When the tsunami became a trickle

By
Sara Kazmi
-
28
181

The limits of the PTI’s political imagination

Despite the unstable security situation, the elections took place as scheduled amidst what seemed to be a rising tide of Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf (PTI)’s political power. However, when the results started pouring in, the bourgeois PTI supporters and smug analysts alike were in for a nasty shock: the tsunami they had expected with iron-clad certainty did not turn out to be more than a modest trickle in Punjab.

Investigations into the PTI’s inability to sweep the Punjabi constituencies despite the formidable funding backing its campaign are a topic for a different article. In this piece I seek to rationalize the reaction this blow has elicited amongst indignant PTI supporters on social media websites.

While concerns about rigging, particularly in Karachi, are legitimate issues to take up with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), some of the views being perpetrated by the PTI voters raise important questions about the groups political imagination, or rather the constraints to it..

Most of these parochial expressions of political fealty to the PTI can be accessed on social media websites; most predictably so, since Imran Khan’s middle class support base are among the lucky few in this nation who have the money and leisure to own computers and use the internet.

A majority of the Naya Pakistan residents are aghast and infuriated that they have been deprived of their promised land. Why? The analysis cuts deep with its perspicacity: because the “jahil” masses are far too inane and uneducated to appreciate the all too abstracted notion of “change.”

Emphatic exclamations of the nation’s impending doom by tabdeeli razakaars include an outpouring of Punjabi hatred, the ethnic group that votes “only for itself and not for the country.” Historical arguments have also been marshaled to castigate the illiterate rural voter: “history repeated itself as the Punjabis didn’t side with Jinnah in 1937 either, and now they have done the same to his contemporary counterpart.”

Following conversations between the pro-PTI youth on Facebook and Twitter has been a morbid exercise. Why on earth, proclaims one Tweet, would people choose someone who does not even possess a Bachelors degree over an Oxford graduate? The problem is that they are uneducated and backward and “cannot even imagine ideas of challenging the status quo”, explain the sagely sympathisers. Perhaps a minimum BA qualification should be imposed for all voters, they concur. Great idea. Best save it for Naya Pakistan.

I am fully cognizant of exceptions lying outside the generalisation, but I am basing this on the overarching tone of pro-PTI social media activity which evidences the PTI’s lack of cross-class mobilization, perhaps the most obvious reason for its inability to overpower the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the polls. The rage of its most vocal supporters is indicative of how the PML-N voting majority is a mythicized invisible, absent from their everyday social experience.

Despite making a commendable dent in Pakistan’s age-old dynastic political structure, the PTI has yet to emerge as a true grassroots party. Its campaign for these elections privileged the educated middle class over the rural and working class voter. As Muhammad Hanif points out, there was one problem: there just weren’t enough educated middle class kids from posh locales.

I believe the PTI has impressed and inspired many, including myself, with its electoral performance. At this point, a sobering self-analysis would serve the party’s young supporters well: if they wish to herald a New Pakistan then the task at hand is strengthening the party where it is at its weakest, i.e. in its appeal for the lower classes.

Needless to say, convincing the worker and the peasant to join the tabdeeli bandwagon is going to be no mean feat. If the young educated PTI zealots who swarm Ghazi Chowk over dubious claims of rigging as we speak want to overcome the obstacle the ‘jaahil’ presents, they must gear up for a long and arduous struggle of sustained involvement with the grueling day-to-day politics of the poor man, for whom every day sees a fight for basic survival. Unfortunately, I have yet to come across any PTI devotee who has even hinted at the long haul they should be in for, which sheds light on another problem with the PTI’s mobilization of the urban middle class youth: the tendency to see elections as the be all and end all of politics.

The fixation with liberal democracy as the ultimate embodiment of political action stems from the ideological control the state exercises over its subjects. States subsume all politics into their domain, obscuring real struggles of people in the process. The depoliticizing action of the state works by an equalizing illusion: an artificial leveling occurs whereby each individual’s ‘vote’ carries the same power, creating a superficial sense of parity between its various subjects. Following Marx, “between equal rights, force decides”: the false equality fostered by liberal democracy only abstracts actual sites of conflict, relegating all movements to calls for “good governance”, technical management and anti-corruption drives. The PTI’s middle class supporters buy into this travesty of democracy for obvious reasons: historically, the educated urbanites of Pakistan have praised apolitical bureaucratic management, privileging the state over the government. Unlike those at the fringes, this segment of society has always found representation of their interests and patronage within the Pakistani state, which guarantees their allegiance to the institution.

Thus, PTI’s well-off educated followers are wholeheartedly devoted to the singularity of liberal democracy as political expression and barred from imagining alternative modes of struggle. This explains the apocalyptic tone with which many of them lament the PTI’s electoral fate. Complete social transformation is no walk in the park, as Bulleh Shah puts its ‘Katthan faqeeri rastaa aashiq’, the faqeer who yearns to change the world around him must be prepared for hard labour, for the aashiq’s path is thorny, the terrain unyielding.

