Steps Towards Democracy

A political person is appointed by the peoples and is responsible for hatching the development issues to the higher level of administration and improvises the innovative policies to improve the governance. This is one of the most respectable occupation and the elected person is considered prosperous national servant.  One of the most interesting enigmas is the process by which such 'servants' are selected. This process is referred to as the democratic where the community is given the option to mark on his favorite person's electoral symbol. The outcome of this exercise is a best servant that receives high number of votes.  The process consist of following three phases, phase-1: Pre-Poll, phase-2: During-Poll and phase-3: After-poll.

In this article the objective is to provide the hypothetical analysis about each phase under the prospective of a common Pakistani.

Phase-1: Pre-Poll

The pre-poll is the phase where the political entity reforms its social contacts by attending the funeral, marriage ceremonies; go for prayers and dinners parties etc.  The member explains his party manifesto and highlight the burning issues and vouch that his party is the final choice to pull out the nation from the current mayhem.  At this stage, the best exercise is to erode the corruption and incompetence of incumbent govern authorities by providing the references to the various cases and intend that their party manifesto is the only hope to prevent the Pakistan for additional disaster.  The member describes his fidelity and explains that how his party has suffered and faced different democratic peril and how opposition has curbed various ongoing projects. Similarly, the opposition has the same sentiments of how the government has blocked the national interest projects by bolstering the administrative discretion  The member cronies prepare various types of slogans that revel the ineffectiveness of opposite counterpart.  In short the members try to hide their incompetence by putting all garbage of corruptions and vitiated governance on the previous govern authorities and on the opposition.

Phase-2: During-Poll

The Phase 2 is short and interesting as the voter receives the higher level of importance and protocol from the member cronies. For instance, the use of vehicles, vans, cars, rickshaws and mini buses are common to take the voters in the polling stations.

Phase-3: After-Poll

The phase 3 is the actual epoch in the life of both voters and the winning member (servant). After the result announcement, the voters go the political offices to greet the winning member, enjoy a cup of tea there and come back home. The disarming journey of voter demise and servant ride starts as lot of issues upraised for him.

For instance the winning member feels that the party manifesto that brought him into this winning position is not in the wider interest of nation. He feels that, despite the corruptions (that he had proved during the election campaign) the other party is not bad as much. He deems that he can develop and serve his constituency better by joining the counterpart regime. Such ideological rejuvenation forces him to leave his incumbent association. So, do we need to obliterate such culprit system that is based on the personal goals? The answer is no, because the democratic system works like this. The ominous speculation is that the same members are going to rule the system for the next five years or more. Let it happen and allow our leader to check the temperament of the peoples.  Let the peoples bear the smashes of politician cronies on them. Let them observe how our political leaders fight each other and how they sit together. Let them witness various corruptions and one day these frustrated peoples will come out.  The day will be the 'day of judgment' and will be a staggering day for the political elite. The peoples will have their own court and the decisions will be made on immediate basis.

Election 2013: Political Parties Approach

Latest polls show that Nawaz League's nexus with Punjab-based anti-Shi'a terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has not hurt its popularity in Punjab during the last several months.

PML (N) Popularity:

In fact, it appears that PML(N) has successfully exploited Sunni majority's bigotry against the Shi'a in Pakistan, particularly in its home base in Punjab. Sharif brothers' PML (N) is now the most popular party in  Punjab with 59% approval and nationally with 41% approval rating  in Pakistan, according to the latest Gallup Pakistan poll. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is second nationally with 17% and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) third with 14% approval.

Exploiting Hate:

To put PML(N)'s popularity in perspective, let's look at the history of how politicians have exploited such feelings of hatred against minorities. Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany by riding a wave of resentment against European Jews. In India, Narendra Modi solidified his popularity in Gujarat by approving of Muslim massacre in 2002. Ten years later, Modi continues to be the most popular chief minister in India.  While India's ruling Congress party governs only 8 states,  BJP's anti-Muslim rhetoric continues to help it retain power in ten of India's 28 states. Most Israelis continue to vote for politicians who maintain brutal military occupation of Palestine.

Militancy in Pakistan:

In Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto caved in to pressure from right-wing religious parties and passed a law declaring Ahmedis non-Muslim. This self-serving act did not save Bhutto. Anti-Bhutto riots gave Gen Ziaul Haq the opportunity to remove Bhutto from power. After grabbing power, Zia collaborated with the religious right to take advantage of average Pakistani's religiosity to consolidate his own power. Zia exploited the strong anti-communist sentiments after the Soviet invasion of neighboring Afghanistan. He collaborated with the United States and Saudi Arabia to give birth to religious militancy in Pakistan, eventually leading to the creation  of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who, along with their allies and affiliates such as LeJ, continue to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and elsewhere. Nawaz Sharif, too, is a creation of the Zia era.

