Those green-robd senators of mighty woods,
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars
Dream, and so dream all night without a stir…
(Hyperion – John Keats)
The last few days witnessed a mini upheaval on the political front with Maulana Fazl ur Rehman staging a walk out on the PPP-led coalition at the centre. Ostensibly, the move came at the sacking of a JUI minister from the federal cabinet in the wake of the Hajj scandal that was generally received with a mixture of disbelief and sarcasm. It also upped the political heat with some nourishing the prospect of a change in the offing.
The follow-up activity to establish the principled credentials of the move was comprehensively negated by its inherent contradictions. If there were, indeed, any principles involved in leaving the incumbent government, what by way of moral basis could be cited for the JUI remaining a part of either the provincial governments or insisting on hanging on to the Islamic Ideology Council (IIC) chairpersonship? This duplicity is symptomatic of the deeper malaise that afflicts the entire political polity in the country where support to the incumbent corrupt government, in spite of a deep consciousness to the contrary, is being extended out of fear of creating a vacuum that may pave the way for an undemocratic intervention. This is neither reflective of the systems maturity to sustain the pressures that it may face, nor of its commitment in tackling the absence of delivery at the grassroots level.
A recent example of the futility of reason has been provided by the lack of content and substance in the response to the letter that the head of PML(N) had sent to the PPP chairperson. While it is excessively rich on polemics, semantics and avowed good intentions, there is little by way of concrete proposals that the PPP-led government would be willing to adopt to address issues including the widespread instances of corruption, establishment of the rule of law, respect of the judiciary and its adjudications, a transparent and effective mechanism for accountability, genuine empowerment of the parliament, abdication of governance and amelioration of the sufferings of the poor. This is another woeful instance of the continued hedging of critical issues by the PPP leadership that are adversely impacting the legitimacy and viability of the political system itself. The response is yet another trick camouflaged as an invitation to sit together to chalk out a strategy to address the highlighted issues a trick that has been repeatedly employed by the incumbent aberration in the past to win more time to continue with its shenanigans.
This makes for a classic predicament. While the government has failed to honour its pledges to the people and its commitments to its allies and (avowed!) adversaries, and remains intransigent in the face of increasing demands for a change of course, it continues to elicit support from the opposition by default lest there be an assault on the system from familiar outside quarters. Lets look at it from another angle: what is the threshold that, if crossed, would put enough fear of God in other political parties that the time had come for initiating remedial steps? Judging by the manner multifarious insults to basic human intelligence have been tolerated so far, it appears that the political forces sitting on the opposition benches have resigned to letting the government survive through its democratic tenure of five years. In the meantime, there would be much noise, but no substantial initiative to bring about a change. Tangible queries with regard to the legitimacy of the nascent system and its relevance to meeting contemporary challenges would be consigned to the dust bin without realising that it may cause its proverbial downfall.
What is also conveniently overlooked is that using the constitutional provisions to bring about a rightful change would pose no danger to the so-called system. On the other hand, what may hasten its collapse is allowing it to degenerate in the putrid soup of its corruption, inefficiency and insensitivity to the needs of the people. As opposed to a dictatorial dispensation, due importance is also not accorded to the expectations that are linked with a democratic system on account of it supposedly being a barometer of the aspirations of the people and a means to their fulfilment. The pace at which the problems of the underprivileged have multiplied in the last couple of years provides enough fodder for it to go up in smoke. What has helped it survive the flames of extinction is a combination of the ill-advised support extended by political forces under one guise or the other and the inordinate burden of sufferings that a bulk of the people are buried under leaving little time for them to contemplate means for bringing about a meaningful change in their circumstances.
That should provide no reason for jubilation to the political conglomerate. Piling frustration among a vast cross-section of the people would untangle the palpable failings of the system and its inability to find a solution to their problems. That would propel the need to go for more enabling options. Dismantling the corrupt edifice and its debilitating manifestations would elicit the opening salvo.
The writer is a media consultant to the Chief Minister, Punjab.
