Pakistan: Masters Of Our Destiny
By Mir Adnan Aziz
07 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Professor Alexander Tytler is known to have said: "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about two hundred years. During those years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage."
Prone to reckless policies and governance we, seemingly, have squeezed this timeline and reverted to bondage without completing the sequence. Sixty three years ago Allama Iqbal’s dream became a beacon of light on the horizon of this part of the world. It was so far-reaching, revolutionary and all-embracing that it helped carve out a separate homeland for millions of Muslims. What started as a dream was realized as a truth under the incorruptibly dynamic leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Today, tragically, that very truth has become a lie. We have robbed it of its conviction and ideals.
We, collectively and individually, are guilty of being dazzled by each of our emperor’s new clothes just to discover that like the previous meme, underneath the Fioravanti and Caracenis lies only the proverbial nakedness of heart and mind. As the endlessly exploited masses bleed, our boundaries merely mark the point where British bondage ended and that of the United States began. Amid the carnage of life and property and countless miseries lies the bloody corpse of a dream that was Pakistan. Still, the apathetic masses cling on addicted to the whip of those who (mis) rule us; the masters of our destiny.
What we have seen in our democracies, the present one starkly outdoing all others, is how 'democratic' rulers operate. Never before did corruption and complete decay of governance stand so thoroughly exposed. We see the only reason for winning power as to control all aspects of society to ensure stay in power and self-enrichment. Our political system has allowed criminals to attain and maintain positions of power. In the struggle for supremacy, politicians try to outdo each other in cunning deceit and shady machinations, knowing that irrespective of the method success is what really matters. Meanwhile honest and well meaning people of ability, towering high above such political pygmies, are jeered into political oblivion.
Our politicians, when in power, believe that absolute power does not corrupt. Once ousted from the corridors of power they champion the cause that absolute power must be given up so that goodness may abound. This gimmickry has become a passion for corrupt politicians and for some of those that people see as regicides. Undeterred and secure in the knowledge that their fiefdoms remain impregnable, they appear in hordes on the electronic media and gatherings of their devoutly faithful. Armed with photos and posters of their respective leaders gone and those very much alive and kicking around here and abroad, they utter ethereal proclamations and promises of a much better and brighter tomorrow as we in eternal trance clap and roar. Emotionally blackmailed and robbed to the brink of ruin we still see it as a moment of truth, forgetting that many of us are set to partake that journey where no tomorrow matters without seeing that ever elusive tomorrow dawn.
We fail to understand that those we have chosen will be laughing all the way to their local and offshore banks while we trek like zombies on the same beaten path. Our political system spawns rudderless politicians who morph into clueless leaders. Doling out contracts (CNG and numerous others), promoting kith and kin out of line, rewarding criminals with party tickets and high public offices, lapping up kick-backs and commissions; many euphemistically call this patronage or grassroots politics. In reality it is corruption at its crudest. The tragedy of our politics is that corruption and patronage politics have become the recurring baseline of political compromise and consensus among self-interested otherwise bitterly divided political elites. Nothing encapsulates this reality more than the present pervasive fad of the "opposition" refusing to do anything to destabilize the (abhorrently corrupt and clueless) system.
So pervasive is this narrative of mass complicity in corruption that many of us while expressing outrage against corruption privately are publicly indifferent to its manifestation moreso if we benefit from patronage politics through which this plague thrives. We have taken to what animals and other species, unable to change their habitat, do to survive; morph and adapt to our prevalent social system. This complicity further convolutes an already threadbare social fabric while greatly mitigating the public pressure necessary for official action against such rampant corruption. Understandably a global phenomenon, corruption scandals in vibrant economies never translate into break-down of political, social-sector and administrative institutions. Here, on the other hand it gives a fatal jolt to an already ailing economy. It translates into the morally reprehensible deterioration and scarcity of almost non-existent infrastructure and social services bringing hunger, disease and death.
Political negotiations and results based on individual self-interests, like the autocratic powers guaranteed to political party bosses, compromise on national issues for a third stint at premiership, loss of seat if defying party-line but voting on one’s conscience, exemption of elections within a party, judge’s appointment and renaming the NWFP become a source of corruption and a diversion from economic and above all, national rationality. In the present bleak scenario the only ray of hope one sees is the pro-active role of the superior judiciary. It is though, unfair, to think of them as saviours while we strengthen those very who tend to use the system as a mere tool to further spruce up the self, money and wardrobe wise. When asked about this dichotomy the typical answer on the street will be: "I do not know and I care less". This national apathy may be a norm but an option we can least afford.
Politics is not just voting for a candidate every five years but a politician’s contract with those that elect them. This contract allows the electorate to hold them accountable in case of violation of the same. To say that being elected gives them an unchallenged mandate for five years, if anything, a fallacy. Elected representatives or those holding public offices amongst those we refer to as yahood, hanood and nasara have the honourable conviction to resign when faced with allegations of minor misdemeanor as compared to the phalanx of serious crimes faced by our stalwarts.
The rulers must understand, before it is too late, that seething within is ever increasing frustration and rage. Can we really afford the moment when crass political deceit and rhetoric is challenged on the streets by those wronged and hostage to the harsh and cruel reality of their daily lives? Will the political elite not cry foul if the fatal vacum is filled by those then branded as usurpers while many heave a sigh of relief? Is it not the time to stand up when we have legitimized an elite and a system but with no one left to speak for us?