Civil Society's Role:

Most politicians in democracies are followers, not leaders. They respond to sentiments of their constituents, even hate-filled and violent sentiments. Most of Pakistan's politicians and political parties have their militant wings or alliances with various militant groups who carry out attacks against those who disagree. Such venal politicians are part of the problem, not part of the solution to rising violence in Pakistan. 

Given the venality of the politicians, the only possible solution to this problem is to build public opinion against violence in all its forms. Once the people decide to reject bigotry and violence, the politicians will follow.

Who has the power to shape public opinion in democracies? It's the civil society consisting of the mass media, non-governmental organizations, religious scholars and other powerful public advocacy groups.

Why Should Civil Society Care?

It's in civil society's best interest to create an enabling environment for peaceful coexistence for freedom, music, arts, literature, culture and economy to flourish. Such freedom is necessary to promote creativity and ensure prosperity of the society as a whole.

Why Should Mass Media Care?

The media are owned by corporations who should care because a safe and secure Pakistan is the best way to increase their profitability. These media magnates should have a clear editorial policy to discourage incitement to violence. They should tell their anchors to stop spinning conspiracy theories designed to distract the attention of people from Pakistan's real threats which are mostly internal. They should encourage the people to take personal responsibility for their actions.

Why Should Politicians Care?

The politicians should care because they have to govern after winning elections. Here, they can learn from Indian BJP leader Narendra Modi.  Modi is still a bigot but he knows that he can not afford to alienate the whole world, particularly businessmen and investors who need security and stability to invest in Gujarat. Modi has used his anti-Muslim rhetoric to get votes but he has not allowed mass killings of Muslims after 2002. The lack of violence and continuing stability have attracted massive investments which have made Gujarat's economy among the fastest growing in the world.

Summary:

It's in the best long-term self-interest of Pakistani politicians and civil society  to work to reduce militancy and promote peace and tolerance in the country. This will help bring stability and economic opportunity to Pakistan's current and future generations.

Of Gotham City, and Pakistan

I was watching the movie Batman Begins a few days ago, and one of the things in it that really perked my interest was the state-of-affairs of Gotham City. It was a city shown in shambles; a place where corruption had infiltrated the very infrastructure of the city. A city overrun by criminals, and no system of law and order. 'Create enough hunger, and the society can be easily bought'. Even the people unwilling to resort to criminal acts were forced to do so just to survive. And the good people, who yearn for justice in the society, their hands are tied because they are encircled by corrupt people everywhere and there is no one to support them.

Why did it perk my interest? Well, because of the fact that the state-of-affairs in Pakistan these days are really not that different from Gotham City. The same corruption, criminal activities being carried out in the open accompanied with an absence of justice, the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer and so on.

Of course, while drawing an analogy between reality and fiction, some things just do not add up. The most obvious one in this case would be: where is our Batman?

'Where' might not be a suitable question to ask at the moment. A more pressing question would be, what does the 'Batman' in this context even refer to? To answer this question, I would ask you to recall the Batman movies (the Christopher Nolan trilogy in particular). The people believe in Batman. They have stored all their hopes in this one masked man, that as long as he is around, Gotham is safe and they can safely hope for a better future. In short, Batman is a symbol of hope for the people of Gotham City.

Coming back to the Batman of Pakistan, I think the above paragraph answers our question. We do not need a masked man running around under the cover of darkness beating up criminals to a pulp, for that would not solve our problems; we need a symbol of hope.

And thus crops up another question: do we even have one?

From a certain perspective, a lot of people would answer that question with a positive response. Hope is a must; its necessary if we are to get through these tough times. Usually these are the ever-optimistic people who are always saying things like "we'll get through this, "one must always stay positive", "do not lose hope people", "sab theek ho jaye ga" etc.

For such people, I have a question: what exactly are you instilling your belief(s) in that gives you such hope? Or what are you advising us to believe in and gain hope from? The people of Gotham City had Batman; who or what do we have?

People will react to that question in different manners. Some people will attribute their hopes to the government and the many political parties engaged in a never-ending warfare to wrest the throne from one another's hands and trying to bring it into their hands. They may store their hopes in the current government, PTI leader Imran Khan, or the relatively new guy, Tahir-ul-Qadri or some other person/party; that is their business. Some people see hope in the Army. Others have given up on the government and all political parties and have instead resorted to putting their faith into the public uniting, or the youth of the nation or as such. Some people have given up on the country altogether and are concentrating on getting out of Pakistan, ready to resort to any way possible. And then there are the dejected pessimists who have given up hope altogether and continue about their ways, oblivious of the matters going on in their country, convinced that all is lost now.

My point is that whatever your symbol of hope, your Batman, it has to be a legitimate one. For the present state-of-affairs of our country have worsened far beyond the point of merely sitting around and hoping for a miracle. And here arises the complex problem, the reason why our nation is not progressing at all, and everytime we seem to be the brink of a revolution, it all crumbles back down; it is our inability to cope with difference of opinion.

