Global Peace and Human Security: India and Pakistan Itching for Showdown on Kashmir

by Dr Mahboob A Khawaja

Has civilization taught us to be more friendly towards one another? Asked Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and intellectual and explains further:  …Within the herd we are more friendly to each other than are many species of animals, but in our attitude towards those outside the herd, in spite of all that has been done by moralists and religious teachers, our emotions are as ferocious as those of any animal, and our intelligence enables us to give them a scope which is denied to even the most savage beast. It may be hoped, though not very confidently, that the more humane attitude will in time come to prevail, but so far the omens are not very propitious.

People of Kashmir Live in Denial of their Freedom

History made India and Pakistan enemy and geography made them neighbors. They never learned from history and geography to be friendly nations. The State of Jammu and Kashmir is at the heart of all political and strategic problems which characterize the nature of relationships between the two nuclear rivals. Under the current BJP Government, India is tainted by Hindu nationalism and its ideological and normative connotations and supremacy of thoughts. But its unilateral claim on the people of Kashmir negates the British constitutional act of freedom for both states and does not have the characteristics of truth, wisdom and honesty to assert moral and intellectual justification. There are more than dozen of UN Security Council Resolutions on the Kashmir dispute accepted by India and Pakistan calling for a plebiscite (referendum) to be held respecting the rights of self-determination of the people of Kashmir. If both countries were responsible in global affairs, an impartial referendum could have paved the way for a peaceful resolution of Jammu and Kashmir.

This week, Indian parliament using a legal stipulation of its own paperwork has changed the status of Kashmir without any consent or reference to the people of Kashmir. Strange democracy at work in violation of its basic tenets, questions the essence of Indian secularism, Farooq Abdullah many times former chief minister of Indian administered Kashmir. Legal vices or falsehood do not change the human behavior and intellect. Political leaders of conscience and humanity can never enforce animosity on innocent people.

India and Pakistan to Learn from History and Respect the Rights of the People of Kashmir

Moving from a humanitarian showdown to large scale military conflict between the two nuclear nations of the sub-continent does not sound the strategy of ingenuity and political farsightedness. The UNO spokesperson sounds alarming concerns over the extreme militarization of the region of Kashmir. Reason lives in denial of the basic rights of the masses of Kashmir, political quagmire takes over the treacherous ambuscade. Both countries are entrenched in a military geared conspiracy to test weapons on the people of Kashmir and mismanage the public consciousness for political reasons. What a catastrophic mindset to undo a sustainable future for both the nations. Could the leaders be people of reason to respect the right of self-determination and let the masses of Kashmir decide their own future whether to join India or Pakistan or remain independent with some collaborative relationships with both countries.

Could India and Pakistan learn a lesson from the contemporary history and approach the issue with a proactive vision for the best of all the people of the subcontinent? The media reports portray evidence of tragic and abnormal military activities across the Indian administered Kashmir. The people of the valley are locked up and denied free movement. Many false political apprehensions and claims on Kashmir could lead to dreadful and unavoidable consequences given both nations possess nuclear arsenals. The truth on Kashmir is unchanging as it was in 1947 at the time of partition of British colonized India and as it was when both countries accepted the UNSC Resolutions for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Any unilateral move under 370 Indian parliamentary act is a self-serving delusional strategy of tyranny imposed against the innocent masses of Kashmir. Agreeably, truth is not transient or adaptable to the political lethargy of any nation or leaders. When competent leaders enriched with moral and intellectual capacity lead a nation, they imply knowledge-based wisdom and facts of history to benevolence and human justice and certainly not to malignity and political deceit.

Could the Global Community Persuade India and Pakistan to a Peaceful Resolution?

The 21st century is an age of globalization. Crisis in one part of the world affect all the people of the Earth. We, the humanity live in co-existence with the Nature of things within the Universe. If we tend to be blind to basic human requisites of human rights, social justice and peace, we tend to challenge and deny the cosmic harmony and justice in which we exist as mankind. These thoughts and ideals are no strange to the Indian classic history. Yet, the politicians appear to question the canons of rationality and fairness when it comes to the rights of the people of Kashmir. No one can justify any rebuttals to reflect on the incompatible derogatory demands disrupting the social, economic, political and humanitarian lifelines of the masses of Kashmir. Kashmir was never an integral part of India or Pakistan. During the British Raj, it remained an independent state outside the British colonial rule. All economical, geographical and political lifelines of Kashmir pass through Pakistan.

