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Wednesday 16 May 2012

Pakistan Edges Closer to the Abyss

Tuesday, 3rd March 2009

Sometimes it's the seemingly minor events - minor, that is, in the grand scheme of matters, not necessarily small or insignificant at the moment they occur - that can carry more weight than more obviously important or telling developments. Lord knows, there's been no end of troubling news from Pakistan in recent years. But, silly as it may seem, there's something especially terrible about today's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team which killed at least six policemen and injured five members of the Sri Lankan team. (See Cricinfo's rolling updates for the latest news.)

Political assassinations, for instance, are hardly unknown in Pakistan (or elsewhere on the subcontinent) and so it's easy - perhaps too easy - to file them in a drawer marked Terrible Stuff That Sometimes Happens. By contrast, this attack has the Shock of the New about it. As Ducking Beamers says, the ghastliness of this latest act of terrorism is increased because its intended victims were not westerners. Whatever else may be said of the Bombay attacks, there was at least some degree of logic behind the attempt to target western tourists. Details may in due course emerge to contradict this, but at present it is hard to see any political motivation for this atrocity beyond edging Pakistan closer to fully-fledged failed state status. And that may be the point of it. In that sense, then, the immediate target may have been the Sri Lankans, but the real intended victim is Pakistan itself.

That is, it's a message desgined to demonstrate that this is Pakistan's new normality. Attacking the national pastime is a way of shutting off Pakistan from the rest of the world. Cricket was one of the few remaining arenas in which Pakistan could engage with other countries on anything like normal terms. That avenue to the world has been closed. No-one is going to be touring Pakistan for some time, perhaps years.

It's not that sports teams could never be targets (some people felt they could) but that, like the terrorism that crippled the Munich Olympics, the impact of sports-related terrorism is magnified precisely because it is out of the ordinary and runs contrary to our idea of sport. And perhaps this is especially so when the afflicted sport is cricket. That's not because an attack on cricket is more serious or any more murderous than one on any other innocent target, but because sport is something in which millions of people invest so much energy, emotion and, yes love, that an attack on, in this instance, cricket seems to be an attack on something that we share and hold dear in ways that extend beyond a simple, shared humanity or sympathy for the victims of, for want of a better word, an "ordinary" terrorist atrocity.

There's no reason to suppose that cricket should remain exempt or aloof from Pakistan's troubles, but there was every reason to hope it would. This attack nudges Pakistan closer to the abyss and the death of Pakistani cricket (for that is what it amounts to) unravels one of the threads that was, until now, helping to hold Pakistan together. Perhaps that invests cricket with more importance than it can reasonably be expected to bear, but there it is nevertheless.

Finally, the message is also that no good deed shall go unpunished. Sri Lanka stepped in to tour Pakistan when India cancelled their planend tour after the attacks in Bombay. That the Sri Lankans, who have lived with the reality of terrorism for so long themselves and whose greatest cricketer, Muttiah Muralitharan, is a Tamil, should be the victims of this latest outrage is just another glum thought on a day likely to provide plenty more of those.

Filed under: Cricket (157 more articles) , Pakistan (75 more articles) , Terrorism (298 more articles)

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Linda Smith

March 3rd, 2009 10:59am Report this comment

You wrote: "it is hard to see any political motivation for this atrocity beyond edging Pakistan closer to fully-fledged failed state status. You need to put your glasses on.

You also wrote: "Whatever else may be said of the Bombay attacks, there was at least some degree of logic behind the attempt to target western tourists." You overlooked the fact that the Bombay attacks also targeted, tortured and murdered Jews in Mombai.

The Guardian reported:Salman Taseer, who heads the provincial government as Governor of Punjab, arriving at the scene. "These were the same methods and the same sort of people as hit Mumbai.

Recently the Pakistan government caved into the demands of the militant Islamic fundamentalists in the Swat valley for Sharia law.

I should have thought it was pretty obvious to see what the political motivation for this attack was - Islamism.

mckenzie

March 3rd, 2009 11:34am Report this comment

It strikes me as odd that those of us who are not interested in cricket have to wait while you lot catch up with reality.

Ah well, I suppose patience is a virtue.

zafar

March 3rd, 2009 12:52pm Report this comment

Linda you comments are uncalled for. Massie have a point and you degraded him with put glasses on and so forth.
I am glad someone is feeling sympathy towards Pakistan. I love cricket and that was one form of joy I was getting after long time. It is a very sad day for every normal Pakistani and every cricket lover. God bless Pakistan.

Graeme

March 3rd, 2009 1:51pm Report this comment

Zafar, Pakistan is a state that has long been accused of sponsoring terrorism. Those terrorists/freedom fighters now have designs on the country itself. It is time for the normal Pakistanis to stand up and be counted. Now is not the time to worry about cricket or expressing bland nationalistic platitudes

dearieme

March 3rd, 2009 1:59pm Report this comment

"another glum thought": aye.

Linda Smith

March 3rd, 2009 2:25pm Report this comment

Zafar: Yes, it is a very sad day for every normal Pakistani, and every normal person worldwide, who is threatened by Islamofascism.

Ganpat Ram

March 3rd, 2009 3:26pm Report this comment

It's time to give up false hopes and get used to the idea that we must make out peace with hard-line Islam. It has the passion and the numbers. It will remake our world and redefine our libeties or rather, put an end to them.

So what?

It has all happened before and the world survived. Another Middle Eastern fanaticism conquered the world of Rome and ushered in the Dark Ages. Everything seemed lost, but the Renaissance came after some centuries. So it could be again.

Relax.

Linda Smith

March 3rd, 2009 3:37pm Report this comment

Ganpat Ram: I can't hang around that long!

Shiv

March 3rd, 2009 4:31pm Report this comment

Those who live by sword suffer by it.Unfortunately the religious fervour of the so called devout is so myopic, there is no rhyme or reason for their venal act.Like a symphony, the whole scale of violence is rising up to a crescendo and I hope not the silence we beget does so after a horrendous calamity.Today's act is a serious reminder!!

ronsen

March 3rd, 2009 4:36pm Report this comment

US army should come to Pakistan and free SWAT province from the barbaric talibans and kill 'em all. This shall send a warning across to all the islamic jehadis.....

Susan Hill

March 3rd, 2009 5:46pm Report this comment

er.. is this the normally peaceful Spectator Coffee House blog or some other barbaric website I have stumbled into ?

Charlotte

March 3rd, 2009 6:41pm Report this comment

I wish the US army could go to Gaza and sort out the Hamas jihadis.

Karen

March 3rd, 2009 7:20pm Report this comment

Ronsen if US do this way there will be lots of people bloging like you that "WHY US ATTACK PAKISTAN"?US is in state no matter what they do they will be bashed from all around the globe.Even from inside US too.

George Bush

March 3rd, 2009 10:23pm Report this comment

Charlotte, US is already busy terrorising the world with Isreal. Don't u think there's enough violence in the world? In some way you're right...the intent of the western countries and Isreal is to make Pakistan a fail state so they can take over the strategic assets (nuclear arsenal)...so, your dream may come true but be prepared for retaliation from the other side.

Daniel

March 3rd, 2009 11:20pm Report this comment

I am inclined to agree that this is primarily an attack on Pakistan. That they could not keep this group safe will speak volumes towards the diplomatic future of Pakistan, I think.

Sriram

March 5th, 2009 3:24am Report this comment

given how rich they are, im sure if the cricket boards wanted to, they could ensure security for their respective teams. not touring pakistan beyond the next 6 months would be giving in to the islamofascists who want to isolate pakistan and take over the country. I say cut the down the visa barriers and make it another glocal melting pot like dubai & piss off those bastards

T. Varadaraj

March 5th, 2009 12:44pm Report this comment

The sorry state of affairs in Pakistan is the natural outcome of how it's leaders chose to define their country after independence: "Pakistan is not India". Their obsession to match India (a country five times it's size) sword for real or imagined sword is what has got it into this mess. As the saying goes, if a rabbit tries to defecate like an elephant, it will eviscerate itself. We are seeing the insides of Pakistan falling away now.

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