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nation target President Zardari
Thursday, November 26, 2009
By Jameel Soomro
More than half of the people of Pakistan are registered illiterate. Thus their contribution to national opinion-making process is negligible. In the literate people, who can read and write, more than 99.99 per cent people simply don’t write or they don’t have the required minimum writing skills. Thus those who can write wield some kind of power for its use or misuse.
In a largely illiterate society, interest groups mushroom to mould the public opinion about a particular state of situation or a personality. Powered by largesse, these interest groups form cartel in such societies to control a society and its resources.
In Pakistan, this cartel is called Establishment in local terms. Everybody would use the term Establishment, whenever these interest groups are mentioned in collective form. A larger part of the literate part of population is again media illiterate. Thus a majority of our nation is media illiterate.
What is Media Literacy? Media literacy is the process of analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read. Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyze messages to detect propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for such), and to understand how structural features — such as media ownership, or its funding model—affect the information presented. Media literacy aims to enable people to be skillful creators and producers of media messages, both to facilitate an understanding as to the strengths and limitations of each medium, as well as to create independent media. Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality.
Establishment in Pakistan is taking full advantage of this shortcoming of a media illiterate majority nation. While most of writers stay independent and respected media personalities, some of them are nourished by different interest groups to feed their innocent readers, which meet the interest of that particular group. Most of these writers or columnists who represent one or the other group of interest have poor economic background, which probably attracted them to accept perks and privileges for their writing skills. These kinds of writers are used by these interest groups to feed the minds of media illiterate against any particular situation or personality.
Kerry-Lugar Bill, Minus-One Formula and now NRO are the gadgets of modern propaganda tools that the elements opposed to democratic set-up in Pakistan are using against the democratic forces. Some of these elements are earning most than the Bollywood actors through their articulate acting performing the dialogues written somewhere else than the newsrooms.
Most people of Pakistan are unaware and unable to detect propaganda in the form of the current bout media trial launched against Pakistan democratically elected President Asif Ali Zardari. He received 90-100 per cent votes in three out of four provinces while enjoying a sound vote in largest province Punjab. Before landing in the Presidency, he lost his spouse, leader and Pakistan’s most popular twice-elected Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in the struggle for restoration of democracy. She was assassinated on December 27, 2007 at a huge public meeting in Rawalpindi along with many dozens of her comrades.
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto along with her spouse Asif Ali Zardari braved one of the world’s costly media trial against any popular leader for over a decade. Asif Ali Zardari was dragged from jail to jail and court to court for more than eleven years on the allegations that the governments of five successive anti-PPP chief executives could not prove. Bias that is he is facing in today’s Pakistan is also connected with the Bhutto legacy.
War between dictatorial forces and democratic forces that is waging since the sudden death of founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, took the life of Pakistan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was hanged by the judiciary, which was ‘then’ part of Establishment, majority of its being supporter of dictatorships. Pakistan Peoples Party founded by the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto continuously led the democratic forces through an unmatched struggle for restoration of democracy sacrificing lives of its two chairpersons and thousands its workers with dozens of more thousands braving lashes and languishing in jails at the hands of dictatorial forces. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto also faced the -minus-one formula, which the same dictatorial forces have aired now. Majority (people) wants to rule themselves while the minority (Dictatorial forces) wants to be the ruler.
President and Co-Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari, who is representing the tilling peasants and toiling labour that forms majority in the country, is being targeted with the minus-one formula by a tiny group of Establishment for a variety of reasons including his famous Pakistan Khappe slogan besides he is unable to offer perky diplomatic or government jobs to everyone who wants. Zardari is being targeted because he refuses to be part of the much-talked about conspiracy against the very foundation of the country.
Readers are not being informed that the school Sindh Madressul Islam, where founder of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah studied was established by none other than maternal grandfather of President Asif Ali Zardari. Because it does not fit in the interest of dictatorial forces.
Media literate minority of the nation understands the background behind bias against President Zardari. Media trial does not end at President Zardari. The elements of dictatorial forces have started pointing fingers against innocent Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, even before his entry into active politics because they know they all know that he is going to be the future leader of democratic Pakistan. Some people or company bought land in Islamabad and these lackeys of dictatorial forces blamed it on Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and President Asif Ali Zardari. Every mouse has been made active to dig out some new present to the dictatorial forces and get perks.
Emergence of electronic media has made it easy for different interest groups to patronize and provide information and disinformation of their interests a free flow. A bewildered media illiterate society sometimes looks surprised in sudden charge in the media trial of the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, when it is for the first time the country succeeded to save its integrity through successful army operations in Malakand and South Waziristan.
These are the only army operations in the history of Pakistan, which have democratic and people’s support and are successful. Perhaps, a part of the Establishment, deliberately or otherwise, has completely gone into the hands international conspirators churning out absurd maps of Pakistan’s geography in next decades. There is no denying the fact that Pakistan Peoples Party and its leadership is being targeted because it is the largest political party having sound basis in all provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan thus it is the only civilian binding force in the whole Federation of Pakistan.
Thus to save the society of Pakistan from the onslaught of a few articulate writers and turning into their victims, “Media Literacy” should be established as a full subject in the text books and curriculum in the country.
Those who want to grab power through any other means except democracy should not be allowed to conduct media trial of the brave leadership of Asif Ali Zardari whose resistance to dictatorial forces is unmatched in the contemporary living political leaders in the country.
Those who fled the country and didn’t return until their entire family got green cards on dubious fears should divert their attention and contribute positively now as they are no more poor and have amassed millions for safety of their future generations and have a mercy on the majority of Pakistani nation, which is media illiterate!
The writer is adviser to chief minister Sindh
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ISSN 1563-9479 
