Strategizing Elections

Strategizing Elections

A Public Message

By Muhammad Arif Tangi

Electioneering in Pakistan has remained the sole prerogative of a few elites or those who have been working behind the curtain through intelligence agencies. In past we had witnessed huge pre-poll riggings and engineered elections. Such circumstances always led to political uncertainty and cheap bargaining among the political elites, the so-called ideological parties whether of the right or of the left and especially the winning horses who always attracted the highest bidder.

In order democracy to flourish, the newly emerged powerful media has to take the lead by openly debating the possibility of holding elections at all. It needs to be clearly communicated to all corners that any ambiguity about holding elections might seriously jeopardize the democratic process and could possibly end in giving mileage to one group at the expense of the other. Moreover, the political parties must ensure that early or delayed elections favour none but the enemies of democracy and any attempt to question elections would help nobody. Neither an already labeled failed state could afford another failed attempt to install another failed government in office. This is like now or never situation for democracy and good governance in the country.

In democracies political parties contest elections. A party must have an ideology and a clear vision in case it wins election. The elections process must involve all and sundry and even a little interest from an ordinary man in the street would greatly contribute to a relatively stable polity in the country. It is the responsibility of the politicians to speak to the masses in terms of issues rather than defaming democracy by brandishing the opponents. A party needs to mobilize its workers before mobilizing the masses.

When we talk about elections everything come to the masses. Without a genuine interest or a complete disregard for the process would likely to help anti-people groups in power. In the end, all governments seek legitimacy from the masses.

Music Freedom Day

Music Freedom Day

Sir: Terrorism has affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA in a horrible way. The militants hold a notorious record for human rights violations in the region. These militants are against arts and music. They have almost put a ban on music in FATA while in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, musicians are at risk and the music industry has become a direct target of the militants. This is evident from the fact that hundreds of musicians and singers have quit their jobs as the space for musical expression is shrinking with each passing day. The existing music industry is fragile but managing to survive amid a hostile cultural environment and rising militancy. With the increase in militancy and frequent attacks on the music industry, these efforts are being pushed back. Although in the last two or three years some good initiatives have been undertaken to address the problems of musicians and to provide an enabling environment for musical expression, the picture of musical expression as a whole is bleak. Last year, increased activism for musical expression was seen in the provincial capital of Peshawar when musicians, cultural organisations, journalists and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa jointly celebrated Music Freedom Day on March 3, 2012. However, the snail’s pace of this activism is continuously being marred by an overall hostile environment and lack of interest by the relevant stakeholders in the issue of shrinking space for musical expression. The situation demands that musicians and people associated with the music industry come forward again on March 3, 2013 on the occasion of Music Freedom Day and let their voices be heard.
In this regard, a mega musical event should be arranged in Nishtar Hall Peshawar. Musicians, singers, poets, journalists, civil society organisations, music schools and government departments for the promotion of art and music, and students from colleges and universities should all be invited to this event.
MUHAMMAD ARIF TANGI
Islamabad
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\01\30\story_30-1-2013_pg3_7

د امريکې طاقت (وړمبې ټوک)

د امريکې طاقت (وړمبې ټوک)

ژباړن: محمد عارف تنګي

دا آرټيکل د ډاکټر اشتياق احمد ليک دې چې په ډېلي ټائمز کښې چاپ شوې دي. ډاکټر صېب نوموړې سياسي تجزيه نګار او تاريخ دان دې او په دې بريښنا ليک ايډريس ورسره رابطه کېدې شي. billumian@gmail.com

د شليمې پېړئ په شروع کښې د برتانوي استعمار  زورد ټولو نه سېوا وو، خو ولې د وړومبې جنګِ عظيم  نه پس امريکې يو داسې سياسي، عسکري او اقتصادي طاقت بيا موندو چې مثال ئې نشته. د امريکې صدرووډرو ولسن په خپله څوارلس نکاتي ايجنډا(لبرل انټرنيشنلزم) کار پېل کړې وو چې مقصد ئې د ليګ آف نيشن (1920) بنياد ايږدل وو خو ولې د امريکې کانګرس د دې خلاف ووټ ورکړوچې لکبله ئې د ليګ آف نيشنز نيک نامۍ او اختيار ته ډېرتاوان ورسېدو. د دې نه دا خبره څرګندېږي چې دغې وخت کښې هم امريکې ډېر زور لرلو.

