The ideology-less Nawaz Sharif

Some people believe that in diverse democracies, ideology is an obstacle to growth and progress. This is because ideology, when adopted in places where it has no chance of being ubiquitously compelling, divides more than it unites, and therefore, prevents action. Like everything, the degree of problem that ideology represents is dependent on context. It represents a smaller order problem for established, mature and developed democracies like the United States, and a massive problem for underdeveloped, still-growing democracies like Pakistan.
In America, small cohorts of the population can, respectively, get riled up by Rachel Maddow on the one hand, and Sean Hannity on the other – but the ideological noise in the discourse doesn’t paralyse basic civic functionality for streets and neighbourhoods across the country.
In Pakistan, an ideological onslaught from, let’s say the Barelvi right wing, can lead to political assassinations of governors, incarcerations and convictions of poor rural women, and the jettisoning of brave judges to foreign lands to protect their lives. The concept of state writ, constitutionalism, rule of law, and basic human decency are soon besieged, and incapable of holding their own. That’s ideology. Of course, people who have reservations about the utility of ideology (any ideology) are essentially making an argument for pragmatism or expediency. In some ways, this itself is a political statement of surrender. One way of interpreting the rejection of ideology as a driving motivator for how we engage in public life is that it is a failure to take the high moral road of insisting on what we believe in.
My own view of this is rather more charitable. One may have strong religious convictions and political beliefs, but is there necessarily a great utility to advocating those specific ideas and ideals, per se? Instead, shouldn’t we just invest energy and effort in contributing to good outcomes (no doubt informed by people’s convictions and beliefs)?
The benefit of this approach is that you don’t have to ‘win’ any arguments to do this. You don’t need to get everyone to agree with your beliefs or your ideals. You simply need enough agreement with a range of different people that helps everyone get something that is good enough, without anyone getting everything that they wanted. It isn’t as sexy as calling everyone else names, whilst claiming sainthood for oneself, but all the evidence suggests that it is a better way of doing things. This is why some people are less interested in who wins an election, and more interested in what the winners do after they take oath.
One of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s strengths, for those observers who are relatively neutral, has always been the relative lack of his convictions. Don’t laugh. Yet.
PM Sharif does not seem interested in any one overarching ideology. This isn’t to suggest that he doesn’t have any beliefs. However, the principal driving motivation for Sharif and his politics has always been power, rather than any one idea or set of ideas. He has proved this over a political career that spans at least two generations now. He is happy to try to explore becoming ameerul momineen during one term, and happy to take on another so-called ameer aka TTP gang leader Mullah Fazullah during another.
He is happy to take credit for detonating Pakistan’s nuclear weapon at Chaghai during one term, and happy to be the greatest advocate for Pakistan-India détente during another. PM Sharif does what is pragmatic and most convenient, with little regard to any one ideology. I genuinely believe that this is a good thing, as long as it is taking place in the correct environment.
Unfortunately for PM Sharif, he has chosen the wrong point in time of history to be largely lacking in conviction and being free of the burdens of ideology. His two principal challenges as prime minister manifest themselves in the shape of two men, dripping in ideology, from head to toe.
One wears a saffron chaadar, as a symbol of Hindu supremacy, the other wears the new-fangled red and green shawl, as a symbol of ‘change’– a new religion with a growing subscriber base across the country.
Domestically, PM Sharif is the man without a megaphone, without a voice, without a clue, without a set of ideas that define who he is and without a sense of what he wants to do. His principal challenger is a man with a massive megaphone, a man with a booming voice, a man with at least the pretence of having a clue, a man with a set of ideas, (no matter how juvenile he makes them sound), and a man who seems like he knows what he wants to do (no matter that he really doesn’t).
Imran Khan is plenty ideological. To intelligent critics, his ideology is convoluted, incoherent, cynical and inconsistent. To his followers, including surprisingly many intelligent ones, it is good enough. Khan’s ideology is change, anti-corruption, rigorous nationalism, and anti-west, anti-Americanism. PM Sharif’s ideology is what? IshaqDarism? Fawadism? Familyism? This isn’t my critique. This is the perception of the prime minister being pumped into people’s synapses twenty-four hours a day. He may have survived the dharnas, but he has been painted into a corner, and it is only a matter of time that intelligent, pragmatic political opponents will pry open his fragile little corner of comfort.
Internationally, PM Sharif is the bland, meatless vegetarian dish, to Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s delicious and spicy meat extravaganza. PM Modi is driven by a vision of India that is clean and developed, and where Hindus re-establish their rightful place in UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, and across India and indeed, across the world. He wants yoga diplomacy, and soft Hindutva in his embassies, and sticks and stones that break some bones, in the back pocket of Amit Shah. PM Modi has a game plan, and a way of articulating that game plan.
PM Sharif on the other hand, strikes a sad and pathetic figure. He isn’t a convincing advocate for Kashmir. He isn’t a particularly striking religious rhetorician. He doesn’t have a compelling inclusive message for Pakistani Hindus, Christians, and Ahmadis. He can’t distinguish himself either to the right of Modi, or to his left. He can’t convince the Pakistan Army of his patriotism, nor the Hindutvadis in PM Modi’s inner circle of his pragmatism.
And so, he endures silently and patiently the onslaught. From India, the ideological Narendra Modi pummels Pakistan’s prime minister, with Arun Jaitely one day, and his own speech another. From D-Chowk, the ideological Imran Khan pummels Pakistan’s prime minister, with “oye, Nawaz Sharif!” one day, and the mirror, another.
The pragmatism of not being tied to any one particular ideology today is hurting Nawaz Sharif like never before. If he tries to go all ‘Muslim’ on us, he will be outflanked by Tahirul Qadri, Sirajul Haq, Imran Khan, and probably even Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He has already been left behind on Kashmir by the young man. If he tries to go all ‘liberal’ on us, he won’t convince anyone.
Worst of all, PM Sharif has no ideas, and he has placed himself within an echo chamber of voices that will never give him any new ideas. The last time a DMG officer or an accountant came up with a novel idea was, let’s see. It was never. Never, ever, ever.
The remainder of the PM Sharif’s term, even if it lasts till 2018, will be an agonising display of incompetence and paralysis. Because he has no real ideology, he is incapable of generating new ideas. And because he has no new ideas, he will keep using old ones. Old people, and old ideas. It is the Nawaz Sharif playbook for running a country. It is a grand old disaster, and it isn’t getting better anytime soon.
The writer is an analyst and commentator.