We all have our different Batmans, and that should be fine, but it is not. The concept of 'I have my opinion, you have yours, lets leave it at that' simply does not exist in our people. No, we HAVE to make the others see reason, we HAVE to force our opinions down their throats and remain on their case until they see the error of their thoughts and the wisdom in ours. And these arguments are not carried out in a peaceful and proper manner, as they should, but rather heatedly with abuses spewing from both sides, and a sense of righteousness and extreme loyalty to the side we support accompanying the involved parties. These arguments may be carried out on some social network; where all it takes for things to turn ugly is some agressive loud-mouth to make a rash statement, and then all that follows is merely a matter of feeding the fire; or in person; where fists can take over words in a matter of seconds. Take the latter scenario to a higher level, and you have people being kidnapped or gunned down for merely disagreeing with someone. He/she may have been disrespectful in doing so, but that does not give you the right to resort to violence, does it? It shouldn't, but it does.

And this is precisely the thing standing in the way of 'the people uniting'. According to our ideology, people cannot have different Batmans and the idea of one Batman reigning supreme over all others is simply unacceptable, and must be protested against ferociously. Our country is caught up in a circular loop, a paradigm. And sadly, this lack of difference of opinion does not exist simply where Batmans are concerned, but other matters as well (consider the Shia killings for example; not considering them Muslims and thus terminating their right to live? Bravo!).

And as long as this paradigm remains, so shall I being one of those dejected pessimists who sees hope only in getting out of this country and settling somewhere else. For how can we hope for any progress under such circumstances?

To sum it all up: We as a nation have become so diverse in our opinions, goals, hopes and pretty much everything else. Add to that our absolute lack of tolerance for the existence of difference of opinion and we have the current situation: where the word 'nation' can no longer be used to describe us. We are a myriad of sects, tribes, peoples living in an enclosed boundary set by the British Empire right before they left. We live in Pakistan but we are not Pakistanis...

Avengers Of Pakistan!!

After my first blog, I was thinking about the next step. I searched Google to find how to make the blog popular. A common thing was that you have to be specific to a topic and write the blogs on it but it’s not my panache of writing. I thought to try new things to keep diversity in the topics.  Then what occurs next in my mind are Pakistani politics, which is only topic where words speak louder than actions. We always expect cons from Pakistan politics but as the youth of Pakistan it is our moral duty that we always think of positive outcome and our media should also advertise more pros so the nation may acknowledge how matters can be corrected. We are stopped and not moving forward. When thinking optimistically I always think who can be the super hero of this nation or in a more heroic way; Avengers of Pakistan.

When i started writing about who can be the hero in politics, 95 percent would think of Imran Khan Tsunami (PTI). We know that the current PPP government is almost ready to be bestowed as the foulest government in the history books of Pakistan. New elections are just less than one year from now. I clearly don’t see any party winning with majority numbers. PPP will fight on basis of one chance by expressing the Benazir Bhutto legend in the form of Bilawal Zardari Bhutto. If by chance they win, Zardari corruption regime will continue in the form of Bilawal PPP government. On other hand, PML (N) will again try to repeat their previous campaign. I was thoroughly impressed with the last PML (N) campaign which won the hearts of people again, but it was Benazir’s sympathy vote that went against them, otherwise they would have been in a much better position. As for PTI, I feel sorry for the youth but I have to say that they have no proper framework prepared yet for an election campaign. They got us believing with the point that they are the only party who has not been given a chance and like the achievements of World cup, Hospital and a University they will do better. But this is Politics and they are not doing politics at all. Winning a world cup, making a trust hospital and a university is not political at all. The best possible chance for them to succeed is collaborating with PML (N). Amongst the Shareef Brothers, Shabhaz Shareef is really a man to honour. Though some would say his acts are political stunts but his entire career he has been a hard worker and a devoted politician. There are always conspiracy theories which go can go against anyone but where the past governments have had devastating effects on Pakistan economics, if PTI and PML (N) collaborate, then they can position Pakistan onto the right track.

The next super hero in my model of Pakistan is CJ Iftikar Chaudary. Though he is going to retire in 2013 but he has setup the perfect judiciary in the late phase of his career. Sometime I think that the movement we started for the protection of our country’s judiciary, elevated the nation of disbelief but the question is where would be he in next era of Pakistan politics? To me, his future is very uncertain and I don’t see him anywhere except in the PTI shirt. For that, PTI really have to prove their worth in the next election.

Abdul Qadeer khan is the unsung hero of Pakistan and the man who paid the price of good. Our nation should be ashamed of how we disregarded this person. In one interview, he said if anything he wished to change in the past, he would had never made Pakistan a nuclear power because of which he suffered at the hands of this nation.  In the future, I wish that he plays his part as the President of Pakistan though it looks like an impossible future keeping UN and USA in mind.

In the end, i would go with Nawaz shareef as Prime Minister because he is a politician who can play games with USA keeping nation satisfy unlike Imran khan as analyst. I would like to see more ministries of PTI so they kept their words and keep Pakistan safe  from corruption. Imran khan can play an external role by keeping the eye on party as Nawaz Shareef has done in this Present government.