Highhanded claims and promises to stir up emotions to take the people to a point where the only way forward is backwards. This has been exercised by the political and military rulers alike in order to retain office without considering how their inability to deliver leads to heightened sense of frustration, paranoia and angst that interferes with the individuals competency and attitudinal aspects, thus injuring the societal fabric altogether. A dangerously similar trend has been seen in our electronic media where pseudo-analysts and experts are found arguing, in most cases, with a loud voiced anchor acting as a catalyst in the process to speed up and spice up the show.
Take the case of the past few months where expectations in the ‘memogate’ scandal had soared to a point where a collapse in the current political setup was the least that was being predicted. The clash between the state institutions, the judiciary and the armed forces was to result into a drastically chaotic end where the army chief and ISI chief would certainly be shown the way home.
The relative calm that has descended upon the political horizon, however, instead of being accepted with a sigh of relief, is again being interpreted as a superior move made by Zardari who is believed to be “more adept than any of his peers at the political compromise”, thus giving rise to yet another romantic debate. What we require is not romanticism but some element of realism through which we analyse our own situation. To believe that petty firecrackers do not possess the ability to set ablaze our precious sovereignty, that differences between institutions do not always mean the initiation of a civil war. We need to stop this emotional melodrama and embrace a more realistic stance for our own collective betterment.
LUBNA UMAR
Islamabad