We, the humanity face an extremely dangerous precedent for peaceful resolution of conflict and need is urgent for the UN and the global community as partners to discover the truth and wisdom of mediation for peacemaking of all the perplexities and false claims and counter-claims on Kashmir. There is no wisdom to synthesize a gruesome legal and political claim to deny freedom to the people of Kashmir. There are plenty of morally and politically enlightened hubs in India and Pakistan to reject the false legal action and support the historic truth that remains unchanged in its timelessness existence that rights of the people of Kashmir must be respected and be the cardinal approach to articulate a better future for all. If Indian or Pakistani emotionally charged political activists think of any military solution, they are wrong now and they will be wrong after the facts. It could be disingenuous mystery of self-destruction without any favorable outcomes. Only stupid and irresponsible leaders could opt for such a strategy to resolve an international conflict. Both countries need an awakening torch of rational self-analysis and peaceful future-making.  All demonstrations and loud crying of emotionally charged agents do not translate into tangible logical actions. One wonders why Pakistan did not organize a single international conference on Kashmir? Why were the Kashmiris not allowed by UNO to free movement and business on both sides?   Pakistanis have lost 50 years under corrupt political monsters – Bhuttos, Zardari, Sharif and Musharaf. They should think critically and collectively and see the mirror how to rebuild moral and intellectual capacity after 50 years of decadent political culture and to stand firm for the protection of the rights of people of Kashmir.

For long, they should have known what India was planning to do. Indian PM Moodi under BJP governance is doing what he claimed to be to make India a more productive and militarily strong nation. Under corrupt leadership, Pakistanis had no strategic plan on Kashmir or their future-making. If PM Imran Khan is trying to bridge the gap of time and history, it is not an easy domain and there is no quick fix to restore a sense of political cohesiveness across many divided lines of political thoughts within Pakistan. The masses must realize how they wasted time and opportunities for political change and to rebuild a stable Pakistan to protect its national interest and standing within the global community. Its former leaders were devoid of any moral and intellectual capacity to defend the people of Kashmir. They were all inept, corrupt and criminals who stole the time and wealth of the nation to buy palaces abroad. Pakistanis must do soul searching and think critically how to make a navigational change to ensure their national interest, freedom and a productive sustainable future.  Both nations have friendly ties with Russia, China, USA and West European nations and leaders of these countries must take initiatives to make India and Pakistan understand the strategy of peace-making and good neighborly relationships as a preventive measure to stop a dreadful futuristic war.  Bertrand Russell has intelligently summed up the human ideals:

Moral ideas sometimes wait upon political developments, and sometimes outrun them. The brotherhood of man is an ideal which owed its first force to political developments….The present moment is the most important and most crucial that has ever confronted mankind. Upon our collective wisdom during the next twenty years depends the question whether mankind shall be plunged into unparalleled disaster, or shall achieve a new level of happiness, security, well-being, and intelligence.  I do not know which mankind will choose. There is grave reason for fear, but there is enough possibility of a good solution to make hope not irrational. And it is on this hope that we must act.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and international affairs with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.

Global peace and security: World leaders betray canons of truth, wisdom and humanity Opinion

By Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

Today's Political World at a Glance

Global politics is overwhelmingly becoming robotic when question of safeguard of the mankind comes up. Global political leaders are fast becoming actors on stage - issuing abstract statements of outrage and phony sense of grief when thousands and millions of human lives are constantly bombarded by the weapons they manufacture and sell to crush the human soul and to support the war economies. The UNO and its Secretary General and the UN Security Council - all are just debating clubs engaged in time killing exercises to deceive the mankind and to betray the ideals of the Charter to "safeguard the humanity from the scourge of wars." Many top UN officials are paid employees with no sense of accountability to the global community. The reality of man-made catastrophic conflicts enhanced by national interests and war-led economies are ingrained in the war racketeering plans across the globe. The 21st century knowledge-based informed mankind is the net victim of the global political monsters. Millions of human beings are forcibly displaced, evicted by plans and charcoaled by forbidden chemical weapons across the Middle East yet; most global leaders do nothing to prevent the aggressive catastrophes except statements of fake 'outrage' reaction as if others were inhuman casualties. We are witnessing abnormal political culture of human bloodbath as being normal.

The global community - a divided and dispersed mankind is unable to challenge the war racketeers and global hangmen who claim to be political leaders. They are egoistic professionals with big mouth without wisdom and full of self-engineered false democratic clichés, contradictions, distortions and misrepresentation of the rights of common citizens in modern democracies. These are frightening trends for the present and future generations to survive. Most of the economically influential actors occupy the political platforms - either through backdoor conspiracies or entrenched political intrigues. They profess to be intelligent and outspoken for the rights of the people but in reality are offensive to truth and listening to voices of reason and honesty. How do we call for a balancing act in a world terribly imbalanced by nationalism, political and economic ideologies of supremacy and shallow imaginations and practices of human equality, human rights, peace and harmony amongst all the diverse segments of the living humanity?

We cannot abandon the search for a better and more rational world of systematic mechanism to protect the peace and security of the mankind on this One Planet. We, the People, We the Humanity and conscientious thinkers and scholars must wake-up to the immense sophisticated and technologically advanced challenges to disconnect us from the Nature of Things and to dehumanize us by global scenarios of ethnicities, nationalism, state borders and cultural superiorities and ruling class distinctions. William Godwin (Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Modern Moral and Happiness, 1793), said it right:

Men of genius must rise up....to analyse the machine of society to demonstrate how the parts are connected together... and point out the defects and remedy. It is thus only that important reforms can be produced...He who is a friend to general happiness will neglect no chance of producing in his pupil or his child, one of the long-looked for saviours of the human race.

