The achievements of Dr. A. Q.
Khan in the development of nuclear technology and nuclear deterrence in Pakistan
have been of unmatchable service to the country and its people. In his various
articles, he has identified some of the major debilitating and disastrous
problems that have developed there, more critically, honestly, and courageously
than most others. However, he has mostly stayed on the surface of these problems
and has failed to identify their deeper causes and nature. Moreover, when it
comes to the proposed solutions or course of actions, he misfires and misses not
only the eye of the target but the whole board.
In his recent article, Mehfooz jab tak nahin hai, https://www.makepakistanbetter.com/Why_how_what_forumU.asp?GroupID=11&ArticleID=19293
(16.9.2012), he wrote the details of his splendid upper-class dinners and
meetings with various rich industrialists, Federation of the Pakistan Chambers
of Commerce and Industries, and other upper and middle class groups and persons,
pinning part of his hopes for the success of his recently launched Tehrik
Tahaffuze Pakistan (TTP), on their support. He did that in a country in which
there is widespread hunger, unemployment, poverty, and malnutrition, and a great
number of people cannot even afford to eat bread. It seems that Dr. Khan’s
actual socio-cultural horizons are limited to upper and middle classes, the rich
and relatively better off. The chambers of commerce everywhere in the whole
world are bastions of the most elitist and reactionary groups of the capitalist
class. In the US, before the Second World War, these were swarming with fascists
and supporters of fascism. They still are, but are now operating under the guise
of “democracy”. In Pakistan, the chambers of commerce and industries consist of
the representatives of both the capitalist and feudal classes, a reflection of
the capitalist-feudal political economy. Moreover, a large and dominant part of
these classes is also tied to the foreign imperialist capital, a reflection of
the dependant nature of the capitalist-feudal political economy of Pakistan.
What does it mean to proudly rub shoulders with them and express joy and
gratitude to them in the hopes of their support for the TTP? They are the real
powers behind the government, military, judiciary, parliament, and various other
institutions of society; are pillars of the status quo; and are responsible for
where Pakistan is today and where it is heading. How can they be expected to
bring about the colossal radical politico-economic, cultural, and mass
psychological changes that are essential to put Pakistan and Pakistanis on the
right track?
The TTP seems to be focused on the next elections and seems to be doing very
little else, except counseling and advocating the election of scientists,
engineers, and other technocrats and honest, pure, experienced, free, and
professional etc. candidates. Honest, free, pure, experienced, professional etc.
are formal and empty words, which, without their specific contents and relations
to the specific and concrete politico-economic, cultural, ethical,
philosophical, and religious problems and positions, are not only meaningless,
but have been thoroughly abused by all types of hypocritical and crooked
politicians for fooling and misleading the public during elections. Almost All
the Pakistani politicians and candidates are claiming to have these qualities,
while, in fact, they are their opposites. The key point is that the proposition
of making such formal, contentless, and general words as the criteria for
selection of candidates in the electoral process is logically and factually
flawed and confusionist. Any candidate can attach these to himself. And most do.
The real and effective criteria for the selection of candidates must include
their clearly stated positions and proposals for the solution of specific and
concrete national and international problems, for example, those of poverty;
unemployment; extreme economic and social inequality; corruption; civil war;
crime; class differences and relations; distribution of wealth, income, land,
and property; energy shortage and crisis; the more than $67 billion foreign
debt; freedom from US and Western domination; restoration of national
sovereignty, etc. Nothing will reveal the real character, competence, integrity,
knowledge, intelligence, and patriotism of the candidates as these positions and
proposals will.
