Why the West Abandoned Pakistan
The Boxing Day tsunami, which killed about 250,000 people pretty much outright, hit four or five countries. Some of the victims, especially in Thailand, were foreign tourists. And that, said President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan today in an interview with the BBC, is why the West was so swift to help then yet is so slow to make an impact now.
It may be unpalatable, but there may well be some truth in what he says. If the 'international community' is a force for good, then it at times like these that it should galvanize itself. But the relief effort - which is admittedly hampered by terrain, weather and political problems between India and Pakistan over Kashmir - has so far been slow.
Musharraf's other move today could well be interpreted as in indirect snub to the US. He's postponed the purchase of 16 F-16 fighter planes (worth around $400 million for the lot) so as to save money for reconstruction. It's a clever way of making his point, because the realpolitik of East-West relations often comes down to a couple of factors: aid, oil and defence.
So this is an astute way of reminding the US at least of Pakistan's dire position. Excerpt from the interview follows:
Gen Musharraf accused the world of double standards, saying Pakistan had not received the level of aid given after Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of a donors' conference to raise money for reconstruction, Gen Musharraf called on the international community, the Muslim world and ordinary Pakistanis to give generously.
He also suggested that donations from the West were low because few Western nationals were caught up in the earthquake.
"I would say the damage here is much more [than the tsunami], the magnitude of the calamity here is much more," Gen Musharraf said.
When winter strikes, let's hope he isn't proven correct.
