[sacw] Zia Mian on "Nuclear Nationalism"

[Harsh Kapoor]

May 27, 1999
Dear Friends,
posted below is a paper written by Zia Mian, the wellknown Pakistani
scientist and anti nuclear campaigner. Zia's paper was written on the
occasion of the 1st anniversary of the Pakistani nuclear tests of 28 May
and is to be published in the upcoming issue of Himal Magazine.
Harsh Kapoor
(South Asians Against Nukes)
========================================

NUCLEAR NATIONALISM

by Zia Mian

On May 28th last year the government of Pakistan followed that of India and
tested nuclear weapons. While everyone else worried about the prospect of
nuclear war in South Asia, Eqbal Ahmad, who died recently, predicted that
Pakistan's nuclear tests would have a more profound impact on its domestic
politics than on its defence or foreign policies. As on so many other
occasions he was proven right. In early May, the government ordered 10 days
of national celebrations to mark the first anniversary of Pakistan's new
found "self reliance" and "impregnable defence." The festivities offer a
window into the minds of those heading the newest nuclear weapon state and
warn of a dangerous future for the country.

The numerous events organised and sponsored by the state made it clear that
at one level the celebrations were designed to deepen and broaden support
across the country for the government and for nuclear weapons. The events
announced were to include "a competition of ten best milli [nationalistic]
songs, seminars, fairs, festive public gatherings, candle processions,
sports competitions, bicycle races, flag hoisting ceremonies, etc."
Thanksgiving prayers and special programmes for children and debates among
school children were also arranged. Appropriate programmes were aired on
national television and radio networks as well as local radio in the
regional languages.
To make sure that no missed out on what was being celebrated, cities and
towns were decorated with banners and giant posters carrying pictures of
Pakistan's nuclear weapons scientists and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
against a backdrop of mushroom clouds. The weapons themselves were not
absent. Replicas of Pakistan's recently tested nuclear missiles and a giant
scale model of the nuclear test site at Chaghi in Baluchistan were
constructed and put up. Even markets and crossroads were named after
nuclear weapons scientists.

There has probably never been an occasion like this before. It is nothing
less than glorying in having acheived the capacity to commit mass murder
and, as such, fundamentally immoral. Weapons are tools of violence and
fear; and nuclear weapons the ultimate in such tools. All decent people
detest them. No one should glory in their existence, never mind their
possession.

There is more here than glory. A state is using all its authority and
instutional resources to build pride in having nuclear weapons into the
very national identity of a people. Pakistanis are meant to rejoice and
delight and think of themselves as citizens of "Nuclear-Pakistan" -- a term
used by state media. To the extent the state succeeds at its efforts at
creating a nuclearised nationalism, Pakistan, henceforth, shall be a
country whose identity is based not just like others on a sense of a shared
place, or history, language, culture, or even religion. Its identity shall
be inextricably linked to a technology of mass destruction. For some this
has already happened: as Information Minister Mushahid Hussain proudly puts
it: "Chaghi has become a symbol of Pakistan's identity all over the world."

It is worth considering how having imagined itself as a nuclear-nation
Pakistan will ever deal with nuclear disarmament. For the nuclear hawks,
such as Mushahid Hussain, who have orchestrated the celebrations, that day
is never to be allowed to dawn. Whenever the question of disarmament is
raised, they will point to the public support for nuclear weapons they have
worked so hard to manufacture and say: "How can we? Our people will not
permit it. They want nuclear weapons." With this they are trying to close
permanently the door to real peace. Far better in their view an endless
nuclear-armed confrontation with India, that in turn gives cause for
demands for high military spending and excuses state failure and government
excesses in other areas.
Revelling in the success of the nuclear tests of 28 May last year was also
meant to overcome the growing sense of fundamental political and social
crisis. The whole affair certainly had the feel of a circus, albeit a
nuclear circus. It offered a national distraction, a brief respite from the
grinding daily experience of failure that consumes the time, energy and
resources of the people of the country. There is hardly any point in
recounting either the specific failures or the crises that have created
them. They are all so well known. But it is worth doing as an act of
solidarity with Najam Sethi, the editor of The Friday Times, who before he
was abducted in the middle of the night by the police and intelligence
agencies had written that the country was "in the throes of a severe
multi-dimensional crisis. I refer to six major crises which confront
Pakistan on the eve of the new millenium: (1) the crisis of identity and
ideology; (2) the crisis of law, constitution and political system; (3) the
crisis of economy; (4) the crisis of foreign policy; (5) the crisis of
civil society; and (6) the crisis of national security."

The sense that in the glitter and the noise people were meant to forget
that there has been 50 years of abject failure when it comes to the state
providing them with social justice or basic needs is sharpened by 28 May
being declared to be the most important date since independence. It
suggests a search for a new beginning; the rebirth of a nation.
This third birth of Pakistan, after 1947 and 1971, is no more auspicious
than the first two. Each birth has been violent and produced violence. The
first, out of the horrors of Partition, failed to produce a viable
constitution and led to military dictatorship and twice to war. The second
birth, out of the slaughter in Bangladesh, failed to produce democracy and
led to more dictatorship, and the sectarian demons who now haunt the land.
The third life, a Pakistan born out of nuclear explosions, carries the
threat of terminal violence.

It is worth delving a little deeper into what the nuclear circus was meant
to conceal. It was meant to be an affirmation of strength, pride and
'virility' - at least that is what Pakistani President Rafiq Tarar called
it. What this tries to conceal, if not erase altogether, is that events
after last year's nuclear tests provided clear evidence of the weakness of
this country. The sanctions that were imposed by the international
community after the tests were lifted not because the world was awed by
Pakistan's new nuclear might, but because they took a really good look at
it and were horrified by its obvious fragility. Sanctions were lifted
because otherwise the country would have fallen apart and nobody wanted to
see that happen particularly now that nuclear weapons were involved. It was
an act aimed to protect Pakistan from itself--or more accurately, to try to
protect its people from the criminal stupidity and recklessness of its
leaders.

It is easy to see how having to accept this realisation of weakness would
have created a crisis among those who were responsible for taking the
decision to test. One the one hand they tested nuclear weapons and thought
of themselves as being strong and having broken the "begging bowl". On the
other, the world offered them pity and charity, because otherwise the
country would collapse. And thus the nuclear circus as a way of ridding
their minds of these fears and memories. The louder and brighter the circus
the deeper the anxiety about being weak could be pushed. No wonder then
that government press releases insisted the nation was united "to pay
tribute to the courage, statesmanship and maturity of Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif."
A bomb, a nation, a leader.

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