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| Yes | 63% | 146 votes | Total: 230 votes | |
| No | 37% | 84 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was part of the process of atomization within the Eastern and Central European socialist states brought about by the collapse of the socialist bloc, a crucial aspect of which was the suicidal disappearance of the Soviet Union. Similarly, Pakistan's disintegration can be part of the process of its denuclearization in view of the threat that the radical Islamist forces sponsored and funded by Pakistan's own military establishment may capture the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan and put the whole world into jeopardy.
In 1991, when the process of Yugoslavia's disintegration began, the SFRY had a socialist development model with its own characteristics, based on economic self-management. It was a state made up of various republics and a central
federal government. Pakistan is also in some way similar to this type of mechanism for the sole reason that presently undivided Pakistan has 4 provinces which have been structured on the basis of ethnicity. Punjabis live in Punjab, Sindhis live in Sindh, Pakhtoons live in NWFP (Pakhtoonistan) and Balochis live in Balochistan while Urdu-speaking nation live in Karachi (the proposed Republic of Jinnahpur) which is currently part of Sindh province as a glaring conspiracy since the inception of Pakistan.
With its own economic development, SFRY had its own levels of productivity,
public health, education and social welfare that were on a par with many other developed European countries. Same case is with presently undivided Pakistan.
However, Yugoslavia's political role within the Non-Aligned Movement and its close relationship with the Third World nations kept it in the sights of the West Germany and the United States in particular which were interested in dispensing with the last vestiges of socialism in Central Europe. On the contrary, Pakistan is still enjoying its independence because of certain political miracles which enabled this fraudulent country to exist beyond its natural life although Pakistan did taste some disintegration back in 1971. For the Western world, radical Islam is also a threat similar to Socialism. Hence, in view of this fact, there should be honest efforts to be applied by the Western world to ensure that Pakistan is also disintegrated in order to combat the spread of radical Islamization in the region.
In the case of former Yugoslavia, an area of geopolitical influence for Germany, historically interested in having a more active role in this part of the Balkans, it also came to be a central element within the U.S. concept of a unipolar world governed by Washington. In that context, the socialist bloc's collapse and the disintegration of the Soviet Union formed a perfect pretext for foreign appetites finding any justification whatsoever. By exacerbating millennia-long ethnic, religious and nationalist problems, they initially focused on
Bosnia and Herzegovina and now the entire Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been fully disintegrated in its true perspective with the formation of an Independent Kosovo recently. If this can happen in Yugoslavia, why not Pakistan?
(Syed Jamaluddin is author of book titled "DIVIDE PAKISTAN TO ELIMINATE TERRORISM")
Learn more about this author, Jamaluddin Syed.
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No
Abiding Kosovan secession is but one of the hoops through which the Serbs must jump if they are to be admitted to the European Union (EU), the other is to give up the war-criminals to the International Courts. Kosovo is ninety-eight percent ethnic Albanian and Muslim and has much international sympathy for it succession except from Russia, Serbia and other fraternal Slavs.
Kosovo will have little influence on the self-rule of others. It is desperately poor. The majority of greater Serbia including Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia have already succeeded and the remaining autonomous region of Vojvodina to the north of Belgrade is seventy percent Serbian. Not exactly the stuff of separation.
A similar situation faces Turkey which, similarly wishes to join the EU. It has to release Northern Cyprus, come to some kind of rapprochement with its Kurdish minority, and keep from adventuring in Iraq. Maybe it won't succeed, maybe the temptations to behave as a local super-power will be too great and Turkey will have to accept second-best of being a strong influence in Central Asia.
The gravitational force around which Kurds in Turkey and Iran can coalesce is the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish area currently maximizing its area to include Mosul and its Turkoman minority. It's a delicate dance. Secession would be foolhardy considering Kurdistan would be a land-locked country next to a fretful Turkey, Iran and Syria. Political moves need to follow commercial interdependencies - Kosovo is no template for success there.
Self-rule provinces generally successfully seek independence when the stasis of autonomy within a nation state can be broken without deadly risk. It is helpful when the interests of neighboring and internationally powerful states are met by the secessionist state consider the relationship between France and the US when it broke with the UK. Geographic separation favors breaking from the mother country - consider Pakistan/Bangladesh or East Timor/Indonesia. It is helpful to make a clean break and not frighten the world community with visions of a protracted civil war or a failed state within which terrorists can operate - consider Sudan and Afghanistan.
Provinci al autonomy of course can imply federalism within a tolerant democracy in which there is no probable move to separatism - consider Greenland's relationship with Denmark or Wales within the United Kingdom.
There are other autonomous areas waiting their turn on the world stage and each has its own unique characteristics. The Kosovo experience cannot spur, neither does it have much to teach about the situation say in Taiwan, Papua, Mindanao, Palestine/Gaza, Congo, Kenya, or Myanmar.
Each situation develops in a unique way as a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. Maybe that is what Kosovo has to offer the other aspirants. Hope.
Learn more about this author, Ian Clark.
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