Do We, the People, Realize to be One Humanity on One Earth?

We are One Humanity on One Planet and we have a right to be here in peace and harmony, not in conflicts, not collaborators to kill the mankind and destruction of the human environment and habitats. This will be contrary to our Nature and inhuman if we cannot come to terms with our peaceful co-existence, identity and responsibility being the chief guardians of the living planet in a living Universe.  We, the humanity lives on a balanced Planet - Earth located at a measured distance from the Sun and Moon and other stars. God created the Universe and blessed it with all functionalities and provisions for life-sustaining factors since millions and billions of years. Do you realize if there was no water, no oxygen or hydrogen and other gases or sun light to support all the living creations - what would have been the shape and form of life on Earth? 

Could we the human kind count the blessings of God to maintain life for millions and billions of years on this planet?  All things exist in a mathematical order, whether we recognize it or deny it. So strange, we know all about other material things and scientific - technological developments but we are ignorant and arrogant to learn about our own origin and existence on a living planet. We are born from mother's tummy - one and the same all over the globe - One Humanity. Yet, we dare to challenge each other with nationalism and ethnic superiorities and indulge in wars and deaths and destruction of our own beings. Are we the human being intelligent enough to know about our own existence and Purpose of Life?  How could we imagine peace and harmony amongst ourselves when we bomb and destroy each others with weapons of destruction as if we were not the human kind but some kind of animals without any sense of rational thinking?

 We, the People of Conscience can only correct the political fallacies if we are united and blended together with reason and accountability to be the savior of our own world. We must awaken the minds and soul of the 21st century humanity to synthesize the vitality of peace and human security in a world of time and opportunities for political justice, equal rights and participation to be part of the change phenomenon for a better and more promising world of tomorrow.  The voices of reason will echo across the globe if we together are committed and united for this idea and human ideals. We strongly believe that knowledge-based wisdom, plans and actions will lead to benevolence and global harmony, peace and justice and will nullify the malignity and political tyranny from the 21st century highly challenging and competitive world. When We, the People articulate cooperation and understanding in societal diversity, it will replace the impulse and urge for competition and unjust indulgence to destroy fellow human beings.

Political Propaganda:   War as "Noble" but Truth and Peace are Offensive

Strangely enough, warmongers hire war propagandists to classify wars as "noble", "good", necessity of the ruling nobility and to protect the flag, borders and national interests. George Bush claimed being "Man of God" who started the day with the Bible, to orchestrate the bogus war on terrorism. These are cynical notions implied to enforce the monstrous viewpoints of the few warlords in every age.  Professor Camillo "Mac" Bica, School of Visual Arts, New York City and an activist of Peace and Justice ("Atrocity and War", OpenedNews), offers a penetrating insight on the inequality criterion and falsification of information and facts of human life.

Having been indoctrinated by the propaganda of those whose militarism and warist agenda requires acceptance of the mythology of the "good war" and the "noble warrior," the uninitiated and unaffected most civilians and many non warrior members of the military fail to realize this truth, that all war is barbarism in which cruelty and brutal atrocity is the norm rather than the exception. During World War II, for example, often cited and celebrated as the "good war," over 50 million civilians were murdered by both Axis and Allied Nations. The American servicemen in the Wikileaks video who so nonchalantly "engaged the target" slaughtering some 12 human beings are no different from the pilots and bombardiers from the "greatest generation" who with equal nonchalance, incinerated millions of civilians during the terror bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc. Despite the moral depravity of their actions, these individuals were not born killers. Rather they were created to do our bidding, first conscripted or lured into the military with promises of employment, a college education, or U.S. citizenship, then subjected to sophisticated indoctrination techniques of value manipulation, moral desensitization, and psychological conditioning, aimed at destroying/overriding their humanity, their moral aversion to killing, reinforced by the violence and horrors of the battlefield environment.

Blame Games of Distortion and Prejudice against the Informed Humanity

To be united in global political diversity, We, the People must exercise forbearance, canons of rationality and strive for blended unity of mankind - the core of human understanding and harmony. Leaders who want to lead must have rational thinking and followers to claim leadership effectiveness. Most contemporary leaders are devoid of REASON as the focal point of policy formulation and decision-making in global human relationships. Often they use blame game and popularity numbers to score fictitious rating in public eyes. Most leaders are infected with this syndrome and egoistic sickness to remain influential and powerful.

To protect the mankind from further dehumanization and annihilation, People of new ideas (Idea Men) are needed to take initiatives for political change - indeed a navigational change at  this critical moment: a New UNO with people's leadership, New Global Political Systems of Governance planned and developed by the people of knowledge and integrity and rejecting Hobbesian "wars of all against all"; and producing a rational rebuttal to the war of insanity, torture, political tyranny, inept global leadership and offer a balanced new vision of a world enriched with learning knowledge of rational policy-making and decision-making, human equality, fairness, protection of life and its natural support systems, and the Universe and equal justice for all the living beings on this planet. The leaders have not learned from the imposed deaths and destruction of the Two World Wars. The Third World War is already in progress in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and soon to engulf many self-made tribal Arab kings, princes and authoritarian dictators.

