Black Propaganda against Hyrbyair Marri

By Saeed Baloch

When Hyrbyair Marri came forward to contribute in solving the serious problems of the movement, not only the enemy but also our friends did their best to push Mr Marri back. It is common knowledge to understand the Pakistan Army propagandas against Hyrbyair, however, but it is often beyond understanding that those who claim to be the struggling for the freedom of Baluchistan also jump in the bandwagon; against Hyrbyair Marri, and support the Pakistani narrative.

A few months ago The Balochistan Times, which is being operated by people associated with Baloch National Movement, published an article in which Sangat Hyrbyair has been described as ‘millionaire and a war profiteer’. The same article was later published in The Balochistan Post as well. This is not the first time that these web portals have tried character assassination of Sangat Hyrbyair and to harm his good reputation.

We often see false accusations – planting, fostering and manipulating information against Sangat Hyrbyair Marri that is being published by The Balochistan Times, Daily Sangar News and The Balochistan Post. The Daily Sangar News in its hatemongering acts went a step beyond and published two fake stories – one news story in name of Jangyz Marri and an article by pseudo name Santosh Kumar. I have got no interest to get into a blame game but I will express my views about why there is an ongoing smear campaign against Mr Marri web portals linked with ‘pro-freedom’ political parties who claim to expose Pakistan’s brutalities against Baloch people but between the lines continue their negative propaganda to weaken the Baloch freedom movement.

Hyrbyair Marri is the only pro-freedom Baloch leader whose stance on Balochistan’s freedom has been uncompromising. He has never compromised and changed his stance on Iranian Occupied Balochistan. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why our cunning enemy and naïve friends are on the same page in their smear campaign against him.  Other leaders in Balochistan are not firm in this regard, for instance, Dr Allah Nazar Baloch who initially put the map of United Balochistan on his twitter background, later changed the picture to appease Iran. He also once tweeted against Israel for its alleged human rights violations against Palestine, again it was an attempt to please Iran. His vehement silent on Iranian state terrorism against Baloch people is another example of his unsettled political stand. In the same way, the leadership of Baloch National Movement including Khalil Baloch does not have a clear stance about Iranian occupied Baluchistan’s liberation. In this connection, Hyrbyair Marri firmly stands his ground. Pakistan and Iran both did their best to weaken Sangat Hyrbyair’s stance by infiltrating their agents and using people from within Baloch pro-freedom forces but they miserably failed.

Blaming Mr Marri of being a war profiteer is ridiculous and laughable. If money and status were the goals for Hyrbyair Marri then he could have easily succeeded in achieving both because he belongs to one of the richest parts of Balochistan – Kohlu which is enriched with oil, gas, coal and other natural resources. In 1997 Mr Marri was elected to Balochistan Provincial Assembly. He could have been elected or even selected many more times because of his privileged family status and would have made billions of rupees. But instead, he chose the difficult path, that is, to strive for Balochistan’s independence.

Nobody has ever done such a thing, neither before him, nor after him – being in power, but still risking everything for his Nation. Nowadays, we see members of the provincial government are being arrested and billions of Rupees are found in their possession.  They made this black money while in their official position – the perfect demonstration of Pakistani corruption. It has later become clear and come to our knowledge that Hyrbyair Marri accelerated the work for the independence of Balochistan while he was a minister in Balochistan.

He used his official ministerial vehicles to help and support the Baloch freedom movement. This is one of the many examples of what he has done for Balochistan, while he could have done many things for himself. If he wanted he could have become a multimillionaire by allowing Pakistan to steal Balochistan’s natural resources and ask for his share but he has not allowed Pakistan to even move a stone from his region during his tenure in government. Mr Marri was also the first Baloch Minister who strongly opposed Pakistan’s nuclear tests and issued a statement against it even before the tests were conducted.

In Addition, Hyrbyair Marri was the youngest minister of the Balochistan Assembly and the holder of a reputable minister-ship, the ministry from which politicians have gathered billions of Rupees. Dr Malik and many other Ministers in his cabinet have turned a blind eye to Baloch genocide by Pakistan and spent all their time and energy making money.  However, for Hyrbyair Marri the restoration of Balochistan’s independence has always been paramount. If he had been greedy for money he could have easily accumulated millions of Rupees for himself like Doctor Malik and Sanauallah Zehri.

He took part in the election not to gain economical profits but, instead, he used his minister-ship as a strategy to support the Baloch national struggle for freedom. His intentions were obvious from the beginning as he declined to pledge loyalty to Pakistan. Instead of the words ‘I shall remain loyal to Pakistan’ he vowed: “I shall remain loyal to my Nation”. He knew the consequences of altering such a vow and immediately there were calls from Punjab to disqualify him. He was accused of being disloyal to Pakistan but through this proclamation he proved his loyalty to Balochistan and tried to shake the consciousness other pro-Pakistan parliamentarian Baloch, making them aware that they’re slaves on their own land and their nation is occupied by foreign powers.

He could not offer economic benefits to his people due to the system designed by Punjab in which the main objective of this pseudo parliamentary system is to corrupt the Baloch politicians. He used different tactics; he delivered the people awareness, that although the occupiers subjugate the people and their lives, they can’t control their minds. Through this, he has proven that the independence of Balochistan is paramount. Due to such daring acts of Mr Marri, now we know, he has always kept the best interest of the Baloch people and the country’s independence above his personal monetary gains.