د دويم جنګِ عظيم نه پس د برتانيې زور په کميدو شو ولې چې هټلر او جاپانيانو سره د جګړې له کبله د برتانوې استعمار سره وسائل په کمېدو شو او دۀ خپل صنعتي او عسکري طاقت برقرار نۀ شو ساتلې. د جنګ په نيجه کښې برتانيه باندې د امريکې ډيره قرضه ورواوړيده. دې وخت کښې د امرېکې صدر فرينکلن روزولټ ،کوم چې د زړۀ نه د نوآبادياتي نظام خلاف وو، چرچل په دې مجبور کړو چې د استعماري ايجنډې نه په شا شي او په خصوصي توګه هندوستان له آزادي ورکړي.

د متحده قامونو (1945) جوړيدل د امريکې او د صدر روزولټ له خوا نړۍ ته يوه غټه ډالۍ وه. دا د سماجي او اصلاحي قدرونو په بنسټ جوړ د امن پراجيکټ وو چې مقصد ئې اقتصادي پرمختګ وو. په تاريخ کښې په وړومبي ځل نوآبادي قبضې او فتوحات غېرقانوني وګرځېدلې. د متحده قامونو چارټر د برابرئ په بنسټ د قامونو استقلال ومنو اګر چې په بين المللي سياست کښې د طاقت عدم توازن تر اوسه پورې يو غټ حقيقت دې. ايلينور روزويلټ د هغې کمېټۍ مشر وو کوم چې يونيورسل ډيکلريشن آف هيومن رائټس وړاندې کړو. دا ډيکلريشن اګرچې په هېوادونو باندې واجب نۀ وو خو بيا هم دې د زړو او نوو هېوادونو  اساسي قانون له داسې نکتې په لاس ورکړې چې له کبله ئې فرد له د آزادۍ او برابرۍ حق ورکړو.

صدر روزويلټ طمع لرله چې مارشل سټالن به هم آماده شي او د انساني حقونو، امن، اقتصادي پرمختګ او بين الملليت په بنسټ جوړنيو ورلډ آرډر کښې به پارټنر شي. چونکه دواڼه د نازيانو خلاف په جنګ کښې ملګري وو نو د روزويلټ دا خيال وو چې په امن کښې به هم دوي يو بل سره همکاري جاري ساتي. د سويت يونين حکمران هم دې هلوځلو ته هرکلې ووې او دهغسي د امن او پرمختګ اميدونه سيوا شوې وو خو ولې په 12اپريل 1945 کښې د روزويلټ د مرګ نه پس دا خبرې په ځائ پاتې شوې.

صدر هېري ټرومين چې لږ زيات مذهبي وو، د سويت يونين سره د صلحې په ځائ د شخړې پاليسي خپله کړه. په هغه وخت کښې د امريکې کانګرس کښې د انتها پسندو ريپبلکنز اکثريت وواو په صدر ټرومين باندې فشار وو چې د سويت يونين خلاف يو داسې واضحه پاليسي خپله کړي چې دښمني ترې څرګندېږي. ټرومين د سويت يونين وزيرخارجه مالټوف سره په خپل يو ملاقات کښې په واضحه ټکو کښې دا پاليسي خپله کړه او  د سويت يونين مشرقي يورپ په خوا د پراختيا د پاليسۍ غندنه ئې وکړه. هم د دغې وخت نه سويت يونين ته د ازادې نړۍ، سرمايه دارانه نظام او جمهوريت د غټ دښمن په سترګه کتل شروع شول.

سويت يونين ته د نازيانو د لاسه ډېر تاوان رسيدلې وو. د سويت يونين صنعت او زراعت د نازيانو د لاسه تباه شوې وو او 25 لکه تنان ئې هم بائللې وو، خو د ټرومين انتظاميې سويت يونين د مارشل پلان او اقتصادي امداد نه بهر وساتو. کله چې امريکې د جاپان خلاف ايټم بم خلاص کړو نو سويت يونين هم په تادۍ کښې د دې ټيکنالوجۍ د پاره کوښښونه پېل کړل او په 29 اګست 1949 کښې ئي دا ټيکنالوجي تر لاسه کړه. د دې نه پس په بين المللي سياست کښې د سويت يونين او امريکې تر مينځه شخړه ونخته او دواڼو هېوادونو ته سپر پاورز وئيل شروع شو.

