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YOU can’t help but smile when you watch her and listen to her. She doesn’t just get it; she is it. The embodiment of an idea. And what an excellent idea it is.
What Malala says and what Malala wants is for you to be free. To have a choice and the right to exercise that choice. Freedom, choice, rights — it can all sound so philosophical and esoteric and ivory tower-ish.
Malala simplifies it. You listen to her and you immediately figure out what she’s saying is a very good idea — because it’s what makes her her. Thoughtful, compassionate, smart. And who doesn’t want to be that? Who wouldn’t want to be Malala?
Ah, yes, the haters. They hate her because they don’t understand her. And in hating her, they prove her point: freedom, choice, rights — we can all do with a little more of them.
Malala simplifies it. You listen to her and you immediately figure out what she’s saying is a very good idea.
Some of the haters do get it though. They know what she is saying, they understand it — and they know how dangerous it is. That’s why they put a bullet in her head.
If Malala is an idea, so are the Taliban. And in that battle of ideas, much as it’s obvious that Malala is on the right side — on our side — it’s hard to believe that her idea is winning here.
But that makes her fight all the more worth fighting. God bless her and may God save us.
On to less edifying wars. Kashmir flared up again this week. Pakistan was aggrieved, India was furious, a bunch of people died, no one will tell us what really happened.
Where do we go from here?
Peace — nay, normalisation — between the two will only come when four constituencies line up: the two publics and the two states.
You need the Indian public and the Indian state to be in sync on normalising ties with Pakistan and simultaneously you need the Pakistani public and the Pakistani state to be in sync on normalisation with India.
Lining those up is the hardest thing. Somehow, when the two states are in sync on normalisation, one or the other of the publics is out of sync. Or when the publics are in sync, one or the other of the states balks.
Right now, of the four, it’s probably only the Pakistani public that tentatively — tentatively — is on the side of normalisation.
The other three don’t really seem interested and that could end up chipping away at the Pakistani public’s tentative wish to see normalisation achieved.
Because it’s hard to want peace when the other side is on the warpath. Of course, it’s possible to explain why India is so bellicose and Pakistan seemingly conciliatory.
As the smaller state with the naughtier non-state options, Pakistan can afford to sound reasonable in its official pronouncements. As the bigger state with greater ambitions and fewer options, India needs to sound fierce and intimidating.
Both states know this and it’s a game they’ve learned to play well. It doesn’t change the basic configuration though: four constituencies on two sides that never quite align. And right now, they look set to drift further out of sync for a while.
On to even less edifying wars. Imran is running around the country whipping up his base, but his problem is the same: his base isn’t big enough to overwhelm the enemy.
The rallies are big, but Pakistan is bigger, much bigger. And the PTI knows it. Problematically for the rest of us, the PML-N also knows that.
Problematically because the PML-N is beginning to look past the protests. The government is regaining its composure and getting back in its stride. That would be good — if the PML-N also figured out that it has to reinvent its approach to governing.
There are whispers in the PML-N camp that the guys at the top are willing to change. That long-mulled revamping is imminent. That the N-League is taking a crash course on swimming because it’s not ready to sink.
Same problem though: believe it when you see it.
We’ve heard it before and will hear it again. It’s just that the N-League doesn’t look like much of a physician, much less one that can heal itself. A government that fails to inspire — trust, confidence, anything — and an opponent who doesn’t have an inspirational message — let’s hurry back to Malala.
Why bother explaining her or channelling her when she is so eloquent herself.
“Through my story I want to tell woman, I want to tell other children all around the world, they should stand up for their rights. They should not wait for someone else, their voices are more powerful.
“It would seem they are weak but at a time when no one speaks, your voice gets so loud and everyone has to listen to it. Everyone has to hear.
“This award is for all those children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard. I speak for them and I stand up with them. And I join them in their campaign, that their voices should be heard, and they have rights.”
All of that juxtaposed with the dismal egoism that is Imran, the listlessness that is Nawaz and ugliness that can be Pak-India.
“I also had dreams like a normal child has. I wanted to become a doctor at that time, now I want to become a politician, a good politician.”
Malala for PM? At least she’d make us smile.
The writer is a member of staff.
Twitter: @cyalm
Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2014
