It might be that Pakistan is just more clever about how to deal with Wikileaks than other governments. What do you do when a large number of Wikileaks makes your government look weak, corrupt and inept? Make up something even worse about your rival so the people can focus their attention elsewhere. In the case of Pakistan, they have decided to inform their citizens about leaked information from the U.S. government about India:
They read like the most extraordinary revelations. Citing the WikiLeaks cables, major Pakistani newspapers this morning carried stories that purported to detail eye-popping American assessments of India’s military and civilian leaders.
According to the reports, US diplomats described senior Indian generals as vain, egotistical and genocidal; they said India’s government is secretly allied with Hindu fundamentalists; and they claimed Indian spies are covertly supporting Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt and Balochistan.
“Enough evidence of Indian involvement in Waziristan, Balochistan,” read the front-page story in the News; an almost identical story appeared in the Urdu-language Jang, Pakistan’s bestselling daily.
If accurate, the disclosures would confirm the worst fears of Pakistani nationalist hawks and threaten relations between Washington and New Delhi. But they are not accurate. [link]
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p>This was funny:
The lopsided media coverage highlights the strong influence of Pakistan’s army over an otherwise vigorous free press.
This morning’s stories disparaging Indian generals – one is said to be “rather a geek”, another to be responsible for “genocide” and compared to Slobodan Milosevic – is counterbalanced by accounts of gushing American praise for Pakistan’s top generals. [link]
A “geek?” Oh, no he didn’t. This was actually pretty predictable. In an era where we have a ton of information at our fingertips, we also have a ton of misinformation there as well. Conspiracy theories abound, both abroad and at home. The cables themselves are a mix of the objective and subjective to begin with. Therefore, “truth” belongs to he who best gets his message out.
I’ve got the feeling this thread is going to get messy…
Apart from that, what I don’t understand is why Pakistan doesn’t just realize the way the world is going and become an ally to India? I mean, it would solve so many problems and it would be great for Pakistan as a country and the world as a whole. Asia really needs to wake up to the fact that they could be a solid international bloc to rival the long-time dominance of the west and thus bring about an equalization of the balance of world power.
This silly aquabbling is just nonsense. It merely highlights Asia’s inability to think for itself and to keep propping up the arms trade of the West. I mean, it’s so obvious it hurts.
The Pakistanis have always accused the Indians for every ill of their country, and they’ve utilized every opportunity to try and malign, disparage, and criticize India. I noticed that they do this on billboards, such as economist.com, HuffPost.com, NYTimes.com, and in social settings even here in Boston.
On Morning Joe on MSNBC, Ms. Fatima Bhutto was on there, and she claimed that violent epidemics is not unique to Pakistan, but that in India “has a civil war in Chhattisgarh” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/#39572853 at 2:10). Listen, if Pakistan is not engaged in a low-level civil war in Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or even Sindh, then I don’t even know what a civil war is.
A couple of weeks ago, also on MSBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40602938#39572853 ), they were reporting about the Wagah Border Crossing. The reporter is of Pakistani descent, and he uses this report as a morale booster for the Pakistani Armed Forces, in my opinion. Starting at 1:20, the reporter, Sohel Uddin reports that the high kicks of the soldiers is bad for their health, but then he interviews a Pakistani colonel who basically says that ‘if the soldier is properly trained and semi-competent, they should easily be able to do the high kicks like us.’ This is another example of how Pakistan tries to belittle India, and in this case, Sohel Uddin is trying to say “The Indians are complaining about the high kicks, but the Pakistanis are not complaining since they are better trained as soldiers.”
The Pakistanis have, from t=0, claimed that it was the Indians who masterminded the Pakistani floods by opening up the dam floodgates in the North of that country.
They go to great extremes to distance themselves from all things Indian, I noticed. The Bangladeshis, on the other hand, are very comfortable with their Indic culture, and their pre-Islamic past, but to the Pakistanis, history begins in 1920 (at the Congress’ meeting for a Muslim homeland).
My friends have visited Pakistan, and they told me something very remarkable. The Pakistani citizens were far more endeared to the American tourists, not for wanting to see the ancient relics or culture of Pakistan, but “to understand Islam.” Pakistan aspires to be the Saudi Arabia of South Asia, in that there is only ONE thing in that country, and that is the Islamic Sunni religion.
They should realize that India has outgrown them by so much; India’s infrastructure is much superior; the HUMAN CAPITAL in India is much more superior; and Masjids/Sufi shrines are NOT getting bombed in India. Also, Pakistan, in the psyche of our mind’s, is equated to terrorists and trouble-makers with little regards to progress. India, in our collective consciousness, is that fun-loving, peace-loving, and studious student who is a loyal and secular friend.
Apparently, several journalist services and newspapers are owned by pakistani army. They put out all kinds of press releases of this type whenever it suits them.
A previous occasion was when the Kerry-Lugar bill included language that said the Army had to be secondary to civilian control. A flurry of “press reports” then began to originate from pakistan, explaining how angry the paki public was, the affront to paki sovreignty and so on.
The sad part is that in the west, even informed observers seem to have no idea about the situation. They seem to think all of these outputs have the same status and background.