Surely, We, the People could create a better and more sustainable world of today and tomorrow. A natural sense of piety and political wickedness cannot co-exist in one human character as most of the world leaders pretend to be. We must THINK and ACT outside the global box of political wickedness and cult of political allegiance to the few and sickening political minds of egoistic leadership. Time and history are not going to wait for the few insane outrage, phony statements on human deaths and destruction unless we take this challenge in its time and opportunity to make things happen  for change and for the best of all mankind. The Divine Revelation (Al-Qur'an) states clearly: "Intelligent people always readily accept advice." 

American historian Harry Elmer Barnes ("Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and It's Aftermath"), offered this stern warning to American politicians if the US led wars continue leading to man's annihilation from this planet:

"If trends continue as they have during the last fifteen years, we shall soon reach this point of no return, and can only anticipate interminable wars, disguised as noble gestures for peace. Such an era could only culminate in a third world war which might well, as Arnold J. Toynbee has suggested, leave only the pygmies in remote jungles, or even the apes and ants, to carry on 'the cultural traditions' of mankind."

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs - global security, peace and conflict resolution and IR with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.

Global Peace and Security: Why Wars on Humanity?

by Dr Mahboob A Khawaja

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”  Albert Einstein

The global systems of political governance are dominated by the power politics of the few and fast becoming irrelevant and unrepresentative of the primary concerns and priorities of the vast majority of global humanity. The UNO or superpowers take no preventive measures to protect the mankind in critical situations like Myanmar-Burma (Rohingas), people of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Yemen and Palestine, the global governance tends to be a fantasy than a reality.  You wonder if the UNO has lived up to its role and the Charter-based responsibility to safeguard the people of the world from the ‘scourge of wars’, horrors of planned violence, devastation of human cultures and habitats in good many raging conflicts. All in all, it is the humanity subjected to untold miseries, bloodbath and catastrophic consequences lingering on and unending for the generations to come. These few are the source of evil driving the mankind to unrestrained tyranny. The Statute of the International Criminal Court states “planning and waging a war of aggression is a crime against humanity.”

The Global War Agenda against Reason

The author intends to share a critical analysis of some of the contemporary issues and to inspire global rethinking for a navigational change of the redundant structures and role of the international institutions, inept leadership, obsolete systems of power politics and approaches to peacemaking, security and conflict management. Perpetuated fear and political chaos overwhelms the obsolete global political governance. The war-agenda has shifted actions from the Western industrialized societies to the oil producing Arab world. The Middle East is in ruins by the sectarian warfare, indiscriminate bombing, terrorism, destruction of life and habitats and the natural environment. Nobody can rebuild, what has been destroyed by the war agenda.

To us – the living and conscientious humanity, image of time and accountability makes it clear that global systems are operating contrary to reason. Amongst all the creations on Planet Earth, humans are the only one equipped with thinking, language and intelligence to claim morality as an attribute of life and value. This reality emphasizes and differentiates us from the other creations of God. If we propel uncertainty in our thoughts and behavior, nothing can stop us from surpassing the limit of immorality and insanity. With knowledge-based 21st century human communications improving global collaboration, we are not moving in the right direction that human logic and truth spell out for our conduct in peaceful relationships. The impulse and actions for cruelty and sadistic behavior are increasingly sending alarming trends for the present and future generations to be informed of our implicit wickedness and resulting failure in global affairs. As humans, we are not thinking or moving for the unity of mankind to be at peace and harmony being the chief creation of God. Unless, we are overwhelmed philosophically to imagine that we are something else than humans populating the Earth by chance.

We the People of the Universe and Tyranny of the Few

The 21st century knowledge-based critical thought highlights the unilateral absolutism as the corner stone of superpower’s policies and practices.  David Armstrong (“Dick Cheney Song’s of America”: Information Clearing House: 09/19/2011), points out how the US politicians view the world to be governed by the American strategic dictates:

It was published as Defense Strategy for the 1990’s…. The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful. The Plan is disturbing in many ways, and ultimately unworkable. Yet it is being sold now as an answer to the “new realities” of the post-September 11 world, even as it was sold previously as the answer to the new realities of the post-Cold War world. For Cheney, the Plan has always been the right answer, no matter how different the questions….Another new theme was the use of preemptive military force. The options, the DPG noted, ranged from taking preemptive military action to head off a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack to “punishing” or “threatening punishment of” aggressors “through a variety of means,” including strikes against weapons-manufacturing facilities.

