Department of History, National University of Singapore

Public Opinion and Constitution Making in Pakistan 1958-1962 by Edgar A. Schuler; Kathryn
R. Schuler
Review by: Obaid Ul Haq
Journal of Southeast Asian History, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Sep., 1968), pp. 374-375
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History, National University
of Singapore
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067720 .
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 REVIEWS

Public Opinion and Constitution Making in Pakistan 1958

1962. By Edgar A. and Kathryn R. Sch?ler. Michigan State

University Press, East Lansing 1966. Pp. 274. Appendices, Index.

Price US$6.00.

Gabriel Almond in his famous study, The American People and

out that is not a single and
Foreign Policy, pointed public opinion
well-defind force nor does it have a single and well-defined impact.
To make the analysis of public really meaningful one must
opinion
and describe what segment of public one is concerned with.
identify
? "mass
Almond established three categories of public public",
"attentive public" and "effective public".
and Kathryn Sch?ler addressed themselves to the task of
Edgar
the interaction between the official
public views and
analyzing
with
regard to the making of Pakistan's Constitution (1962)
opinion
which to an end the of Martial Law. But nowhere
brought period
in this study do we find a discussion of what segment of public the
authors were concerned with. The choice of English newspapers,
as a source of information, indicates that they were on what
focusing
Almond would call "attentive public".
The book under review is based on data collected primarily from
two Pakistani newspapers (Dawn and Pakistan
English daily
and an Indian daily (The Statesman). The
Observer) English
authors did not have access to the vernacular press, nor did they
conduct interviews with the key persons involved in the constitu
tional debate, nor did they consult government reports. What they
did was to read newspapers carefully and reconstruct the atmos

during the Martial Law period. The material

phere prevailing
from the newspapers is used in a
gleaned effectively presenting
"blow-by-blow" account of the stages through which the constitution

finally emerged.
The title of the book is somewhat misleading
as there is no
effort to analyze opinion. In fact the book deals
systematic public
at length with government sway opinionto of the
propaganda
influential groups and, to sell the ideas of President Ayub Khan
which owed more to his own political convictions than to a free
discussion of constitutional issues.

The bookpresents a very and vivid account of the

interesting
stages through which the government sought to isolate the machinery
of constitution-making from the "divisive" and "pernicious"
influence of politicians, displaced by the Revolution of October
1958. In the the government and even
beginning, permitted
encouraged discussion of various constitutional alternatives open to
the country. The testimony given by various interested groups and

374

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 REVIEWS

individuals before the Constitutional Commission

widely was
and commented press. in the
when some But
reported upon
leaders to use the of the Commission to
political sought platform
launch an attack on the Martial Law regime and its policies, the
government clamped down on all public discussion of constitutional
issues.

For those who are interested in the problem of relations between

East and West Pakistan the book contains interesting material. It

clearly indicates that the press and intelligentsia of East Pakistan

had views on constitutional framework which were directly opposed
to official views.

To conclude, this is a useful and informative book. It must,

however, be stated that the very limited data base and the absence
of reliable methodology do not permit the authors to formulate any
about the of to the process
hypothesis relationship public opinion
of constitution-making in a context of military rule.

Obaid Ul Haq

University of Singapore

Art in Indonesia: Continuities and By C. Holt.

Change.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1967. Pp. 378. Frontispiece,
Plates & Maps. Price US$55.50.

An awareness of the total

cultural context within which an art
work was doubtless aids in apprehending the world feeling
produced
it conveys, provided, of course, that the viewer's intel
[weltgefiihl]
lectual does not inhibit the free flow of nonrational
knowledge
.. form and mood in a work of art
response. [to] the expressive
(p. 6)". Miss Holt believes, and indeed successfully demonstrates,
that there is a specifically Indonesian world feeling, inborn in that

artistically gifted race, and manifest in its art. Starting with rock

paintings of a remote antiquity, she traces the survival of graphic

at its deepest ? sometimes
associated with this feeling levels
symbols
sometimes transplanted into new bodies,
virtually unimpaired,
or ? Indonesian to
stylised, fragmented throughout history up
the dark, inarticulate impulse animates the graphic and
to-day;
arts, but operates no less forcefully in dance, dance drama
plastic
and wayang and wayang kulit. Her first
(wayang wong topeng),
is studded with examples of such survivals, acutely observed
chapter
and ancestored with genuine insight.
In her second Miss Holt begins a review of the Indian
chapter

375

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