I agree with this – I have noticed this in Balochistan, in Karachi, in Multan, amongst Paki immigrants in the US even…
The stereotype you mentioned about terrorists/trouble makers vs progress was further cemented in my mind after visiting Pakistan, and discovering it is very much like its neighbor to the West…I don’t feel hopeful about Afghanistan or Pakistan. The impression I got there was that they (I mean common everyday Pakis, not the Govt) distance themselves from Indians, and tend to ally themselves culturally with all the Muslim countries to the west. They regard India’s rapid progress as Westernization, while they admire the Sunni fundamentalism of places like Saudi Arabia. In regards to what you said about Bengladeshis being ok with their Indic culture; well Bangladesh benefits from its location between India and East Asia, regions which are rapidly modernizing, whereas Pakistan borders Iran and the shit-hole that is modern day eastern Afghanistan.
It’s interesting to hear people say that the average Pakistani is anti-Indian. I have not actually been to Pakistan but have heard several Indians who have been there say that the average Pakistani is actually quite keen on Pakistan being a friend to India.
As I say, I haven’t been and it is all anecdotal but just thought I would throw it in there.
Pakistan – a whole nation in denial. The army helps to keep them in that state because it suits their purpose. You cannot use facts to change the mind of people in denial.They have to snap out of it themselves or face the consequences.
There are some noteworthy articles nobody here in Sepiamutiny bring up in the recent new cycle, i think it reflect how Indian mainstream media think and act, it also reflect Indians mentality in general.
First article: Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators (NY times) The result of the most recent PISA stun the educator of the world and command much attention in western media. Somehow, Indian media/blogs seem to avoid reporting this report, you cannot find any Indian news outlets that report and analyse this result. I tried it, TOI, Rediff, Outlook, The Hindu, ………… none of them report a word of it. For a country that obsesses about China, that is a rather odd response, it feel like Indian media try to ignore this news and shield Indian from insecure feeling and pretend it didn’t exist. But without knowing what we are up against, how can we improve. American don’t lack the courage to face it. Indian want to bury their head in the sand.
Second article: Tata’s Nano, the Car That Few Want to Buy The game-changer, pride of India, great invention, somehow flame out. Like the $10 laptop, it turned out quite different from what was promised.
The habit to look the other way when we encounter problems and only report feel good news seem to be alive and well.
Oh well. At least one of these Pakistani newspapers has now been hacked.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Editorials/10-Dec-2010/Indias-true-face
The whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which has ruffled many a feather for exposing the inner feelings of important personalities on the world’s political stage, has put its seal of confirmation on the genocide of the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir struggling to get out of the stranglehold of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of their homeland. Leaders of the liberation struggle in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, in particular Hafiz Saeed, have been raising a hue and cry against the inhumanities the Pakistani security forces are committing freely to suppres the voice of freedom.
@jojo: Sorry I guess my comment did imply that average Pakistan is anti-Indian but that is not what I meant. Everything I said is anectodal too – I am American, but my grandparents are from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I visited western Pakistan, probably one of the more screwed-up parts of the country. I’m sure in more modernized parts of Pakistan the people are less anti-India.
Indians would naturally interact mostly with the pro-Indian Pakistanis’ anyway. The feeling you get interacting with the locals in a major city like Karachi is completely different than you would get in a small Balochi village where as far as the locals are concerned, they live in Balochistan and India is just some faraway land with people of a strange cow-worshipping religion. You’d be surprised how little some Paki’s know about their neighbors to the East.
Yeah I guess the level of ignorance is the same as the way alot of westerners probably think of muslims as a bunch of hat-wearing prayer-freaks who blow themselves up all the time.
These Balochis don’t watch Hindi movies?
Hahaha I love how you pointed that out, because despite any anti-India sentiments some Paki folks have, you can guarantee they’re still going to tune in for the next episode of Pavitra Rishta (or at least if they’re anything like my grandma).
well personally I don’t think it’s fair to say that because pakistan is such a poor country so people’s access to the media and higher education is very limited. Lack of exposure to other cultures naturally breeds ignorance. Here in America we don’t have much of an excuse for being ignorant about the rest of the world (not saying all Americans are like that but some of us are).
Pakistan and Pakistanis are not different species than India and Indians but yes its representation is weak and corrupt.Naughty net people are part of all countries so they are enjoying these leaks as all over the world people are making jokes on embarrassing situation of US foreign offices and diplomats services.80% population of Pakistan has no interest on India and its related problems but it is leadership that make the grudging environment around them to keep the flame of rivalry on rise as political stunt. These are the same leaders who love to visit India in their good times specially on bollywood events and miss no chance of inviting Indian top dancers and actresses in their social functions.In one night it was thrown millions on Indian beauties certifying that how much Indian culture influence them.Majority of Pakistanis love to buy Cd’s of Indian movies ,drama and music and cable men are always faced snubbing attitude if they somehow removed popular Indian channels from main menu. So let the part of reality that we have narrow line of difference of opinions as we share same kind of problems but appears differently due of wrong projection of few controllers of Pakistan.