Under George W. Bush administration, America continued the same approach to global affairs. Reasoned politics and safeguard of the global humanity were not the purpose of such a belligerent plan. The USSR was already dismantled as a challenger and the US politicians saw the opportunity to determine the future of the global mankind by militarization and occupation of the poor and vulnerable nations. Its first victim was Afghanistan, then Iraq and Libya and onward to whole of the Arab world. Under NATO, America continued its influential role to destabilize the USSR and former allies of the Eastern Europe. There was no balancing of reason. Where power beyond human capacity is entrusted to the few, the chances are it will be misused against the people. The political tensions of militarization of the globe led to oppression and miseries for the people of the world. We have not seen any tangible movement in political behavior to lessen the unstable clash of fanaticism and evil imposed on the innocent victims of humanity. The UNO was overwhelmed by the same scenarios of inept outcomes in situations that warranted urgent and swift humanitarian action to safeguard the civilian population in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Palestine and Kashmir. Why the prevention of man-made tyranny, oppression and conflicts are fast becoming acceptable norms in global systems of governance?  Should the contemporary leaders of the world answer this vital question or should it be left to the impulse of history to explain it to the futuristic generations?

To Imagine Change in the Working of the Global Institutions

The global institutions were aligned to the formative history at the end of the 2nd WW, not to the knowledge-based proactive 21st century of technological innovation, reason and change. The global leadership and systematic working of the international political affairs are managed by wrong thinking, wrong people and wrong priorities. None seem to have the capacity to further the cause of global humanity, peace, conflict resolution and security. The global humanity looks for change but there seems to be no systematic mechanism for integrated change to ensure continuity of encompassed human thoughts, hopes and ideals for tomorrow, the near future or distant future. Despite the sketchy illusions of freedom, democracy, human rights, liberty and justice, we are encroached, stuffed and at terrible risk of annihilation more accidental and by error of judgment than planned scheme of things by Man against Man. The Western political mythology enflames hatred against Islam and blames Muslim as being “terrorists.” The raging wars in the Arab Middle East are a net outcome of ignorance and lack of wisdom against Islam. Western installed puppets Arab leaders do not represent the masses. Often false propaganda, deception and prejudice are combined in a trajectory of plans to sell weapons and console the egoistic leaders as allies of the Western military alliance. This political delusion is full of inherent inconsistencies. Gary Wills (What the Qur’an Meant and What It Matters. Viking, NY, 2017), a leading American scholar explains the reality in his new book:

Our enemy in this war is far less localizable than it was in the World War 2 or the Cold War. Terror is a tool, not a country. Declaring a war on it is less like normal warfare, country versus country, there is No VE Day or VJ Day in such wars… living with fear is corrosive…the less we know about the reality of Islam, the more we will fight shadows and false emanations from our apprehension. Ignorance is the natural ally of fear. It is time for us to learn about the real Islam beginning with its source book – The Qur’an.

Global Leadership and Its Moral and Intellectual Decadence and Humanity

That conscious realization is absent from the global thinking and observations of the outcomes of the major international institutions. None of the global institutions seem to reflect the sacred nature of life and the role of Man (human being) in preserving life and its encompassing standards as the pivotal role of obligations on the planet. What is the cure to the raging indifference and embolden cruelty to the interests of the people of Syria, Iraq, United States and Western Europe and for that matter to the whole of the mankind? 

Remember that civilizations and humanity are not developed by the political-military-industrial complexes led economies, or IMF operative bankers, ruling elite, speculatory stock markets, legal judgments, kings and queens, morally and spiritually decadent generations and crime riddled authoritarian ruler, but are the tangible progressive outcomes of the proactive intellectual and moral visions of the societal thinkers, poets, philosophers, knowledge, truth, compassion and continuous movement by man to support the humanity and its natural strive for new thinking, change and progress. Politics is problematic and increasingly becoming irrational and a burden on man’s conscience. Now, it is up to the focused mind of Man and the spirited Humanity to assume the new-age responsible leadership for a navigational change.  We, the People, We the Humanity are capable to envisage a navigational change for a reasoned dialogue to change and a sustainable future – new proactive visions and new reformed global systems of the working of international institutions to unite the humanity and contribute peace, harmony, security and respect amongst the diverse fabrics of mankind.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and international affairs with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.

Mankind Must Know: The UNO and Global Leaders are a Menace to Peace and Problem-Solving

 “….Human nature is at least in part wicked and in part foolish, how can human beings be prevented from suffering from the results of their wickedness and folly? ….Men simply do not see that war is foolish and useless and wicked. They think on occasion that it is necessary and wise and honourable, for war is not the work of bad men knowing themselves to be wrong, but of good men passionately convinced that they are right.” (C.E.M Joad. Guide to Modern Wickedness, 1936).

To Understand the Failure of Global Organizations and Leadership

The global humanity is continuously oppressed, manipulated and victimized by the weapons of mass destruction - from thoughts to all kind of weaponry.  Global peace, conflict management and security are neglected by those who were responsible for its protection and maintenance. Everything thinkable appears to be falling into dereliction and much wanton destruction to be reported as non-living statistic. The UNO Secretary General and most global leaders are entrapped lacking reasoned persuasion and activism to make peace and usher global harmony. They operate in a vicious circle of making statements, tweets and speculative wishful overtures as if the whole mankind was inept and inattentive to the catastrophic challenges of the day.  