As far as the election of technocrats, scientists, and engineers for political
offices is concerned, this would be disastrous, as they are, by and large,
ignorant of not only all the social, politico-economic, and human sciences and
philosophy, but are so narrowly specialized in a tiny little area of natural
reality-about which they know a lot-that they are also, in general, ignorant or
know very little about other areas of natural sciences, as well. Moreover, most
of the social and natural scientists in Pakistan and India are highly
westernized and brain-washed with the western civilization and capitalism. They
would be likely to continue the relations of dependence with the western
capitalist and imperialist countries. The great Spanish philosopher, Ortega y
Gasset had called such narrow specialists, the modern scientists, the learned
ignoramuses. And let us not forget our own Allama Iqbal, “Alim fazil bech rahe
hein apna deen iman. Apni khudi pehchan, o ghafil Afghan”. Without even knowing
what Allama Iqbal said to them, a great majority of Afghans are not ghafil any
more and are doing what he had advised them to do. They are not selling their
deen iman, but, on the contrary, are sacrificing their lives for their deen,
iman, national liberation, and freedom from occupation and imperialism. Most of
them are not even literate, much less highly educated or scientists or
engineers.
As ignorance and confusion on the contradictory nature and effects of science
and technology on human affairs and on the biosphere of this planet, and their
interactions with the politico-economic systems, is widespread, especially among
the technocrats, it may be useful to briefly describe the history of some of
them. Needless to say that this is a most complex and vast topic and we can only
deal with it very briefly here. It is now indisputable that under capitalism and
imperialism, science and technology have produced far more problems and damages
than the benefits. Global warming; ozone layer depletion; pollution of food,
water, soil, and air; creation of all types of weapons of mass destruction,
which can-and probably will-annihilate human species, as well as most other
forms of life on the Planet Earth, are some of the self-evident examples of
that. Much less obvious or unknown are the contradictory effects on human
nature, soul, society, culture, philosophy, psychology, and other human and
social sciences. Modern science and technology are predominantly the products of
Western Capitalist Civilization, especially during and after the Renaissance and
Enlightenment periods between 15th and 18th centuries. In the middle ages,
Muslim scientists were far more advanced than the Europeans, and they were the
ones who introduced the latter to the beginnings of logic and science, contained
in the ancient Greek philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, and to advances
in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences of those times. However,
with the decline of power of Muslims, particularly in Spain and at the hands of
Mongols, their science and technology also declined and Europe became dominant
in politico-economy, military, and science and technology. It robbed vast
amounts of wealth and resources from rest of the world through colonialism and
neo-colonialism, which enabled it to invest heavily in the further development
of science and technology and industry. Specialization proliferated and huge
armies of scientists and technologists were created and employed in them. In
some countries, like the US, majority of the scientists and technologists now
work for the military related research and development and production.
As a result of all that, a particular kind of society, the
Advanced-Capitalist-Imperialist-Technocratic-Society (ACITS)-involving a
particular type of human nature-has developed in the West, which rest of the
world, including the Muslim countries, is feverishly, frantically, and blindly
trying to imitate and reproduce, without being aware of or ignoring the great
historical and philosophical controversies that took place in the West during
various developmental stages of ACITS, in which some insightful Western thinkers
and philosophers (mostly from the Continental Europe) identified and described
the various dangerously negative and destructive effects of the absolutization
and universalization of one-sided science and technology, and of the
indiscriminate application of the methodology of natural sciences that deal with
the objects and forces of nature, to the study of human nature, soul, society,
culture, philosophy, psychology, and other human and social sciences.
Existentialism and phenomenology were reactions to such developments. Karl Marx
had also seen some of those effects in the interactions of capitalism and
science and technology. On the other hand, positivism, neo-positivism, and
analytic “philosophies” also started emerging in Europe, which attempted to even
further absolutize the methods of natural sciences, their universal
applications, and reduction of all reality and knowledge to these. The influence
of these so-called “philosophies” has been the greatest in the English-speaking
countries, resulting in powerful cultural and mass psychological mutilations and
distortions in their populations.
In the Third World countries like Pakistan, which are in a frenzy of one-sided
scientific, technological, and capitalist development, there is no awareness of
the destructive and negative effects of the absolutization of natural sciences
and their methodologies, or the great controversies that developed in Europe, in
regard to these. They also fail to see that the immense successes of natural
sciences in the ACITS have led to the immense failure of human nature, soul, and
culture. The key point is that these are some of the most complex matters that
have evolved in the entire human history, which need deep study and knowledge,
which most scientists and technologists are unaware and ignorant of.