 د سوړ جنګ سره په نړۍ کښې د ليونتوب تر حده د وسلې زغل شروع شواو روايتي او ايټمي وسله ډېره زياته شوه. غټ او سيمه ايز دواڼه طاقتونه په دې زغل کښې ورګډ شو. د بين المللي همکارۍ، انساني حقونو او اقتصادي پرمختګ کومې وعدې چې ملګرو ملتونو مخکښې کړې وې اوس وروستو پاتې شوې. دې طاقتونو داسې پاليسۍ خپلې کړې چې په خپلو ګټو او تاوانونو ولاړې وې او د کومو له کبله چې په نړۍ کښې شخړې نورې هم زياتې شوې.

د جمهوري ملګرو د لټون سره سره امريکې قدامت پسنده حکومتونه، بې رحمه ډکټېټران اود انسانانو د وينو تګي طاقتونه هم ځان سره يوځائ کړل. په خصوصي توګه امريکې د ملحد کميونزم په ضد د مذهب استعمال د سياسي چال په شکل کښې وکړو. بل خوا سويت يونين په مشرقي يورپ کښې د ماتحت رياستونو لړۍ وغزوله او دا رياستونه يئ د ډنډې په زور چلول شروع کړل چې په نيجه کښې دا رياستونه د نړۍ نه بيل شول. د دې سره سره سويت يونين په دريمه نړۍ کښې داسې انتها پسنده  حکومتونه هم ځان سره يوځائ کړل د چا چې د بشري حقونو ريکارډ ډېر خراب وو.    

په دې حالاتو کښې دا څۀ د حيرانتيا خبره نۀ وه چې دواڼه طاقتونه د نړۍ په بېلا بيلو برخو کښې په شخړو کښې ونختل. خو دواڼو طاقتونو يو بل سره د مخامخ جنګ نه ځان ساتو. امريکه زيات تره د قدامت پسنده او سټيټس کو طاقتونو په شا وه او سويت يونين د ازادۍ تحريکونو سره خپل لاس امداد کوو. د ويت نام جنګ سره د امريکې نيک نامۍ ته ډېر توان ورسېدو. په دې جنګ کښې چې په کومه طريقه امريکې د مظلومه دهقانانو او بې وسه عوامو خلاف خپل طاقت استعمال کړو هغې دا خبره ثابته کړه چې امريکې د روزويلټ د استعمار او نوآبادياتې نظام خلاف تلو د پاليسۍ نه ډډه کړې ده.

په کور دننه امريکې د ميکارتيزم پاليسي خپل کړه او بغېر د څۀ ثبوت نه ئې په سياسي مخالفينو د غدارۍ تورونو لګول شروع کړل ولې چې دا مخالفين زيات تره کميونسټان وو. دې پاليسۍ سره د امريکې لبرل قدرنونو ته ډير تاوان ورسېدو. د امريکې عسکري صنعت د وسلې جوړولو او خرڅولو نۀ ډېره سرمايه وګټله او سويت يونين هم د په کښې ورستو پاتې نۀ وو. د امريکې عسکري صنعت دومرې پياوړې شو چې صدر ډوائټ ډي السنهاور دا ويره څرګنده کړه چې د دې صنعت له کبله به جموريت تباه شي او آمريت به وده ومومي.

خو دغسې ونۀ شوه او امريکې سوسايټې بچ پاتې شوه. امريکې ته د ټولې نړئ نه خلق د روزګار او ښه ژوند په تکل راتلل. د امريکې علمي او سائنسي ترقي د نړۍ د پاره مثال وګرځېدو او غټو کاروبارونو وده وکړه کومو چې امريکې له طاقت نور هم زيات کړو او د دې د وسلې صنعت ئې نور هم پياوړې کړو.

 

Raising Educational Standards

Raising Educational Standards

Muhammad Arif Tangi

ariftangi@gmail.com

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/203738/

 

Education sector has remained the victim of experimentations for the last many years. These experimentations have both positive and negative values. In the recent past efforts have been made on many levels to bring both quantitative and qualitative improvements and high claims are being made  for addressing relevant legislations, ensuring quality control, improving evaluation system, involving the community  and increasing access to education. Without criticizing these efforts merely for identifying the negative values, an attempt for further improvement is sought in the following lines.

On legislation side, the 18^th Constitutional Amendment is a milestone for raising educational standards in Pakistan. Under the amendment the concurrent list has been abolished and education has been devolved to the provinces. The spirit of this amendment is decentralization which aims at expediting decision making by empowering the provincial authorities and reaching to the grassroots level. This development is a positive value which is at par with the global trends in education for increased decentralization in governance and administration. As we are in the transitional period it will take time to fully comprehend and implement further decentralization by empowering local administration and community through democratic participation. On immediate level we need to hold local bodies’ elections and work for public-private partnership in education so that the process takes a logical path.