Good judgments seek honesty of purpose, courage and rational thinking. When the leaders talk about the emerging conflicts and human tragedies, they pretend as if none had ever happened before. As if they never opened the pages of history. History offers lessons to all generations all the time. Human perpetuated tyranny according to late Professor Howard Zenn is “tyranny.” Insanity has no alternative rationale. Look how the UNO leadership and most global politicians witness transgression, forcible displacement and killings of millions and millions across Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Myanmar (Burma) and now Yemen but do nothing except the fake UN-SC resolutions and dubious statements of crimes against humanity. The victimized mankind shares a sense of disarray and loss of being part of the global humanity. A view from afar only asserts conspicuous example of inhumanity flourishing everywhere and seeing the proliferation of anarchy, violations of basic human rights and dignity and use of chemical weapons, and civilian massacres but nobody questions why this now after the Two World Wars? Typical “Right Men” of the 21^st century are unchallenged for torture, killing of the innocents, war crimes and genocide. The UNO Fact-finding Mission released the findings after 700,000 Rohingas were forcibly evicted from their homes; 20,000 men, women and children massacred and 10,000 women raped by the Myanmar armies. Would the Myanmar Generals be prosecuted during the lifetime of the victims? Almost 3 million civilians were killed by the US-British forces in Iraq. Nobody called it genocide by Bush and Blair. Both are free and enjoying life. Several Millions have been displaced and killed in Syria - who will punish the authoritarian tyranny and insanity?

 The UNO, global leaders and related organizations are all international as the humanity fast transforming to One World reality living on One Planet with inseparable identities and relationship to the Nature of Things. The organizations and leaders should have been vigilant to “safeguard the mankind from the scourge of war.” The global political affairs are not managed by rational people, with rational thinking, doing the rational practices for the interests of global citizenry. The 1% global elite – men of king operate the international institutions - the perverted insanity lacking basic understanding of the Human Nature and of the working of the splendid Universe in which we enjoy coherent co-existence.  The mankind continues to be run down by the cancerous ego and cruelty of the few Western leaders and institutions like NATO and NORAD. Most global leaders represent cruel mindset incapable to see the human side of the living conscience. Madness of the perpetuated war on terrorism and its triggered insanity knows no bound across the global spectrum. Under the false pretext of terrorism, Western allies along with Arab leaders bombed and destroyed the ancient culture and people of the Arab world. Animals do not commit massacre of their kind and species, nor set-up rape camps for the war victims, the Western led wars against the humanity have and continue to do so at an unparallel  global scale without being challenged by any global organizations or leaders. Torture and massacres of innocent civilians are convenient fun games to be defined as “collateral damage” and a statistic. Perhaps, they view humanity just in digits and numbers, not as the living entities with social, moral, spiritual and intellectual values and progressive agendas for change and development. Einstein (“The World as I see it”), made it known that he was against military campaigns, killings and destruction of the natural environment: "This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all 

possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loath some nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!.”

Lesson of History cannot be Ignored

In his internationally acclaimed classic work, Professor John W. Drapper (A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, NY Harper Brothers, 1864), of the University of New York portrayed the human development process as “man is being treated as an individual” and not an embodiment of collective transformation leading past immersion into making of the present - and the present unfolding the future.   Global humanity is a helpless victim in a world divided for socio-economic and political hegemonic controls by the few egoistic political entities.  There are no conscientious leaders accountable to the interests of the global mankind. Ironically, with time and opportunities on their side, politically recognized leading powers at the UN Security Council forum failed to usher a new era of change and peaceful co-existence. If the human developmental progress is viewed in an historical mirror, Professor Drapper makes a candid observation: “that it is a history of the progress of ideas and opinions from a point of view heretofore almost entirely neglected.” All political actors claim to be working for the mankind. Yet, few could relate themselves to the people if a reality check is applied by critical analysts. One cannot glorify the insanity of the past – the Two World Wars which consumed untold planned bloodbath and countless pains and sufferings of the global mankind.  The question is how to eject from the sadistic past unto a promising future? 

Mankind Looks to People of New  Ideas, Visions and Responsible Leadership

Mankind is constantly victimized by the willful deceit of triumphalism of the few who used extreme rhetoric of peace and harmony but deliver nothing except self-serving fantasies and neglect of prevalent truth. They embrace dishonesty of purpose by wasting time and opportunities that could have been used for positive developments to change the distorted scene of the global politics. Reason makes no difference to their immature mindset and their human conscience is filled with follies of political manipulation and exploitation of the humanity.  The essence of global peace and harmony lies in collective thinking and unity of the global mankind.