Unfortunately, the PTI youth’s statist political imagination gullibly assumes the removal of risk: identical to products on offer which come without their side-effects like decaffeinated coffee and fat-free ice cream, Pakistan’s middle class seem to yearn for and believe in a depoliticized politics. A politics without politics, struggle without struggle.

The writer is a member of staff.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. Your article may be offensive to those hard working people, and students who have come out on the streets for this cause in the month of their exams, are standing for days at these Dharnas and constantly putting status updates on facebook for a cause they truly believe in! I call THAT stuggle… It proves that these people are not riding on the "change" tide are free loaders! They are serious and concerned about the future of their country, their children's country!
    I didn't attend any of these protests, my family did however, though everyone in our household voted for PTI …except my driver…. when I was having a usual casual chit chat with him about the Syberian Tiger which died during the pml n rally his response was "Sher PaLtY waaste Kurbaani Ditti hai!"
    So I believe the real struggle which we face is to educate these people around us, interact with them without judging them on their choices, and who knows in due time they may change their mind? Our lives would be disrupted without them but theirs wouldn't be so much because of us. A step mother can never become a real mother till she becomes THE REAL mother!

    • The same way everything that PTI deewaanas utter from their mouth or on their facebook statuses is offensive to each member of the working classes of Pakistan. You of course are no different. You're ridiculing your driver for voting PML-N.
      Saviour complex, anyone?

      • Comrade, devoutly believing that a White Tiger (which btw is an unethical animal to be pranced around, since its endangered) died for political hailing of PML-N, is not really the most rational political sentiment to vote for them.

        Just saying. Just the same way Mao's spirited grandson may not be upholding communism in China. Just saying, comrade. Just saying.

        • Believer sahib, surely that would not be the "only reason" the chap's driver voted for PML-N. Not suggesting that the PML-N is a working class party by any stretch of the imagination.:P

  2. There was nothing NEW or unique to be found in the whole drama. Even the so called EDUCATED class was no different on the road. WHO CARES ABOUT THE CITIZEN'S RIGHTS ANYWAY.

  3. Well written and convincing in parts. But it feels like you're stereotyping PTI Youth. Social Media Trolls or war-mongers are but a percentage of those who voted for Imran Khan in this election. Many PTI supporters have no access to social media and cant defend themselves on these forums.

    On another note, urban youth have poor role models for what democratic processes ought to look like. They see anchorpersons and politicians on news channels, and learn an important lesson: The louder you scream, the less you let another person talk, the more you will win.

    Easy to deride the 'youth.' Lets not forget that they are our own kids and we have the responsibility to bring curricular change in schools and colleges to teach a more 'democratic' temperament. I take some offense to the way we're talking about these kids.

  5. A bias waste of words esp. when the author could have leave her comfort-zone to either go out or even research the 5-point agenda of the protest concerning NA125. I'm sorry to say the write-up above is a based on prejudice and not a R&D oriented critique to me.

  6. A perfect example of writing about something that one has little comprehension of…or the bias is so overpowering that it results in prism which allows no reality to break through….. Just having an ability to string few sentences together can result in a rant and not much else as far as this piece is concerned…….

  7. There is a difference between the youths of posh/middle to upper class who seems very active in PTI & that of lower-middle class. While the upper class is busy in their education & messaging on social medias the youth in lower & lower middle class is "working" and getting education. In this class more important is to find the ways to survive & have the basic necessities of life. They don't have learn from any anchorperson or politician to decide what to do, they have the life & its struggle as their teachers.

    I do not blame these kids as they are doing what they thought is best & right, but I wish for a mature behavior from the party leadership. Alas they are also acting like teenagers. If PTI cannot control & guide a few hundred of its youth, how can they expect to guide the whole nation.

  8. I am absolutely appaled by this sort of analyses as this is an age old adage which I have been hearing for a long long time that whenever something evil is done by the feudal lords in Pakistan some of their flagbearers similar to the author would stand up and convince the masses to 'MITTI PAAO' policy. Everytime they will try to convince us to forget whatever wrong has been done and get back to work. I think this same policy has given the feudals the courage to snatch people's rights in broad day light without any fear of repurcussions. Does the author really believe IK got only 49 votes in Lahore.

  9. wow ..amazingly endless debate …no side wants to lose and what a pathetic take on this subject creating more divide and hatred for eachother …one who are struggling for themselves ..one who enjoying luxuries …one more educated one less educated ..none feeling for the other …wow what a sorry world we are living in ..thank you author for the spirit u haf given to people reading it…so moral of the story no one should stand against injustice …all should keep quiet let things happen the way they are …don’t forget the divides …posh kids aa the author put it haf no right to play any kind of role in society …its weird that I belonged to lower middle class and I never thought of it this way …there was hope that finally people are standing up for themselves …thanx for giving it a bad picture and taking it away.

