Schoolboys and sinking ships

The writer is a freelance columnist
and former newspaper editor.
We all know some tasks are beyond the capabilities of school children, and running a country which faces a long list of extremely grave problems would seem to rank among these tasks. It appears to be completely inappropriate to hand over so complicated a task to a bunch of sixth graders, and particularly immature sixth graders at that.
Yet this is precisely what we appear to have done. Our cabinet ministers have brought their childish squabbles out into the open and in fact seem to be moving ever closer to fisticuffs. The headmaster, or in this case the prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, is unable to handle them – and whatever reprimands have been issued clearly seem insufficient to tackle the problem.
The bitter infighting is no longer secret; it has made media headlines, and we have an obviously divided house. The ship, under the command of such inept sailors, is more likely to sink. It is letting in more water by the day.
Are there forces at work egging on our fighting ministers? Are there players acting quietly, silently – using methods perfected in the past – to create a particular situation which will then force events to flow in a particular direction?
There are sinister signs that this is happening, and they can be recognised because we are frighteningly familiar with them. We know the allegiances of particular politicians, we know where their loyalties lie, and we know how willing they can be to allow themselves to be manipulated. The promise of power can influence many and the fact that the Sharifs are themselves reported to be split does not help matters at all.
There are other sinister aspects to unfolding events. Suspicions about what forces stood behind the 2014 ‘dharna’ in Islamabad and the dangerous attempts to create the unrest that followed it linger on. Political parties who insist they are fighting for a better democracy appear instead to be willing to make unforgivable pacts with specific forces simply to gain the power the people opted not to give them. The continued unwillingness to accept the will of these people is frightening.
Surely within the PTI, a party that includes many educated men and women with proper degrees and the good sense that we assume – perhaps incorrectly – comes with them, there must be some understanding that the route to success in any future election lies in hard work on the ground rather than aimless accusations that fewer and fewer people are willing to believe. But then perhaps with its ominous talk of an election by the end of 2015 or certainly before 2018 when the term of the present government expires, the PTI knows something that we, at least as yet, do not. Certainly, it seems to be working on a short-term agenda rather than a longer term one.
There are too many strands, too many threads hanging loose at the present time. They could be used to build a net that could entrap the current political set up. It has in some ways itself walked into this trap. The accusations of corruption that the government agreed should be tackled with the Karachi operation – launched partly to deal with these – could come into play against the federal government itself.
On an almost daily basis, the media is being led towards stories that point to massive corruption. Yes, this corruption is unforgivable. But there are mechanisms built into our constitution to deal with it. We do not need an outside force to do so, and each time this force has intervened in the past, we have been led towards greater and greater disaster.
Even events that essentially involve the military establishment itself, such as the Asghar Khan case and the ‘fixing’ of the 1990 election by the ISI, are now being used against those politicians who accepted the large bribes handed out to them rather than against the military officials who gave them out. Of course, both acts were wrong. All players deserve equal punishment.
But most important of all is the need that our democracy not be interrupted once again. This has happened far too often in the past and we see the results before us today in a country that is afflicted by problems which range from a severe lack of development to a particularly acrimonious relationship with almost all its neighbours.
There are insiders who argue that to some degree even the tensions with the obviously hostile Narendra Modi government in India are being stirred up by particular forces. The Modi regime of course jumps at the bait, and the purpose is served.
It is impossible to say what lies ahead. But there are reports that even the prime minister believes it may be difficult to save himself. He is not a man known for his fighting spirit. He tends to go down quickly and with little attempt to throw too many counterpunches.
A division within his party, and particularly from his younger brother, has hurt him badly in the past, pushing him in 1999 into a long exile in Saudi Arabia. He lied openly that this decision to pack the Sharifs off to the land of desert Shaikhs involved any deal – but then blithely backtracked when the then Saudi intelligence chief produced documents which he said constituted precisely this agreement.
These factors make Nawaz Sharif’s task even harder. But all democratic forces, whether they lie within or beyond the PML-N, need to realise they must ward off the dangers that may be coming in their way. Yes, our democracy is far from perfect; yes, it has many problems and yes the military establishment already wields enormous power, controlling almost every aspect of life. But, faulty as it is, we still need this democracy to continue so that there is some hope that one day we can move towards a better future.
Three long periods of military rule should have convinced us this can happen only when elected civilian governments are allowed to remain in power without a noose hanging constantly over their heads or waved before them from time to time.
The noose is now out once more. Whom will it trap? Around whose neck will it go? The question of heroes and villains is opening up once more. The government needs to recognise, like any sensible bunch of schoolboys, that the infighting within it is being created deliberately and with malice. Perhaps they should read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies to see just how schoolboys can fall apart, and how harmony amongst them can be disrupted.
But we hope we have adults with greater experience in life running our affairs. They need to show they are indeed adults, able to understand the challenges and the threats and combat them by standing together rather than lining up against each other.
The infighting is just the latest manifestation of ongoing manipulation. We have witnessed it before; and it is happening again. The dangers are something that must be avoided and even though political parties have fallen away from each other like the petals of a wilting flower, it is important that they somehow move closer to the central core that makes up its structure and prevent the petals from being plucked away and scattered by the wayside. We would not like to see this ugly sight.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com