Science and technology are important parts of the development of human
civilization. However, the following two basic causes and sources have perverted
and distorted their nature and applications to produce the greatest threat to
the biosphere, human nature, soul, and the very survival of human species and
other forms of life:
1. Their absolutization, universalization, one-sided application of their
methodology to the study and understanding of human nature, soul, society,
culture, philosophy, psychology, and other human and social sciences, and denial
of reality of anything or any knowledge that cannot conform to that methodology.
2. Interactions of capitalist and imperialist political economy with science and
technology, in which the former abuse, distort, pervert, and evilize the latter,
in pursuit of insatiable greed for profits and domination.
The TTP has no politico-economic ideology, philosophy, or concrete program or
proposals that would address, much less resolve, the lethal and colossal
problems, inflicted upon the nation and its people by almost all the civilian
and military governments and political leaders and parties throughout the
country’s sad history-problems that have now become compounded and accumulated
to their current lethal types and levels. Without such intellectual foundations,
no political movement or party can have any hope or chance of success. In this
respect, the TTP is even much more deficient than most other political parties
or movements. So, what is the TTP counting on? It seems that it is mostly
counting on the popularity and personality cult of Dr. Khan in Pakistan,
somewhat similar to Tehrik-e-Insaf, which is hoping that the popularity and
personality cult of its leader, Imran Khan, will cover up and make up for all
its gigantic flaws and deficiencies, which, although not that extreme as those
of the TTP, are nevertheless similar in their nature, as mentioned above. It is
very unlikely that such strategy and tactics, only supplemented by rhetoric and
demagoguery-without a concrete political-economy, ideology, and philosophy-will
succeed. Even if, by some miracle, it does, it will only produce some cosmetic
changes at best. The basic structural status quo will continue unabated.
The fundamental problem with Dr. Khan’s analyses, like with those of most other
leaders and writers in the Pakistani media, is that these float above the class
structure, the relations of production, and class forces of the social system
and society. As such, they inevitably float above the surface, as the deeper
causes of the problems that are described in these writings and analyses, are
rooted in these. These problems constitute social diseases, and like physical
diseases, unless their causes are identified accurately and scientifically, they
cannot be treated or cured. Hence, any hopes or expectations for the solution of
these problems, while floating on the surface and without identifying their
causes, are futile. Another major problem with most Pakistani leaders and
intellectuals is that they pretend and act as if they are above the classes and
class struggle and conflict. This is totally ludicrous and false. Objectively,
they are part of a definite class, even though, subjectively they may attempt to
identify with and promote the interests and powers of a different class. Some of
these problems are not restricted to Pakistan but are widespread in other
countries too. However, here we are discussing these in relation to Pakistan and
therefore are focusing on it.
Like most Pakistanis, this author has great respect for the scientific
accomplishments and also, up to a point, for the socio-cultural and political
thoughts of Dr. Khan. However, this respect must not be allowed to suppress or
block the objective and truthful identification or analysis of the flaws and
deficiencies of his political and economic approaches and analyses. It is
important to try to prevent further illusions, related to personality cults,
inflicting Pakistanis. They are already saturated with them.
The focus of this critique is on the TTP. However, this does not mean that the
author considers other political movements or parties in Pakistan to be any
better. To the contrary, as stated in his previous paper, https://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/pakistan-a-rapidly-failing-state-what-will-it-take-to-stop-and-reverse-the-disaster-by-fazal-rahman-ph-d/
, he considers most of the others to be rotten to the core and any future
solutions to Pakistan’s immense problems will require their abolition. This
critique of the approaches of Dr. Khan and TTP is meant to be constructive.
Hopefully, the TTP will evolve into a viable political movement and party by
establishing some essential ideological, philosophical, politico-economic, and
intellectual foundations and positions, without which no political movement or
party can survive, much less succeed.
First posted on https://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com