  10. worker class party with leaders driving nothing less thn a parado …I think even u spend more time on internet

  11. This analysis seems to be short sighted and biased. I can't understand why the freedom for peaceful protest to gain your right is being protested, so much ? Miss Kazmi, its the people like you who are spreading the hatred among classes just for the interest of defaming one political party to show the superiority of other. Your writing seems to be immature and lack depth in analysis. People who are not educated or belong to poor class have shown their support for PTI.

  12. Miss Sara Kazmi,
    You personify all that is wrong with journalists today. Half-baked stories, and political inclinations are not a good mix. I hope you think and work harder on your next work. Maybe a little less hate, and a little more investigating. Less bias, and more objectivity.

    The person responsible for one of the protests arranged there, gives an extremely good reply !

    The agenda put forward was extremely clear:-

    – NS is the prime minister, this protest does not challenge that decision
    – PML-N would have acheived majority seats even without rigging
    – There has been a culture of bullying and rigging on the day of election for decades – specially rigging when the offending party already knows it will win (ZAB in 1977 didn't need to rig so blatantly to win – yet he did)
    – From our past political experiences, we have learned that the argument 'even if there were no rigging, the offending party would have won' has destroyed us. The post election protests in 77, the violent opposition party protests, the economic disaster and the dictatorship that followed is testimony to that.
    – This protest was focused completely on the principle that no politician should be allowed to cross a line where he/she bullies a community. The violation of regulations on such a crude/blatant/obvious level should be punished.

    If only Miss Sara Kazmi had the insight to write a more nuanced article, it wouldn't have fallen victim to the same binary thinking that has plagued this discourse for decades.

    I invite her to look into the 5 point agendas discussed before the protest, shared on the page (since social media youth is what she is takling about and this is the largest protest page regarding NA-125) she would find her research to be "LAZY" and in complete contradiction with ground realities.

    My suggestion to the author? A few years of sociology courses or a dozen books on class structures is not enough for you to take up this job. Your analysis applies to a few PTI workers, yes – but it does not apply to the very focused objective of these protests (specially the first one called by this page in the park – which was the biggest one of them all).

  13. bibi itni mushkil english…..asan hoti tu main poora parh leta…..so i judge it as a poorly written article

  15. This article represents all that is wrong with PTI; upper-class, generation Y, latte-drinking socialites… This group dominates its support base 4 to 1. People in the real Pakistan, in the hinterlands of southern and central Punjab are offended and feel rebuked by such urban razzmatazz. That is the reason why its outreach will remain restricted to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad (Peshawar being the only exception owing to IK's position on Taliban). Bottomline: 25-30 seats, give-or-take, and political wilderness in exactly 3-6 months!!!

  16. There was nothing NEW or unique to be found in the whole drama. Even the so called EDUCATED class was no different on the road. WHO CARES ABOUT THE CITIZEN'S RIGHTS ANYWAY.

  17. we had bitter experience of ppp in 1965,when zab also raised the sllogan of roti,kapra aur makan maang raha hai her insan and we had seen only olitical slogan and nothing what rubbish idea of new pakistan foolish people will follow rubbish slogans.

  18. she hasn't been to a single dharna and seen the demography of the crowds there.. i am pretty sure of that

  19. Educated Does not mean Civilised,All PTI Supporters may be Educated but not civilised. Language they are using on social media.

  22. it seems every one lost his/her mind. why no one recall the Taliban support to IK? besides its also become clear that ex ambassador of USA to Pakistan Mr. Minter was his supporter … this symmetrical result of election were fixed already. this is not election but a trap in the reference of USA army withdrawal in 2014.

  23. Quite an obvious set of reasons and we all are well attuned with the urban – rural disparity that cost us the elections.. But instead of giving a general (no brainer) analysis of what went wrong- lets hear your take on why it went wrong? My mom's hospital gets flooded with acid-on-the-face cases, rape cases, abuse cases and what not.. and these cases pour in from rural areas where anything anyone can do and the brunt of it always falls on the shoulders of innocent women!! The whole twisted jirga system and the feudal land lords willingly promote these sick customs and have never initiated a movement to condemn these or to reconstruct the system..
    Furthermore, i am a middle class citizen- my preferred means of transport is my bicycle and rickshaws (i would never ride the metro due to painful associations)- and i cycle mostly in bastis and the outskirts and the kacha abadis- and before election whoever i've talked to in these areas gave me reasons as to why they'll be voting for Mr Khan.. Most rickshaw drivers i've ridden with, had many reasons to have chosen IK as the worthy candidate for their votes.. And no matter if you're rich or poor in this country- one thing will never grow old for sure- and that is egocentricity and isolationism.. we love to isolate 'our own' to strive for good for just that group or clan or family.. If we didn't think so selfishly as a people and if we didn't act so inconsiderate towards the whole- surely things would've been different.. But one thing is for sure, we would never learn in this life time as we love to repeat our own tragedies..

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