Need of the hour in Baloch struggle

Written by Qambar Bugti

As you might have already guessed by the title, the need of the hour in Baloch national struggle is unity. But you are wrong. The need of the hour is not unity in my view. Why? Because we, all of the Baloch pro-freedom political parties and organizations, have been saying this for past several years but what we have done is quite the opposite.

In the name of working for and fostering unity we have advertently or inadvertently created more disunity among ourselves. Can one not safely say that we are more divided in sections, organizations, parties and groups than anytime since the start of ongoing Baloch movement?

Why is it so if all we have been saying is unity and claim to be doing is working for unity? It is because we are not struggling for unity, we are struggling to show that we are working for unity.

In this race of our so-called efforts for unity, we have not only tried to put each other down with unnecessary criticism but also caused enormous damage to our existing setup of struggle, let alone strengthening it and moving towards a more united and organized front.

This is not to say that all efforts by all activists and leaders are based on this mindset of propagating personal or their particular party image as a saviour and unifying force.

There are certainly a large number of sincere activists who genuinely strive for unity of the Baloch people affiliated with liberation struggle but unfortunately their efforts have either disappeared in so much noise around them or they preferred silence over being part of this meaningless chaos.

This resulted in silencing or sidelining most of the sane voices in every group and followers of every leader. Now how did all this help the struggle or in which way did it contributed in forming a united front of all pro-independence forces?

It didn’t help in any way. On the contrary, it damaged existing organizational structures and distanced ordinary activists of all groups from each other. It gave space to negative people and, in many cases, even undercover enemies who benefited from the vacuum to incite more differences and pit the activists against each other.

The activists who, regardless of their party affiliation or political opinion, used to campaign together on all forums to highlight the state atrocities all over Balochistan. The activists who felt each other’s pain, trusted each other and helped each other in every way possible.

What is the level of trust and cooperation between them now? It is zero, and what is the reason? Our so-called efforts for unity.

Despite of the fact that I, like any other activist, have in mind some names of leaders and groups & their activities to blame for all this, but I will not name anybody because this will take us nowhere.

I am not in any way implying that unity is not necessary for success or there is a substitute which can lead us to our destination of freedom.

However, in an attempt to portray themselves as the “most active”, “most sincere” and “only hope of the nation”, every group has made their ‘leaders’ some kind of god-like figures. In some instances even some ordinary activists have been projected as ‘national leader’ and praised day in day out on social media by their groups, just in order to stay in this pointless race.

This has grown the egos of these ‘leaders’ and ‘national leaders’ beyond limits. Why would they want to sit with their fellow ‘leaders’ and ‘national leaders’ who, in their & their follower’s view, are so inferior to them?

It is but completely natural for these seasonal ‘national leaders’ to secretly prevent any sincere effort for national unity, just to retain their newly acquired position. Why shouldn’t they be worried about losing their current status upon formation of a broader and united national front?

Now the question is that what should we be doing instead of glorifying our ‘national leaders’ in the hope that they will soon unite us using their charismatic leadership skills?

Just leave the poor ‘national leaders’ alone for now. The best service you can do to them, and the entire nation, is to stop praising and glorifying them. We all know that they are mere humans with all their strengths and flaws.

Next step is to take a breath and have a look around yourself and the people around you. Stop criticising the ‘other leaders’, stop finding their flaws and brandishing them on social media.

Focus on your own actions and those of your own group or party. Take a look at what you and your group have been doing for the past several years. In retrospect, you might realize that your ‘efforts for unity’ have probably exceeded any real efforts for the nation and the struggle, which is why it is high time to stop.

Gather the sane and sincere activists and get rid of all the negative people. Devise a plan about what you and your group is going to practically do, for example, in the period of next six months which will help the struggle in any way. It could be something as small as organizing a pamphlet campaign (an unbiased one of-course) or as big as joining/establishing an urban guerrilla cell.

The more active, influential, inspirational and hardworking you are (as we all claim to be) the more support you will rally behind yourself from the masses. The more support you gain from the people, the more effective you & your efforts for real unity will be.

By that time you may also have gotten rid of seasonal ‘national leaders’ because they survive only in a situation of negativity & putting each other down.

By that time you may also have genuine leaders who will not worry about losing their ‘national leader’ status if they have to sit with ‘ordinary leaders’ and activists for the formation of a united national front.

Until then, stop dreaming about any kind of international support for the Baloch national struggle. Even if any leader or group is already getting or manages to get any ‘support’ in these conditions, it will be equivalent to being used for particular interests of regional and world powers.

Because no leader or group can win this war alone, it is just impossible. It is only possible when we put aside all our petty differences and stand together.

So the need of the hour is not working for unity, it is to stop working for unity and taking part in practical struggle as much as possible.

Writer is a Baloch activist. Tweets at @Qambar_Bugti.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.