Because you are not Sadiq and Amin.
It all began a little before the last elections when PTI used social media to propagate its agenda of change (whatever it meant) and to centralise its followers
Do we have a problem with former PM because he abused the power we entitled him with, or do we have a problem because he was in a more advantageous position than us, and did better than all of us (except the clean sweep of Mr 10 percent)?
Name: Sadiq Amin
Gender: Male
Father’s Name: Sabir Muhammad
Identification Mark: Mole on the face
Date of Birth: 12/11/1973
The image of the CNIC of a man named “Sadiq Amin”, i.e., truthful and trustworthy, got viral soon after the dethronement of Nawaz Sharif.
Later, a video (made-from-images) of a fly drowning in a cup of teagot viral. Apparently, it sounded very scientific, and exactly at the verge of some extraordinary scientific discovery, the speaker discloses that the fly protests at its being picked out of the tea by saying “kyon nikala”.
The image and the video, though in different formats, share the same world, Pakistani social media, reflecting not only the current issues but also the general mentality. These two as well as many other videos and images that go viral take politics as their subject; lately, by the virtue of social media, political activities have turned into social movements.
It all began a little before the last elections when PTI used social media to propagate its agenda of change (whatever it meant) and to centralise its followers. The political campaign was a success in cyber space; however, in reality the results turned out to be far below expectations. The disillusionment that hit Imran Khan then has taken over Nawaz Sharif now. For a politician, it is so difficult to believe that he has made a mistake, whether in calculating the success of elections or in accessing the outcome of JIT, and he falls in a condition of complete denial, questioning his followers on the impossibility and improbability of an event’s occurrence – why did this happen. Of course, the followers have nothing to say in return except continuing the blind following which continued in case of Khan then and continues in case of Sharif now. The good thing is that Pakistani politics are becoming unpredictable with time. Even the status quo is no-more sure of itself.
What Imran Khan has given to politics is an unprecedented political hope, emanating from e-propaganda, by reinvigorating political processions, rallies and dharnas which have already created the illusion of change – premature change. The social media, most of the times, serves as a battle ground where not only Sharifs and PML-N, PPP and others are abused, bullied and ridiculed but their followers are also challenged, satirised by the so-called educated followers of PTI. It is a PTI versus everyone combat. (After watching a lot of porn, this is what we like to do to improve our lives – e-politics!)Surprisingly, after cricket, it is the only thing about which the nation has shown some seriousness, ignoring the level and extent of its ability to stay serious. However, it comes without surprise that the nation has found a(false) hope in a cricketer-cum-politician.
A lot goes on the social media where “why have you disqualified me?” is the new catchphrase, winning hearts, getting shares, gathering likes – a dimension in which the third world would scarcely dare to probe in. Well, setting aside my political affiliations and biases, Nawaz Sharif has every right to raise question at the merit of his disqualification, particularly when the virtues that we imbibe in our children are everything but sadiq and amin. The two terms are exclusively attached with (and reserved for) the holy self of the Prophet Muhammad. They are irrelevant in case of laymen, especially when they belong to the third world where the focus is on being big not being great.
In a country where every year those who are accused of blasphemy get killed by mad mobs of wise men while nobody questions the witness or even look for one, disqualifying a politician who is to his core corrupt just like any other politician (or like any of us) is nothing less than injustice. Those who presume that Imran Khan would bring change are living in a fool’s paradise as the chances of his success are as scarce as hen’s teeth; he plays cricket not politics. And, with “fortune’s” permission, if he succeeds in becoming the prime minister, he has little idea of what to do next as all his efforts are devoted to be the next PM – a matter of ego not public service.
Every day we meet people (and people meet us) who take pride in, first, doing something wrong, and then taking pride in what they did while openly showing-off the extent to which they could fall. Lately, a friend was boasting of how he managed to fool his elder brother into sending him abroad for further studies while it is an established fact that he has no interest or aptitude for higher-education; besides, the brother has a treasure-trove that could never be emptied as long as he continue serving as a bureaucrat. What happens in education department, universities and schools and in class-rooms is corruption, and whatever transactions take place in the name of property selling and buying is another kind of corruption.
From the fresh milk we buy to the medicine we get, from the teachers we brew to the doctors we produce, everything is soiled. When we do not disqualify the milkman (for adding milk to water) or the watchman (for sleeping on duty), when we do not question our teacher (as long as s/he is giving us marks, pretending to educate us while all we are getting is a certificate that says nothing about our qualification) or our doctor (as long as he is charging us heavily, pretending to cure us while infusing in us more diseases), when we do not held our own self accountable for the misdeeds that we shamelessly do from dawn to dusk (from being dishonest at the working place and deceitful with our friends and untruthful with our families), how can we question the one who stands as our political representative? How can we disqualify him for doing what we all do, and doing it with the same pride?
Do we have a problem with former PM because he abused the power we entitled him with, or do we have a problem because he was in a more advantageous position than us, and did better than all of us (except the clean sweep of Mr 10 percent)? Of course, the change that we see, replacing a 67 years old Nawaz Sharif with a 64 years old Imran Khan, is no change since none represent the young generation. It would be the same country with not-so-new aged faces with better techniques of plundering the national reserves. As long as we, all of us, do not change ourselves, we have no right to demand better politicians, and certainly we have no right to hold them responsible when there is no ritual to hold a teacher, a doctor, a milkman, a watchman or a mad mobaccountable.
We all know the way in which during monarchy one son, among his siblings, inherited his father’s realm – by killing all his brothers even if they were from the same mother. There was no way of disqualifying the contesting princes and of sparing their lives. However, the ancient French monarchs had a better way of disqualifying their opponents: cut the hair of the prince. Hair were considered so holy that cutting even a lock could disinherit a prince, so the ambitious one would capture his brothers or nephews (whoever was in his way) and ask what should be cut – their throat or their hair. Such disqualification is of such great importance as the dishonoured princes were seldom taken up by their families; most of the times they were allowed to live but without any honour. It is the first time that someone has been disqualified on these grounds – sadiq and amin. It is time to find a way that is more agreeable and more justified and more indigenous.
