Candid Corner
- The country needs to turn a new leaf
“Who will be sheriff in a town littered with meat
where the watchman is a vulture?
Mouse in the boat, cat at the oars,
frog sleeping, snake on guard.
Bull giving birth, cow sterile,
calf milked morning, noon and night.
Lion forever leaping to fight the jackal,
Kabir says, rare listeners hear the song right.”
– The Bijak of Kabir
Strange things have been happening in the country. Much of it does not make sense while the little that does is laced profusely with venom and spite. It is like we have come to the brink of the Armageddon itself, progressing rapidly towards the annihilation of some if not all, for such is the hysteria that is being raised, such are the demonic enactments being publicised, and such the apocalyptic judgements being read out. Where do we think we are going? What is it that is really at the core of this maleficent frenzy which is being generated with increasing intensity and malice? Let’s take a walk through some pages of history.
Barring the first 10 years after its inception, Pakistan has been ruled by either military dictators or a political elite manufactured to order. The first to don the servile cap was none other than Z A Bhutto who was a member of the cabinets of both Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan. His vile infatuation with securing and prolonging his stint in the corridors of power is demonstrated by the contents of a letter he once wrote to his first master: “Sir, history will record that you were a great man, greater even than Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah”.
After almost a decade of service rendered in the cause of the military dictators, his political ambitions got the better of his judgement. He alleged that the country had been sold out at Tashkent by Ayub Khan and he would divulge the treachery of the Field Marshal. When he became the all-powerful ruler, more as an outcome of his Machiavellian tricks than by any democratic norm, the alleged motivations behind the Tashkent deal never found a mention in his harangues. It was thus established early on that he had deceived the people solely to advance his selfish motives which, in later years, became a trademark strategy of the political elite.
This is the time to rise in defiance of the calumnies perpetrated on this country, to rise in rejection of the falsehoods hoisted on the people, and to rise to help the breeze of change blow across the vast expanse and alter the fate of those who forever survive on the fringes of life
Even more appalling was the fact that his rise to power in 1971 was not the result of any electoral legitimacy. His party had secured eighty-some seats in the national assembly while Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League had more than 150, thus stamping his inalienable right to become the prime minister of a united Pakistan. This was not acceptable to Bhutto who was consumed with the insatiable craving of ruling the country. For that to happen, East Pakistan had to go. In collusion with his master of the time, he threatened to “break the legs” of those who dared travel to Dhaka to take part in the national assembly session which had been called by dictator Yahya Khan. His evil contraption “udhar tum, idhar hum” was pronounced publicly, thus effectively sealing the fate of the country.
In later years, this chequered legacy was further aggravated as first Benazir and then, fatally, Asif Zardari, introduced, intensified and expanded the scourge of loot and plunder.
The next in line of this trail of political charlatans was Nawaz Sharif who was born and bred in the laps of Generals Jilani and Ziaul Haq. He is the one who introduced money as an instrument to criminalise national politics. He bought everyone, thus facilitating his way to the highest echelons of power in the country, not once, not twice, but many times over. This was not the result of embracing any democratic norms and values, but of manipulating the power of the illicit billions that he made during his various sojourns in power. For him, everything had a price. From becoming the finance minister of Punjab to the chief minister of the province and then the prime minister, there was nothing that his money did not buy him.
Throughout the tenures of these two oligarchies, no investment in improving the lot of human stock was ever made. Education, health facilities, job opportunities, grassroots empowerment, granting rights to the poor and the marginalised, according equal status to minorities– none of this ever became part of their political agendas. They indulged in creating crass optics for duping a socially- and economically-captive people.
Pakistan kept regressing while the personal stocks of these two oligarchies were rising. Their millions turned into billions. From the fathers and mothers to the children, brothers, nephews and nieces, cousins, in-laws– everyone who was connected with the oligarchs was rewarded with avenues to raise their very own illicit fortunes. It was like the country was mortgaged to these gangs of criminals to pillage as would please their whims and fancies.
They alone were not responsible for this reprehensible mess. They made partners in every sector of the administration who, instead of holding supreme the interests of the state, reduced themselves to becoming bootleggers in exchange for promoting personal interests.
Using various instruments of power, these oligarchs were able to cultivate a fearful political cult. Their vicious hold complete, the state was rendered a powerless captive in their grip to be tossed around as their fancy would deem. Unmistakable symptoms of decay had set in, which gravely shaped the way people thought of survival – by intertwining their personal interests with those of their leaders.
Over decades, people became so used to politics being the occupation of the corrupt that when Imran Khan walked the stage, it took him over 20 years to even make them think that there could be a leader different from the ones they had been used to seeing. He virtually remained a one-seat party for all these years and was deprecated by the pundits whose written and spoken words, sadly, were sold out in exchange for pieces of silver.
When a society loses its ability to sift right from wrong, when its intellectual elite assume the role of pretenders and parasites, when its teachers nurture ambitions of financial gains, when its political elite specialise in the art of sponging on the state, when its fourth pillar comprises a coterie of crime- and corruption-apologists, and when its people are denuded of hope, remember it is a degenerating society. In course of time, such a society loses its raison d’être as a sustainable polity, thus paving the way to its disintegration.
If ever there was a time to speak up, if ever there was a time for a unified surge for embracing the principles of conviction and commitment, if ever there was a time for showing distaste for the battalions of illicit money-racketeers putting price tags on people’s conscience, if ever there was a time to demonstrate that change can be and will be, that there are people who actually come to serve – that time is now.
This is the time to rise in defiance of the calumnies perpetrated on this country, to rise in rejection of the falsehoods hoisted on the people, and to rise to help the breeze of change blow across the vast expanse and alter the fate of those who forever survive on the fringes of life.
It is then that the tide shall turn!