Three legislations which could bring long-term impacts are: Right to Free and Compulsory Education, Prohibition of Corporal Punishment and The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace. These laws, if implemented in letter and spirit, will greatly contribute towards high educational standards in the country.

Another significant milestone for reforms in education sector was the realization of the value of research also called knowledge-based economy. The establishment of Higher Education Commission (HEC) by the previous government and the subsequent PhD scholarships both indigenous and abroad coupled with the establishment of National Testing Service (NTS) and NTS tests for qualifying to Masters, Mphil and PhD courses speak volumes of the successes of HEC. Increased pay structures for university teachers and raising the requisite qualification for faculty members is another success story. The present government further raised the higher education standard by establishing more quality universities. The establishment of nine universities only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one example how higher education has been promoted with the requisite global standards.

Primary and secondary schools and degrees colleges which were previously neglected were also enthusiastically pursued by the present government. Raising the pay structure and up-gradation of teachers at both the federal and provincial levels is a good experiment which deserves our appreciation. The introduction of mother tongue as medium of instruction for the primary schools, English-medium for science subjects and increased in technical, vocational and  computer education are all positive values of the current education system. However as compared to universities, our schools and colleges are still lacking basic infrastructure, quality pedagogy and an overall conducive environment for child-friendly schooling. These schools and colleges require massive budgets to cope with some of the private schools and colleges which are at present ensuring better quality and results.

An important negative value of the present education system is the administrative failures in planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation. No Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) exist for ensuring merit, facilitating students and parents, devising an accountability system for teachers or heads of the institutions and increasing the involvement of bureaucracy at the grassroots level. This is a structural problem which is the result of poor governance. Realizing the need to take education as “investment” for future, the government must deal it separately from the existing bureaucratic mechanism which is characterized by top-down decision making, red-tapism, power hierarchy with the so-called “through proper channel” mechanism and at times corrupt administration.

Another negative value of the present education system is the absence of proper evaluation system. By system I mean the existing governmental structures and operational procedures. Leaving aside universities and other autonomous bodies which imparts education, the evaluation of educational standards is solely restricted to boards of intermediate and secondary education or these boards perform very limited functions. While there is need for evaluation at all level, the existing functions of these boards might be extended to cover all aspects of curriculum such as research on changing educational needs or improvement in the existing system, devising syllabus and publishing textbooks, conducting teachers training programs, organizing and managing co-curricular activities and  ensuring a multi-tiers evaluation system which is not solely restricted to conducting annual examination but which is broader in scope and which can grade students, teachers and educational institutions (including government schools and colleges, private institutions and Madaris) on a broad-based criteria of performances in different areas such as curricular and co-curricular activities, greater community participation and exceptional performances in different educational fields. Boards on similar pattern may also be established at district level for primary education and the existing technical and vocational education boards may be assigned such extended functions.

The efforts for community involvement through democratic participation have also failed to deliver the expected results. The idea to involve the community in school management through Parents-Teachers Association is excellent. However, nobody bothers how these associations are elected and how much powers are they given in the schools management. There is no monitoring system in place and it is left to the whim of the schools’ heads to nominate community elders in the so-called parents’ elections which are mostly not held as per requirements and if held are  voted by a few parents who are close to the schools heads.

In order to raise the overall educational standards more efforts are needed. The so-called ambiguous ideological narratives must be replaced with more pragmatic values in education. Our curriculum needs an overhauling so that it becomes relevant to our existing problems, having more practical utility in our day to day life and which can foster creativity, research and economic well-being of the population. Poor governance should be addressed as major hurdle and modern E-governance should be introduced at all level to ensure transparency and accountability. An inter-sectoral approach towards education is the cry of the day which will help us addressing legislative, administrative, qualitative and quantitative problems by adopting multiple but integrated strategies for long-term impacts.