Another historic and diplomatic move of  Hyrbyair Marri is the drafting and presenting the Balochistan Liberation Charter (BLC) in which Mr Marri called for a fair and impartial distribution of resources among the Baloch nation. The BLC explicates that the natural resources of Balochistan belong to the Baloch nation, not to any individual tribe or group. We have seen that instead of appreciating this tremendous work (Baluchistan Liberation Charter) done by Hyrbyair and his like-minded friends, Sangat Hyrbyair was described as an agent of multinational companies not by our enemy but by our pro-independence friends. How can an agent of multinational companies and a war profiteer be in favour of fair distribution of the resources, especially when his area is rich with natural resources that are still untapped?

It portrays the fact that Sangat Hyrbyair is deliberately being depicted as a negative character in the Balochistan freedom Movement by those who are afraid of democratic politics and equal opportunities for all in Balochistan. As it is evident, nowadays, the Baloch freedom movement based on Baloch nationalism and democratic values is being diverted to the class struggle. There is a systematic ‘anti-Sardars’ tendency being stimulated deliberately to degrade the national liberation struggle into a class struggle – which is definitely disastrous for the national struggle.

The unfounded propaganda against Hyrbyair Marri is actually the continuation of diverting the Baloch national liberation struggle into a class struggle. As we observed that the biased web portals, like Daily Sangar News and The Balochistan Post, are toeing the enemy’s line in their endeavour to harm Mr Hyrbyair’s good reputation and characterizing him a as Sardar (Tribal chief) by publishing baseless and false information. The reality is that Hybyair Marri, after his father’s death, clearly said that Nawab Marri was the last Nawab of Marri tribe.

He also said that Nawabs and Sardars should surrender their decision making power on national issues to the Baloch nation. He criticised his brothers Changez and Mehran Marri for vying to become Nawab of the Marri tribe. In this regard, Sangat Hyrbyair further says ‘an independent Balochistan will confront problems faced by countries like Angola and North Korea if powers of tribal Nawabs and chiefs are not handed over to those who are struggling for an independent Balochistan.’  But for these middle class, being born in a Sardar (tribal chief) family means one should automatically be labelled as a bad character.

There are many world leaders who changed the world who were born in tribal chieftain families. Let us take Nelson Mandela for instance. Mandela was born in a small village in the southeastern region of South Africa called the Transkei. His father was chief of the village and a member of the royal family of Thembu tribe, as a boy, Mandela grew up in the company of tribal elders and chiefs. Nelson Mandela rejected the tribal system, fought against inequality and racism. Today Mandela is remembered as one of the most influential figures in the word and a symbol of hope for many. Mandela was also a former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

If you see Nelson Mandela’s life, struggle and his teachings through Doctor Allah Nazar, Khalil Baloch, Wahid Kambar, Gulzar Imam and others’ philosophy of the middle class, then Nelson is no one but a tribe chief. In the same way, according to this philosophy of the middle class, no matter what George Washington did, he has got no value just because he was born into a wealthy and prosperous family. Tribes and their leaders hugely contributed to the liberation struggle, undermining their contributions are tantamount to betrayal to the freedom movement.

The middle-class tendency in Baloch liberation movement is more dangerous than Pakistan’s counterinsurgency policy because Pakistan is only physically harming the Baloch but the class division of Baloch society and propaganda is aimed at rooting out the Baloch nationalism from minds of Baloch youth. It is to indulge the Baloch youth into smaller non-worthy issues, petty arguments and waste their time and energy. This notion can easily be exploited by the enemy and cause class warfare in Baluchistan which will definitely ruin the Baloch cause of liberation. And that is exactly what Pakistan wants happening.

The Baloch nation is fortunate to have a leader like Hyrbyair Marri who has a deep view on the full of our friends and on the discernment of our enemy. The Baloch nation should understand that class struggle has got no room in Baloch nationalism. Sangat Hyrbyair gave a clear roadmap to the Nation on how the Baloch Liberation Movement must be led, by formulating ‘BALOCHISTAN LIBERATION CHARTER’ a momentous document in the history of Baloch liberation struggle. Hyrbyair Marri never stopped being an obstacle for those who are harming the Baloch straggle’s strategic balance by their wrong policies. In this regard, he even distanced himself from his family and brothers.

In the same way, Sangat Hyrbyair criticised policies of Baloch resistance organisations including the killing of innocent people by labelling them as traitors.  Sangat also extremely opposes the ‘give and take’ policy of BLF and BNM with Iranian government because such policies utterly and extremely hurt the Baloch struggle and Baloch national interests. Iranian border forces and intelligence agencies have already killed some of the best Baloch fighters and BLF uttered no word against Iran for killing brave sons of Balochistan.

In spite of strengthening Hyrbyair’s hands, there is a systematic manipulation of information against him from our pro-freedom friends but they must understand that any negative propaganda against Hyrbyair directly affects the Baloch freedom movement because there is no any doubt that Hyrbyair is the only leader of the movement who is eligible to solve the serious problems within the movement and get the Baluch liberation struggle on the right track, as the whole nation keep their eyes on him.