of troubled areas of Swat, Malakand and Buner. A young women
argued that why the US was not sending enough aid to the IPD’s and as
well as there was apprehension that the disbursement was done through
foreign hired contractors who were not only aware of the local problems
and the aid money instead went back to them as salaries and taxes,
secondly, why it was so that the US was not able to convince the
international community to help out Pakistan in the war against
terrorism. Ms.Clinton asked the audience that had one know that the US
sent $ 300 million to IDPs? Shockingly no one in the audience knew the
fact but she realized that the aid was not actually reaching to the
deserving people. However she could not say something how the US should
exert pressure on international community to help Pakistan in this war.
It could be easily assessed that the US has not been able to put in
diplomatic efforts effectively to convince the internationals community.
On the contrary it has to be kept in mind only putting pressure on
Pakistan has also not served the purpose in past. When she strongly
said, “it’s us jointly fighting the same enemy” than the ground
realities have to be taken into account.
With regard to strained relations between India and Pakistan an MPA from
Sindh also highlighted the passive role of US to resolving water dispute
between both countries. Her question also aroused emotions as she
recalled back the memories of Shaheed Benazir Bhuto when Ms. Clinton met
her fourteen years ago and the President Zardari gave a wonderful gift
of a family picture of Clinton, her daughter with Benazir Bhutto and her
two daughters “ she was a great leader that I will always admire”. It
was touching to see an American diplomat getting sentimental by
remembering a Pakistani leader. It made me think that Americans and
Pakistanis can share their sorrows despite anti sentiments towards each
other. Ms. Clinton did not express her willingness to mediate between
Pakistan and India. Her response to the question sent a clear message
that US does not want to play an up-front role in disputes between India
and Pakistan rather Washington wants Islamabad to build up ties with
Dehli not as enemy but a friend. In this context, it was also sensed
that the US wants our army to change the battle lines from its eastern
borders to western side and stop perceiving India as conventional enemy.
There are no easy alternatives of what has been done in making the
relations between US and Pakistan more strained, even it’s premature to
see any big difference in the US policy towards Pakistan but we may hope
to see the real end to the “cow-boy diplomacy,” exercised during
eight-year rule of Bush be replaced with the “soft power diplomacy” of
Obama administration. Although her visit has been depicted as a charm
offensive the way she used diplomatic language with admiring smile that
inspired everybody but she strictly stood by what the US had devised for
Pakistan; First, chasing the Al-Qaeda leadership in South Waziristan and
later on, North Waziristan, as she did not mingle her words while saying
this to the media representatives that she could not believe that Al-Qeada
were not present in Pakistan. Second, accept the Kerry Lugar Bill, the
way it has been designed. The real question is for Pakistan that if the
US despite having its international position can accept direct criticism
of civil society why our government cannot hear the voice of citizens to
shift its American centered policy by making more alliances in the
region.
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