 

 

Threats to female education in Pakistan

Perhaps the issue of girls’ education is one of the most central issues of Pakistan which is not discussed quite often. It is taken for granted that by establishing more schools more girls will be educated. This is true to a greater extent but what would one say when the already established girls schools are blown up or there is very little enrollment or there are too many early dropouts from these schools? The issue is not so simple and needs to be discussed at full length.
It would be wiser to enlist and elaborate upon the reasons or to be more specific the primary reasons why people are not sending their girls to schools. These reasons will somehow form a baseline study for possible interventions. While enlisting the reasons it should be kept in mind that in our part of the world simplicity is what makes workable ideas for successful interventions. Rather than beating about the bush with the so-called scholarly style of sociological, psychological, political, economic and such other perspectives a simpler and straightforward approach might be adopted which would possibly serve more practical purposes. And the last thing to keep in mind while making the list is the golden rule that there is no golden rule-order doesn’t matter.
In my view the first reason to be discussed is poverty. We are poor people. Poverty is a curse and the mother of all problems. If I am poor, I would say I can’t send my son to school let alone educating my daughter! This is the most genuine reason one can offer. Do we have any direct reply to this reason? No, we listen to it and move ahead and start debating other reasons because we have no immediate solution in mind for problem of such gigantic nature as poverty. Alas! We could have stopped and thought over it for a while what could we do about poverty and thus could make an increase in girls’ enrollment in schools. So, the argument becomes circular as we have no solution to offer and we tend to ignore that poverty is the primary risk for girls’ education. Such ignorance is already resulted as major hurdle for long term policy making and sustained interventions for girls’ education in our country.
The second reason is honour. Unfortunately, our too much obsession with honour as we tend to make female stereotypes deprives us of the utility of girls’ education. But honour is the least discussed reason which restricts girls’ access to education. I may be wrong, but if you don’t see any girl in the market or in the street, immediately give the impression that girls in these areas don’t go to schools. A society where women must not walk out of their homes-as is the perception-such society does not allow girls education. Please forgive me for any oversimplification but I think honour is one of the primary reasons due to which people do not send their girls to schools. They think that sending girls to schools will bring shame or disgrace for the family; hence, girls should better stay at home for avoiding the risk of any family disgrace.
Thirdly, a popular perception is that girls ought to marry as soon as possible to ease the burden on the parents. This is equally true for both early marriages as well as late marriages but in any case, a girl is supposed to marry and leave the home. What is the need of investing on an outsider who will not contribute to the family status? True, trends are changing, take for example the changing perceptions in our society that educated girls are contributing to family income and status, they find better husbands and they have increased independence. But I am deliberately avoiding such trends because I am discussing the reasons why the people do not educate their girls and exaggerating such trends would result in too much complacency or optimism. The picture of girls’ education is horribly pessimistic.
Fourthly girls stay at home to do household work. If they go to schools, suppose a mother, who is usually ill, may perhaps die of overwork. So girls are unpaid servants who are supposed to do all the household labour-child labour in most cases-and thus they work from dawn to dusk in the so-called pretext of training her for future life i.e. married life.
Fifth, a simple reason, that there is no girls’ school in the area so girls do not go to schools. This reason is also debatable as here in this context education of a girl is only linked with school. True, we don’t have other formal ways of educating girls but too much stress on this point lead us to the oversimplification of the problem that with more schools more girls will be educated. This also absolves us of the thinking that education or literacy means quality education and the ability to learn skills etc. Lack of child-friendly schooling might also be included as a reason or threat to girls’ education. However, in my opinion, this is not one of the primary reasons.
Sixth, there are some parts of the country mainly FATA and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where girls’ access to education is denied due to militancy. Taliban are against girls’ education and they have a clear signal for girls who go to schools i.e. girls are facing the consequences like what happened to Malala. The Taliban claimed to have attacked Malala Yousafzy for her struggle for girls’ education. Here, I want to thank Malala because so inspiring her struggle is that I am writing this piece.
The threat of militancy which is denying access of education to girls is not solely the problem of FATA or parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. God forbids, what would happen if the militants penetrate deeply to other parts of Pakistan-take for example the Punjabi Taliban. This is a very serious problem and needs much consideration for fear that its tentacles may likely to spread to other parts of Pakistan.
Reasons may be many or one, small or big, but what matters most is the starting point or the realization for possible interventions. It seems that our criminal negligence towards girls’ education has now taken us to this miserable stage.
This negligence is the product of traditional male chauvinism which is inherent in the feudal-tribal nexus. It would sound like a clichés that 50 percent of the female population is under risk and out of the mainstream life in a male-dominated society but in Pakistan this idea is worth repeating and worth pursuing as an ideal.
There is always opportunity for a new start and to take this new start why not take a bold side with Malala (and her father Zia ud Din Yousafzai), understand her symbolism and pursue her struggle? Malala as “symbol of resistance” can create long term impacts if we first consider Malala as “symbol of girls’ education.”

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/201528/