雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第5章5:備受尊重

As a respected man in the community, my father was often called on to mediate feuds. He did not believe in badal – revenge – and would try to make people see that neither side had anything to gain from continuing the violence, and it would be better for them to get on with their lives. There were two families in our village he could not convince. They had been locked in a feud for so long no one even seemed to remember how it had started – probably some small slight as we are a hot-headed people. First a brother on one side would attack an uncle on the other. Then vice versa. It consumed their lives.

身爲社區裏備受尊重的人，父親常被找去調停爭端。他不相信復仇有什麼作用，並總是試着讓大家瞭解：如果暴力持續下去，對雙方都不會有任何好處；最好的選擇就是盡釋前嫌，繼續各自的生活。但是村裏有兩個家族，父親無論如何都勸說不了。這兩個家族對立的情況已經久到沒有人記得到底是怎樣開始的，八成只是點小事，但我們畢竟是很會小題大做的民族。一開始，其中一方的兄長會攻擊另一方的叔伯，接着另一方會採取同樣的舉動，不斷有人爲此喪命。

Our people say it is a good system, and our crime rate is much lower than in non-Pashtun areas. But I think that if someone kills your brother, you shouldn’t kill them or their brother, you should teach them instead. I am inspired by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the man who some call the Frontier Gandhi, who introduced a non-violent philosophy to our culture.

我們的族人認爲這體制很好。他們認爲，正因此，我們的犯罪率才比非普什圖地區要低。但我認爲，如果有人殺了你的兄弟，你不該去殺他們或是他們的兄弟，而是應該要教導他們。我受到阿卜杜勒.加法爾.汗的行爲啓發，有些人稱他爲“邊境區甘地”，是他把非暴力哲學介紹到我們的文化中。

It’s the same with stealing. Some people, like me, get caught and vow they will never do it again. Others say, ‘Oh it’s no big deal – it was just a little thing.’ But the second time they will steal something bigger and the third something bigger still. In my country too many politicians think nothing of stealing. They are rich and we are a poor country yet they loot and loot. Most of them don’t pay tax, but that’s the least of it. They take out loans from state banks but they don’t pay them back. They get kickbacks on government contracts from friends or the companies they award them to. Many of them own expensive flats in London.

對於偷東西也一樣。有些人，像我，被逮到併發誓不會再犯。其他人則會說：“噢，又不是什麼大事，只是個小東西嘛。”於是，第二次，他們就會偷點更大的東西，第三次又會更大。在我們國家，太多政治人物認爲偷竊不算什麼。他們很富有，儘管我們國家還很窮困，但他們仍掠奪再掠奪。他們大多數人都不付稅，這還是他們最低微的過錯；他們向國家的銀行貸款，卻不還錢；他們在政府合約中，從朋友或是那些合作廠商手上拿回扣；他們之中有許多人都在倫敦擁有昂貴的公寓。

I don’t know how they can live with their consciences when they see our people going hungry or sitting in the darkness of endless power cuts, or children unable to go to school as their parents need them to work. My father says that Pakistan has been cursed with more than its fair share of politicians who only think about money. They don’t care if the army is actually flying the plane, they are happy to stay out of the cockpit and sit in business class, close the curtains and enjoy the fine food and service while the rest of us are squashed in economy.

我不知道當他們看見自己的人民在捱餓，或是因爲時常斷電而只能坐在黑暗之中，或是孩子沒辦法上學，只因爲家長需要他們一起工作賺錢時，良心怎麼安穩？父親說巴基斯坦受到了詛咒，有這麼多隻愛金錢的政治客。他們不在乎軍隊是否真的有戰鬥力，他們更願意遠離戰場，坐在商務艙裏，關上簾子享受美食和各種服務；而與此同時，人民則在溫飽線上苦苦掙扎。