“To counter the rising tide of religious extremism, inequality and de-humanisation the beleaguered left has a great role to play in countries like Pakistan,” Senator Farhatullah Babar stated at the launch of book on the life of famous Sindhi leftist activist and intellectual Jam Saqi in SDPI, Islamabad, on Monday.
The book ‘Chale Chalo ke wo Manzil Abhi Nahi Aai’ (Move on; The destination is still far away) is co-authored by leftist writers and intellectuals Ahmad Salim and Nuzhat Abbas.
Babar said that there is no doubt that the collapse of communist Soviet Union, the veering of China towards market economy and the rise of religious extremism has dealt a huge blow to the leftist ideology. He stated that the weaknesses of political parties, whether religious or mainstream, and the establishment’s clinging to status quo, only Leftist parties are a ray of hope to set the nation’s moral compass on the right direction.
The moral compass set by the extremist right and the establishment since 80’s has de-humanised the state and society, he said adding the left needs to re-group itself to reverse the process.
He also called upon the leftist intellectuals to revisit their standard chanting of condemning everything; American imperialism, establishment, drones and religious fanaticism. He said that denouncing ‘everyone and everything’ may be emotionally appealing only to the dispossessed and disappointed populace.
However, we have not been able to focus on the real threat to the state and society from extremism, by chanting these slogans, he said. This manufactures human bombs who blow up everything, from schools to markets and from churches to imam bargahs, he said.
He expressed that the ideals that matter are the ideals of peace in the region, ending the privatisation of the jihad project, rooting out religious extremism, humanism, advancing fundamental human rights, women and non-Muslim minority rights, and economic justice to the people.
