The establishment’s split personality

This is apropos of your editorial “Caught in the Crossfire: Courtesy our establishment’s split personality”. There is no denying the fact that the aforementioned split personality has made us suffer tremendously, not only on the national front of progress and development but also on the international front with regards to cooperation with other countries.
While we point out the ills plaguing the establishment, we still need to draw a wider picture of our national character. We need to analyse that whether the identity our country has acquired today among the comity of the nations is only the making of the establishment or are its traditional allies spread throughout our institutions (whether state or non-state) even more responsible for constructing this paradigm.
The control that the establishment has over public opinion is what gives it the strength that overpowers the collective will of the people and their elected institutions. In the recent NATO supply issue, wasn’t it the dominant public opinion that helped the establishment to prolong the blockage of supplies? Whenever, we contemplate freeing the destiny of Pakistan from the clutches of the establishment having a split personality, we must take into consideration the social psychology of its arbitrators among our people and institutions. These people empower the establishment by buttressing favourable public opinion for it that enables it to play all the wrong shots at critical times. We must try to bridge the destructive disharmony between the dominant public opinion and expressed will of the majority. This means people working in the media and socio-political institutions must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
SOHAIL RAMZAN RANA
Lahore