Ban the smearing of our global image

By Kamila Hyat




In a frenzy of activity triggered by the Lahore High Court verdict to temporarily ban Facebook, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has over the past few days taken hundreds of pages off the Internet.

The result has left people everywhere discovering new ways to access the popular social networking site and also other sites that have been shut off. In today's world, net-savvy youngsters have quickly found ways round the ban by going through proxy servers. Short of closing down the Internet altogether, there are few means today to completely block off sites. All the PTA action does is make things a little more complicated and a little more frustrating for almost everyone concerned.

While Eric Schmidt, the chief of the search engine giant Google, has said that suppression of political criticism is a likely factor behind the ban, there must be some degree of doubt on this. It seems more probable that the entire ban effort, with the Pakistani ministry of IT immediately setting up a special free "complaint" number and email address in an unexpected demonstration of efficiency, is just a symptom of the haphazard governance we are victim to.

After all, if the same level of diligent dedication could be directed towards controlling the prices that are spiralling upwards again, bringing crime in control or tackling the power prices that disrupt life and commercial activity on a daily basis, we would be quite significantly better off than we are now. But such tasks, of course, require a degree of genuine thought, planning, action and administrative ability. This is not something our leaders possess in abundance. It is far easier to issue a few orders to close down web pages, even though this measure is largely meaningless and does not go beyond the symbolic.

There are also other questions. What, after all, has been achieved by the ban? It has left a number of Facebook addicts facing withdrawal symptoms. Office managers who must control the use of the site at workplaces have meanwhile heaved a sigh of relief. In some cases families have been able to sit together around their dining tables for the first time in months. But all this, in real terms, of course means very little. The questions that need to be asked are far bigger and more difficult to find answers to.

The first among these questions is why we, as a society, seem to have gradually lost all sense of balance. It is quite true that the competition put up by a Facebook page was both insensitive and pointless. But ignored, it would have gone away and been forgotten. The action taken has merely both highlighted the existence of the contest and re-focused attention on Pakistan in a negative fashion.

It is also a fact that we must learn to live in a world where all kinds of views and opinions exist. In the age of the Internet and cable TV channels that beam into more and more homes, it is inevitable that we will be exposed to modes of thought different from our own. Some, of course, are distinctly unsavoury and even offensive. But we need to learn somehow to live with them. This is part of the challenge of being a global citizen.

In other parts of the world too the same challenges are being faced. The European Parliament at Strasbourg recently directed its attention to Pakistan's blasphemy laws as a source of bias and violence in society which has at times led to grotesque discrimination against non-Muslims. The observation regarding the blasphemy laws is, of course, not inaccurate. Within the country too there have been many calls for these laws to be done away with. Even governments which see the wisdom behind this, at least in part, lack the courage required to take action. They fear the inevitable outcry from religious groups which have since the 1950s used their power to create havoc on the streets to bring about specific changes in law.

But we must ask what it is that the Europeans fear and why their legislators are not equally concerned about intolerance at home. The ban on facial veils that both France and Belgium are moving towards is, in many ways, no less unenlightened than the burqa requirement imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. The real issue, after all, must be the right of people to choose how to dress. Restricting this amounts to a basic denial of liberties. The ban on minarets in Switzerland also stems from a basic bias against Muslims that seems to be growing around the world.

For Pakistan, several tasks must stand at the forefront of priorities. In the first place we need to take steps to project a somewhat altered image to the world. Only then can we benefit from the potential Pakistan has as a nation where the community of Internet users is rapidly growing and where much else can be developed and expanded. To achieve this we need to build tolerance and a greater sense of equilibrium. Senseless events played out in the vast realm of cyberspace, such as the competition on Facebook, should not shake or upset us to this extent. They are, after all, basically non-events.

We must also realise that directing energies towards tasks such as attempting to shut down websites with mass appeal serves no purpose at all. Indeed, the principle of free access to information, which lies behind the Internet, must be respected. The very nature of the new media means it is almost impossible to deny it anyway. Instead, we should focus on offering something that resembles governance and gives people the things that truly matter in their lives. These include access to an improved quality of life and to the opportunity that is so often denied to people everywhere. Such measures would serve a far more useful purpose than the ban attempt that has made headlines-while in concrete terms serving no purpose at all.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor