Silver lining disappeared: Pakistan's new order and chaos theory

'Without order nothing can exist, without chaos nothing can evolve', Pakistan seems to be resting between the two ever since its traumatic birth as a nation-state following the partition of India in 1947. Pakistan's unsuccessful struggle to build a functioning democracy that too often rested in inaccessible military barracks of Rawalpindi has suddenly visited madness after the crackdown on Red Mosque.

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The bullet-riddled and smoke-stained walls and roofs of the Red Mosque tell the story of a fierce battle and the echoes of Islamic Revolution can be heard as the Islamic radicals bury (now labeled) militants. The bloodshed at the mosque has given hard-liners a rallying point and new martyrs to mourn, and has sparked calls from al-Qaeda and Taliban for revenge attacks. Maintaining an iron clad grip, Musharraf put an end to the beginning of an Islamic Revolution but a civil war in slow motion has already started.

Undoubtedly, the audacious step by President Musharraf has risen his standing among moderates and more importantly the western allies giving him a safe extension to few more years of fame to riches. However, in these troubled times, the middle class Pakistani feel directionless. It only raises the doubt that can values enforced by the barrel of a gun save the hapless Muslims from his worst enemy, himself.

Saul Alinsky, in his book, Rules for Radicals, stated:

Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future.

At this point in Pakistan, President Musharraf has also followed the same doctrine to make the tyranny be accepted by the masses in order to achieve order out of chaos. In the whole process, not only has Pakistan descended further into chaos between returning exiled premiers but also it has once again shied away from the returning democracy.

When will enough be enough?

Enough will never be enough in Pakistan. Even Musharraf's exclusively designed roughshod treatment of the radicals at Lal Masjid that obviously appears a bold step to Pakistan's western mentors has passed the point of no return in this power struggle. The gun-wielding hotheads dictating the agenda has fortified the arena of power sharing for the politicians before their counterattack.

Overall, the backdrop to the crisis is the poverty, isolation and seeming hopelessness of life in Pakistan. In this vein, it isn't strange that Pakistanis tend to be far more forgiving to the dead at the Red Mosque and can even call the killings of militants as 'shameful'. It only appears that Pakistan is perhaps too young and insecure a nation to sustain a genuinely popular anti-establishment movement rising from the streets.