Bombs and wars kill people – the living human beings, destroy humanity by enforcing barbarism and cruelty, practically denying all prospects of peace and co-existence. Traditional wars were aimed at annihilation of political and economic enemies but the 21^st century conflicts are ready-made recipes not only to eliminate the mankind but also the environment in which human beings survive and the

Planet Earth that sustains life. Wars appear to be the outcome of sinister minds, devilish individual plans and monstrous scheme of things against the very humanity of which these people are a living part. Like always, few cynical and mentally imbalanced people plan and wage wars against others, not mindful of the dreadful end results of their intrigues and conspiracies against life, human rights and dignity and futuristic possibilities of human survival on the planet.

Global Warlords are haunting the mankind because wars are a racketeering enterprise. Most superpowers are engaged in selling weaponry to the Middle East dictators and warlords. History will judge them by their actions, not by their claims. You cannot change a society with law and order dictum. When a problem is misunderstood, its diagnostic approach will be wrong. An out of the official box approach to understand the problem is urgently needed. The major news media corporations in North America and Western Europe are aligned to the establishments and tainted with biased coverage as they get paid via ads and secret dealings. None of this is helpful to foster change and societal advancement for a peaceful future.  The mankind looks for change in strategic thinking and actions. “In the name of “System Change, Not Climate Change”, points out Paul Street (“For Intelligent Civilizations on Earth”) “we can rescue and preserve humanity and livable ecology through mass resistance and a revolutionary transformation that takes us beyond the world’s unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money, profit, empire, and eco-cide.”

Aggressive thinking is propagated, echo of peace is silenced. Global peace requires Men of New Ideas, new Thinking and New Visions. In a political culture much charged by conscious intransigence of the few, America and European are fearful of the unknown and have no vision for peace and co-existence either in the region or in a global context. NATO will go anywhere anytime under fair or foul pretexts. It has no accountability to anybody anywhere. Peace and security are not one sided pursuits nor can be experimented in a lab. There are many who could do a better and more productive leadership in the current global affairs. The Western leaders must embrace Russia on equal terms to envisage a new world of peace and harmony.  Russia is no longer a former USSR but a changing landscape of reason and responsibility and gradually moving forward for a representative system of public governance. If that was not the case, how could Trump and Putin have met and strike an accord. Accords are based on mutual respect and understanding. America and Russia both need to change their policies and practices for a coherent future. Both desperately need to be proactive, culturally conscientious and intellectual unbiased leaders who should see the bigger picture of futuristic world - a different world of tomorrow of peace and co-existence rather than perpetuated animosity and extreme naïve belligerent behaviors, leaders who will serve the people and could learn to make a navigational change and adaptability to the making of a promising future for all the mankind. Mankind needs morally, spiritually and intellectually responsible leadership. All absolute rulers and leaders tried to run down the mankind as if it was a number- a digit and non-living statistic. But all of them fell in disgrace destroying their own nations and empires.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and international affairs with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.

Are the New National Elections a Prelude to Change?

Pakistan: Towards Understanding the Challenges of Political Change and Future-Making

By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja 

People have spoken out loud and quite logically, Imran Khan is the elected candidate to lead a futuristic system of political governance. To discard the incurable resentment against the former indicted criminals turned politicians, people of Pakistan have rejected them at the ballot box. The July 25 national elections under a caretaking non-partisan government were a history-making event in Pakistan’s formal history. Had this happened some sixty years earlier, Pakistan could have been a leading model of democratic norms, social and economic cohesion and political stability to lead other nations in Southwest Asia. For over 60 years, the so called Pakistani politicians – former neo-colonial landlords were masters of lies and deception – inept, greedy and historically egomaniacs who stole time and opportunities from the young and educated generations to foster political change and productivity and make Pakistan a stable nation.  While other progressive nations of the world encouraged participation and paved favorable opportunities to enlist new educated and intelligent brand of the young generations, Pakistani political leaders were naïve and indifferent and guilty of having plunged the morally and intellectually conscientious nation into abyss.  None of the Islamic parties appear to have any worthwhile activism in the outcome of the elections. Have they succumbed to be impotent for the future?  Imran Khan, the new elected would be Prime Minister wants to rebuild a New Pakistan – a highly promising ideal and slogan under unusual political circumstances.  Pakistan desperately needs a new constitution and new political system of governance, a revitalization of socio-economic and political integration between all the cultural diversities of its people in Punjab, Baluchistan, Pakhtoonva and Sindh. Pakistanis lost East Pakistan to India and surrendered in 1971 because they were foolish, corrupt and leaderless. The national integration, security, end to foreign aid and strategic cooperation, and political cohesion of the country must assume priorities over other major policy agendas.  To dispel the history’s malicious ironies, Imran Khan would need to widen the scope of his thinking and strategic planning to encompass the prevalent political realities of Pakistan.

What Needs to be Changed?

