There has been plenty of discussion about the latest set of documents revealed by WikiLeaks and going by the current rate the issue may continue for a few months. There has been a controlled reaction in Pakistan which has been interesting to observe. It is understood that most of the revelations confirmed what most informed people already knew and so far very little value has been added by the bulk of the cables released. However, these leaks have brought focus back to some important issues from a Pakistani perspective, matters such as Predator Drone attacks on Pakistani soil and the military's role in the political situation of the country.
(http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/01/wikileaks.pakistan.drones/index.html)
(http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/01/wikileaks.pakistan.drones/index.html)
We as a nation have a healthy appetite for conspiracy theories and political strategists have adopted a simplistic two part response to all questions asked of them which is that they have doubts over the authenticity of these documents and it is a conspiracy to ruin Pakistan’s relationships with ‘brother’ Muslim countries.
Considering the first part of their response - they seem to have lost sight of the fact that Secretary Clinton condemned the leaks as an “attack on international community” she did not disown any of the documents which she would have if they were forged. Somehow the Pakistani Government ministers and opposition leaders thought this would be a good defence – it was not.
Second part has a much wider appeal which deals with our relationships with some Arab countries, specifically dealing with the comments reported to have been made by the unelected ruler of KSA about President Zardari. Some people in Pakistan have made valiant efforts to defend King Abdullah without any clarification from his side. It is strange but somehow religious conservatives believe they must have an opinion on every matter that pertains to KSA although this matter is strictly diplomatic / political and has no religious implications whatsoever. A very senior right wing journalist whose views are frozen in the early 80’s in his column today outrightly denied all comments associated with the King on the grounds that he believes a man of the King’s stature will never make such comments. This is way beyond naïve it is either dishonest or really dishonest because he has no substantive basis to make such definitive conclusions. I believe this journalist should have stopped writing 20 years ago.
While considering whether or not these comments were made, we have to acknowledge that the Saudi Kings along with other Middle Eastern leaders have been involved with most of the major political developments in Pakistan in the past 40 years. They have brokered political deals and have acted as guarantors and enforcers and hence, have had a lot of exposure to the Pakistani political and military leaderships. If anyone has to set the record straight it would be the KSA government and they can then demand an apology from the US Department of State if their Diplomats were misquoting the honorable King. KSA so far has taken a position similar to that of Pakistan, the following is an extract from Middle Eastern news media:
“Saudi Arabia has no connection with the documents published by WikiLeaks nor does it have anything to do with its formulations, said an official source at the Foreign Ministry. “We cannot confirm the authenticity or credibility of the documents released by the website. Saudi Arabia cannot comment on them,” the source said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday”
There is a second equally popular conspiracy theory that all of these documents have been leaked deliberately by the US and there are specific objectives to be achieved by this. I believe this has put US diplomats in such difficult positions around the world that these leaks could not have been orchestrated by the State Department but then there are other powerful elements within the US establishment, at this stage it is hard to rule out any other possibilities. However, we must notice that the leaked documents have only revealed one side of most stories and the snippets that have been widely discussed have been reported without context, based on the leaks we have not learned anything new about US policy positions so we can safely say that process has been controlled carefully by someone, that could have been done for a number of reasons, we just don’t know them yet.
The other interesting question is if there was more that should have been done to prevent the leaked documents from being made public and that would perhaps be the subject of some books to be published in the next few years. It was obviously not very hard for US government to take WikiLeaks out.
These leaks have put a lot of people in Pakistan in really embarrassing positions including Gen. Kiyani who had previously played himself as a non-political figure, he is being talked about on all public forums which would make it very difficult for him to act upon his political ambitions, if any. It would be interesting to see his reaction and if he would be able to maintain his stature within his organization. In a rather unfunny way President Zardari’s reputation is not affected by anything anyone says anymore. Revelations about Sharif brothers and Fazlur Rehman have put them all in damage control mode as well. People who have been discussed unfavorably in the cables are bound to gain in popularity in their respective constituencies thanks to all the anti American propaganda that goes on around the world.
For most these conspiracy theories are just ways to not face the reality and take responsibility, as George Costanza of Seinfeld once famously said “It is not a lie if you believe it”.
The power players in Islamabad should admit that they allowed the US government to have too much influence on internal functioning of the government and that they need to change their ways. I thought most of our political leaders could not properly pronounce the word ‘sovereignty’ unfortunately now we have realized they don’t know what it means either.
We must stop telling our public that the world is out to get us, because we have to understand and protect our own interests just like any other country and in the process we will have agreements with some and disagreements with others and that is all part of the game. We have to get out of this conspiratorial mindset which prevents us from thinking objectively.
There would be new documents leaked everyday for weeks to come and talking heads on TV will milk the issue for as long as possible but I am mostly interested in seeing if this would have an impact on how things are done in Islamabad. I have a feeling that I know the answer to that already but I choose to remain optimistic.
