The curse of the VIP culture
Are they but the children of a lesser God? This question instantaneously pops in one’s mind with respect to what has come to define the status of the common man in Pakistan through the blatant occurrences and recurrences of the VIP culture that stains the very socio-political dynamics of the nation. The most recent and palpable manifestation of this reality is the unfortunate demise of the ten month old baby girl Bisma, who failed to receive prompt medical treatment as her parents were barred from entering the emergency of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, for over an hour, where the Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was present to inaugurate a trauma centre. As if the situation was not morose enough to allude to the apathy of the leaders towards their subjects, what served as salt sprinkled on fresh wounds were the infamous remarks rendered by the senior minister of Sindh Nisar Khuhro who claimed that though he was aggrieved over the sad demise but the “most precious life is of Bilawal’s”.
This very statement aptly translates the elevated status of the leadership in Pakistan, the fact that how some lives come to be dearer than that of the “others”, and how it is not deemed contrite that the common masses suffer, in order to ensure the security of the lives of the not so common individuals. The images of the deceased baby and the manner her father was helplessly moving about to voice his concerns brought to my mind the heart wrenching image of the young Syrian refugee boy, Aylan Kurdi, clad in a red shirt and blue shorts, lying on the shores of one of the beaches of Turkey. Both Aylan and Bisma were the unfortunate victims of apathy. Apathy that consumes the cognition of leadership impelling them to disown their subjects.
In Aylan’s case, the disownment is manifested by the Syrian refugee crisis, emanating primarily from the chaotic civil war that rages on in Syria. In Pakistan’s case the sundering of the common masses is best revealed through the plethora of grave incidents relating to “VIP culture”, which is in fact a deeper malaise that has come to define the state. In 2006, a student of University of Karachi died of an appendix rupture after being stranded in a traffic jam for hours due to the presence of General Pervez Musharraf in the city. Though the event occurred in 2010 yet it seems only yesterday that we heard of a woman giving birth to a baby girl in an auto rickshaw since the police sealed all roads to allow President Zardari’s motorcade to pass through on his visit to Quetta. It was not long ago that a youth was shot dead by the guards of Abdul Qadir Gillani as he dared overtake their motorcade. One wonders what is it that makes the lives of VIP’s dearer than the common masses? What accounts for this preferential treatment?
An instant counter argument posed is that since Pakistan is enveloped in an existential security conundrum, it becomes imperative on the leaders to procure extensive security arrangements. This logic stresses on the redundant notion that it is not the individuals who are important but as the posts they hold are quite cardinal, hence they need to procure such security arrangements. Even if one adheres to this hollow logic for a moment, the pressing question arises that should the security of the leadership come at the cost of the lives of the innocent civilians? Are their lives so cheap? Or are they so disposable that their absence does not matter? Do not these common individuals hold posts that make them VIPs within their personal spheres of influence? Was not Bisma, and the likes of her, VIPs in their families? Would not their unfortunate, unnatural demise topple the world of their family? These are questions that are casually brushed off by the leadership, since nothing can compensate for the loss brought about by the curse of the VIP culture.
Psychologists say the VIP culture is a form of psychological abuse. Eminent psychological researches have proven that the VIP culture quite prevalent in asymmetric societies, societies where the gap between the plebeians and the ruling elite is beyond tolerable limits, compels the subjects to be consumed with a sense of worthlessness brought about by a sense of alienation. Upon maturation, this sense of worthlessness impels many individuals to resort to unlawful practices to climb the social ladder. This partly accounts for the ever increasing crime rate in asymmetric societies and the story of Pakistan is no different.
According to news reports, today 34,000 security personnel, which accounts for around 60 percent of the police force have been deployed for the security of bureaucrats, politicians and top brass police officials. In parading around with their rather extravagant and extensive motorcades, they have stripped the common masses of their right to safety which was something to be ensured by efficient police personnel adept at dealing with grinding situations. This fact manifests the hollow promises rendered by the leadership for the provision of security to their subjects.
The VIP culture is a major impediment for Pakistan in its yearning to evolve an effective and efficient democratic apparatus similar to the Western countries. An exegesis of the Western politics reveals that though it took hundreds of years for them to evolve democracy in true letter and spirit, this is something they would not have managed to attain had they solidified the social classes and denied pertinence to the concerns of the common masses. Contrary to what is quite commonplace in Pakistan, the rigid distinction between the haves and the have-nots is unobserved in the West.
Something which is a norm in the West and would qualify as a breaking news in Pakistan is the prospect of a leader moving in the company of common masses to directly exchange graces with them or on the other hand doing chores by himself. How many of us know that just a day before he took the oath of the office of the President of the US, Barack Obama was painting the walls of a centre reserved for homeless individuals. Of course not many of us know this since this was not something that was thought pertinent enough to be flashed on television screens as a breaking news. Did President Obama deem it as his insult to paint the walls by himself, an act that perhaps no Pakistani leader would even dream of engaging in since it would mean stooping well below his escalated pedestal?
It is indeed sad to see how the leadership has confused democracy and modernism with egotism. I have long maintained that for democracy to thrive in Pakistan the narcissistic mindset of the leadership needs to be done away with. They need to realise that having been born in a lower strata of society does not make anyone less human or worthless. All attempts at evolving democracy, or evolving as nation for that matter, would be futile unless we follow the true dictums of equality, equity and justice that blur boundaries between the have and the have-nots, something not only followed by Western democracies but also endorsed by our national heroes, like Jinnah, Iqbal or Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.