Nothing is normal in today’s Pakistan.  Institutionalized corruption is a favorite perversion to attract people’s support for new ideals of change and anti-corruption psychology.  Most indicted criminals like Nawaz Sharif, Bhuttos, Zardrai - all wanted to serve the noble ideals of political fairness, honesty, socio-economic stability, human rights and law and justice. The problem was, none of them had such qualities and characteristic in their own life and profile. How could they have given something to others what was not part of their own life and possessions? One cannot combine wickedness and righteousness in one human character.  To make Imran Khan comparatively a credible candidate for genuinely soft approaches to articulate a sustainable compound culture of new thinking, new ideals and new strategies for a New Pakistan, it is imperative that Mr. Khan must know and fully comprehend the nature and scope of the sickness that continued for decades to rob the nation of its due opportunities for change and future-making – a deliberate  pillage leading to massive destruction of the socio-economic, moral, intellectual and political infrastructures of the Pakistani nation. None of the former criminals are punished visa-a-vis their crimes against the nation. Mr. Khan does have first–hand knowledge and observations of lot of such accumulated pillage over the decades..

Mr. Khan appears to be patriotic person with immense know-how and abilities but he must realize rebuilding a nation is not the individual task but a collective formulation of wide range of thinkers, intellectuals, planners and expertise to work in a team and undertake proactive progressive assignments from top to bottom, not the other way in Pakistan. The dishonesty underlying the Pakistan’s political landscape is nothing new or unknown.  Allow this conscientious author to say: WHO IS NOT DISHONEST IN PAKISTANI POLITICS?   If you get a chance to read “Pakistan: Enigma of Change” (series of articles -1999 onward in Media Monitors Network, USA), and “Pakistan: Leaders who could not Lead” (10/2007, Media Monitors Network, USA;  “Pakistan: Leaders who stabbed the Nation”, 2010;  “Pakistan : Anatomy of Turbulent 68th Independence Day”, “Pakistan in Quest of Navigational Change” (2014), by this author, you should have no rational problem to understand the realities of today’s sadistic politics of Pakistan.

Towards the Imperatives of Change and Reconstruction

For over 70 years, Pakistan had no viable system of political governance corresponding to the moral, intellectual and political genius of the masses. The ruling elite and the people lived in conflicting time zones generating wide gulfs of mistrust, foreign influence, corruption, military dictators, and disdained politicians lacking sense of honesty and accountability with no appeal to reason or missing indicator of live conscience to be serving the public good. How do you change such a filthy and stinking piles of socio-political culture whereby all the well known thugs and criminals have looted the resources, lifelines and positive energies of the people just for their own good?  Mr. Khan must face the existing realities to THINK of the future or he will become part of the piled garbage – a junk history of the nation. He must enlarge the scope of proactive thinking and enlist people of knowledge, intellect moral and professional caliber and those without any stains on their conscience to help him carve a beginning for a new future.  He must be careful not include any pathological liars and interlocutors who were part of darkest chapters of Pakistan’s contemporary history. In parliamentary governance, Imran Khan with 115 seats at the National Assembly would require 22 more elected members to have 137 numbers for a political governance. There should be no horse-trading if he believes in an innovative strategy to evolve a New Pakistan.  It will be imperative to put all those egoistic rulers of the past out of business. Their accumulative dishonesty underlying the failure of politics was clear and obvious.  Perhaps, educated and intelligent Pakistanis living abroad could be more helpful to Imran Khan if he is serious about developing a New and people-oriented 21st century democratic Pakistan. Often historical errors of judgment and mistakes are irretrievable. If truth and logic has its place in the future-making of New Pakistan, it must have a new Constitution, Presidential system of political governance, a non-partisan strong community of law and justice,  retrained elite in the civil services, independent foreign policies and constantly changing and progressive strategies to plan for the future and make it happen out of the planned ideas and workable ideals. Experts and intellectuals who deal with future-making must know the weaknesses of  a non-productive socio-economic culture, highly corrupted civil elite and strength of the role of the masses for a durable future.  Nothing will change or happen on its own without any critical thinking and prompt diagnostic action with proper follow-up methods of meeting the end purpose.

To change and enhance political reformation and developing a new presidential form of governance, Imran Khan would urgently need a coalition of well educated, intelligent and honest proactive people of young generation to build a foundation of ideas and ideals and workable strategies based on refined plans for future-making. It is apparent that after this highly contested election, the nation will not accept normalcy of having previous indicted thugs, criminals and killers as part of the solution for future-making. Imran Khan must be careful not to indulge in melodramatic claims for the future; it could undermine his political future without making it happen on the ground. He should not rely on party loyalists or other seasonal collaborators but those enriched with sense of honesty and obligation to work in team and usher a collective plan of action for planned change and progressively sustainable results. Nation are not build by chance or by the few but of a collective thinking and action plan to make the future-happen and to monitor its progress continuously with fullest accountability for the policy outcomes. Good judgments and logical pursuits seek rational and balanced strategies to ensure collective progress and accountability, lack of such imperatives eventually find failure, imbalance and treachery to the ideals of nation-building. Given his sense of proclaimed honesty and clean political character, Mr. Imran Khan must know the 21st century requisites of creative and effective leadership and must not allow self-ego turned into a kind of cancer that could consume the self and indulge in perversion of the challenging realities of Pakistan’s future-making.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and international affairs with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, October 2017.