It should be possible for an individual not to spend too much time watching the news channels or be constantly distracted by social media. This may even be considered as a defence against insanity, because of the excitement and anxiety that the mass media generates. And the tempo has risen to a feverish pitch against the flaming backdrop of the Panama Papers.
But is this pause – some kind of respite from the passions of the moment – also possible in a collective sense? Do we have time to reflect on the current state of affairs, in the perspective of what it is going to be like in years to come? Are we capable of investing a measure of intellectual rigour in this exercise?
It is obvious that we are too preoccupied with ‘breaking news’. There used to be some jokes about the attention span of some of our leaders. Now, thanks to the mass media, the attention span of the entire nation seems to have been reduced to the duration of a ticker. There are bound to be some societal implications of what is happening to us. We are manifestly not very concerned about this process.
My point, simply, is that little attention is being paid by the rulers, the political parties and the national institutions to the causes of our current crises and to devising strategies to deal with the challenges that are certain to emerge in the near and distant future. They tend to constantly operate in damage-control mode. This condition is reinforced by the media and its unholy relationship with what is considered public opinion.
It may be demonstrated that some ministers and major leaders of political parties spend more time in the studios of various news channels than they do in their offices. We are familiar with their capacity to think and argue in a rational manner. Mostly, they are dutifully chewing the cud. We can hear them before they open their mouth. The pity is that it is a small pack of s people that is shuffled constantly.
It is instructive to study the political tremors caused by the Panama Papers and how Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his opponents have played the game. Imran Khan is playing the second innings of his match against the current government with more confidence than he displayed during his dharna outing. While Nawaz Sharif has reacted in a manner that certifies that he is under siege, the opposition parties are seething with anger, though unable to figure out what options they have.
That they can rush into the arena without being certain about what they can do was endorsed by the proceedings of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance held on Wednesday, three weeks after the Panama Papers were leaked and the angry chorus of protests was instantly launched. The demand for a forensic audit of the accounts of the offshore companies, of the Sharif family in particular, has risen above the general uproar.
However, the Senate committee was informed, according to a published report, that “the judicial commission formed to probe the Panama leaks has virtually no chance to prove any wrongdoing as there exists no law under which the government can seek information from the countries concerned about offshore companies”.
The report termed it as amazing that a law enacted way back in 1992 to promote business activities places no restrictions whatsoever on taking foreign exchange out of the country. A senior corporate lawyer told the Senate committee that all offshore businesses are not illegal. Besides, he said that the information obtained through the Panama leaks was stolen from a lawyer’s office, and this stolen data may not have much weight in a court of law.
Irrespective of these or other legal complexities, the debate being conducted in the media is characterised more by passion than by rational argument. But, let us be fair, the evidence of corruption in high places is so overwhelming and so difficult to comprehend that it is hard to be rational when you talk about it. The focus on the wealth of the Sharif family should not serve to camouflage the vulgar affluence of our other leaders, business tycoons and high officials.
At the same time, the tone and tenor of some talk shows, as well as some channels and specific hosts, is betraying an exceptional level of bitterness and fury. Objectivity seems to have totally been lost in starkly partisan and distorted interpretation of the situation. This is so on both sides of the political divide. Is something cooking, somewhere?
Yes, corruption is an issue that baffles our minds and senses. We cannot come to terms with it. Ordinary citizens, with a degree of understanding of ethical and democratic principles, just cannot rationalise the behaviour of our leaders. Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan and Asif Zardari, the leaders of our national parties, are accepted as billionaires. Look at the houses in which they live. Leave aside the issue of whether their wealth is legitimate or not, the very fact that they flaunt it so brazenly is depressing.
So, the mood in the country is miserable, as if the entire nation has been drugged. It so happens that this increase in the political temperature has overlapped with the scorching advent of the long, hot summer. This is the setting in which the people – the ‘awam’ – would tend to lose their cool. But they still do not voluntarily express their rage in any social or political context. They remain unruly and undisciplined, instances of which are too common.
Where are we headed, given this eruption of political passions? This is what we do not want to consider seriously. The media does give some space to workshops and seminars sponsored by civil society organisations, on the social, economic and political problems that the country is confronted with. But these issues are not properly debated.
For instance, we profusely mourn the existence of corruption at all levels and in all our institutions, but we have little understanding of how this corruption is shaping the evolution of Pakistan and what kinds of threats are developing because of it to the very survival of the country, no matter who is at the helm of affairs.
The media has kept us totally enthralled by what is happening at this moment. Now. It is the same with social media. We quickly forget what happened a little while ago. Our lives have been successfully trivialised.
The writer is a senior journalist.
Email: ghazi_salahuddinhotmail.com