Mirza Shahnawaz Agha
NATION States were engineered to replace Empires for management but are a modern day reality we reckon with, for celebrating our identity and independence. We ignore the hidden status of Empires that still live and rule the world to the devastating detriment of the global population. This saga has plagued the planet for now over a century and this miserable heist of the natural resources of the earth meant for all, have been plundered with such impunity, indifference and haste that has caused an ecological imbalance, misery, rampant poverty, deaths and human sufferings that cannot be equated with any aspect of humanity. One feels embarrassed to be a part of the human race! Wars, destruction and killing simply to get what is meant to be shared is something that is extra-judicial and therefore a gross human right abuse.
The only light one can see at the end of the tunnel is a ‘realisation’ by the majority that has suffered and continues to do so. This ‘realisation’ shows that they are determined to erase their destiny of subjugation, subservience and ignorance. They are willing and able to adopt the cause of asserting and extracting their fundamental right from the marauders and causing equality and equity. They are willing to die once for the said cause, because death being inevitable and the uniform belief of all living things, is a better option than dyeing everyday. This is the state of affairs that are present globally, where in the face of reality should one choose to live in denial it would be due to the absence of military might!
Under the circumstances where should a Nation State go to model its defences to meet the challenges of survival? Where and how should a Nation State identify the enemy and build an arsenal to protect its measly existence? These are questions that must worry all but more specifically the employed defenders of Nation States. Clearly the enemy is not another Nation State! Clearly the weapons are not military hardware! Clearly the enemy is the world order as is, and clearly the weapons in use are economic! Clearly if we want to get out of this rut we need to disassociate with the world order as is and clearly we need to devise our own rules to the game called economics! The will is at the root of all change and should we seek to take a lesson from the timing when prophets were sent to this earth we can see it was inevitably to shun stagnation and provoke that will for change!
Since no prophets are going to be coming our way let us use our heads and wake up to our stagnation and kick the global status quo out of the window or better bury it for good. The global majority is with us and that is no less a strength to lean upon and get emboldened to move with. Of course this is not the business of any planted or dependant leadership or the dependance on any external monetary resources. This is for us the people to realise and enable change. Like food stagnation in societies tend to cause a rot that de-energises the dynamism in the nature of human faculties. We do not become corrupt and characterless we forsake being just and enterprising. It is a form of social depression that sets in and replaces synergy and the spirit to struggle. Governments that are not conscious of this social phenomena are a bunch of political opportunists that have found a place for governing administration.
The factors aforesaid notwithstanding, defending the socio-economic turf once manifest with a road-map that spells change, is the job of the defenders of any Nation State. Men and material are the basic feedstock of any operational structure and that is why for resources a guaranteed revenue stream has to be in place. Men are guaranteed from the population that requires protection, as an economic trade off for revenue, they pay all that is required for the acquisition of material. While this is the balance sheet justification for financially supporting the armed forces the structure has to be built with an outreach that can dispel aggression from land, water, air and space from material resources available from within. The tactical command centre of this defending force though made capable for its global out-reach, has to be decentralised into four independent command and control centres, addressing the probable external threat, from the North, South, East and West of the country. We need defenders that are not a single enemy specific but globally effective.
This is because the Nation State based map of the world is not relevant to our ideology that views the globe in a clear divide. The believers and those who are not. Again, as explained earlier the enemy is economic piracy and that does surface from all quarters. A classified lead in ‘defence material technology’ is fundamental to this desire of protective independence because conventional defence systems and weapons are now rudimentary. This warrants research programs in place with the academia within the country and the quashing of all protocols that restrict research and development. The de-classing of Nations is an acknowledgement of slavery and that is again not permissible in Islam. The injunction is clear: The life and property of the Ummah must be protected by the Ummah! Our weapons and weapon systems have to be indigenously ours and so must be the men and material resources that support and enable such autarky!
The economic positioning of the country internationally is the bedrock of the desire we seek to address. This comes again, by reverting to our ideology, where trade has to be a value for value exchange with the medium of exchange being simply a medium, a handy facilitating tool without having any intrinsic value of its own! The men in the country are capable and enough to achieve any level of technology by comparison with wherever material technology has gone and so is the material in the country, ample to support this desire. We can certainly do better than our peers, irrespective of whatever they may have achieved, should that will of real independence surface from within us. The case of a defence canvas is crucial to the validity of our ideological moorings because whenever we get caught in the fishing net of international politics we end up siding with oppression instead of standing firmly with the oppressed. Legislation please!
— The writer is an entrepreneur and author based in Karachi.
