The ongoing circus

A circus may remind you of many things: there are actors, there are clowns, there is dialogue and drama, there are smiles and tears, there is happiness and there is anguish, a heart breaks here and love prospers in the other corner. But, in the end, nothing remains to remind you of what one may have seen. An all-encompassing stillness grips you. That is how an ordinary circus becomes a minuscule reflection of life itself.

There is a circus that is being played around us every moment that we breathe. This has many dimensions that eternally transmit messages regarding the fickleness of life and all that we may be engaged in doing. In the end, it boils down to nothing. Does that mean that we should desist from getting involved in anything substantive and, instead, start taking our days and nights simply as manifestations of a transition; and that we should start enjoying whatever happiness may accrue through prolonged interludes of pain and suffering?

A circus is a place of make-believe. Watching its various acts, one is transported into a world which has no reality beyond the boundaries of the arena where the show is being staged. But it does give you a feel of dynamics which would have impacted the conceptualisation of the narrative within the confines of acts perceived and played. In his famous play ‘As You Like It’, Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts”.

Breaking through the shackles that have been imposed on our thought process, one becomes sensitive to the enormity of challenges that we are confronted with and the pressing need to untangle them. This is no ordinary realisation as, in the current times, it comes laden with a myriad risks that can put you back by a life span. But then, there is something within us that propels us forward, saying that some challenges must not be endured as that would neither diminish the pain they cause, nor would they disappear leaving our progeny free of suffering at their hands.

In simple words, in such circumstances, a peaceful struggle to claim your rights becomes incumbent both as our constitutional and moral responsibility, as also it being a necessity for the larger good of the society. In the absence of such effort, the tentacles of oppression will continue digging in deeper, thus intensifying and increasing the agony they have caused through clueless ages. This provides the essential rationale for breaking free of the traditional logjams and helps unmask a new reality to behold.

There are things that one sees and there are things that one feels, absorbs and assimilates. Without diminishing the importance of the former, the latter experience has a more lasting and meaningful impact as it gets embedded in one’s psyche. It is from such an impact that the germs of change are born, propelling us to surge forward and beyond. This initial motivation for change then takes root over time before unravelling its full potential that can alter the direction of things at multiple levels. Having been denied our rights which are duly granted by the constitution, we are just about skirting such a situation.

Starting with the premise that we all want good for our country, why is it that we seem to falter at critical junctures in our endeavours to realise this objective? Besides other factors relating to the formulation of our plans, there is a core reason blocking our way forward. This relates to our deep-seated infatuation with individualised effort in preference to a collective initiative with the inclusion and support of the people of the country. While every individual matters as a peg in the overarching plan, it is the combined wisdom that will always be more likely to achieve substantive results.

There is another reason that accentuates the malady we are suffering from: the disconnect between the rulers and the ruled. This disconnect is multi-layered and is born out of denying them their rights as guaranteed in the statute book. Their deprivations have continued to increase with time, and there has been scant effort to mend the wrongs and bring them into the mainstream of national life. For most of their time in this world, they have remained perched at the edges, fighting for their few morsels to survive another day. This has denuded them of their dignity and self-respect.

Classically, the state is now suffering from the same ailment that, over time, it has subjected its people to: Pakistan has been reduced to being an economically captive country, going around the world with a begging bowl. Understandably, even our close allies and friends are unwilling to engage as they would in the past. This is a demeaning sight for its people. They would want their country to progress and attain a position of prominence in the comity of nations. Unfortunately, not only has this not happened, but Pakistan continues to slide with time simply because we are not making the effort to understand the issues in their entirety and then try to find tangible and sustainable remedies.

Whatever efforts are being made to attract investment will not yield results simply because the conditions that would be conducive to facilitate this do not prevail in the country. There is increasing political unrest as a bulk of people supportive of the PTI have been singled out for state reprisals. For them, the constitution and rule of law have become extinct commodities as they are gravely discriminated against by the state institutions. They are like aliens who cannot access the annals of justice as would be available to others.

The increasing disconnect between the stfacilitatingate and its citizens should be a matter of utmost concern for the bastions of power. Are they listening? Do they have the sensitivity to feel the pain that the people are enduring? They have all the remedies, but are they willing to treat their people on a par, irrespective of their political beliefs? I say so because there is palpable resentment, which is generating further problems for the country.

There comes a time when wisdom and sanity, not political discrimination, should define the policies that the state should pursue. That time has been knocking for a while now, but there are no listeners.

By its very nature, time waits for none. It is slipping away. This is the moment to dump the clowns. Wisdom demands that we make amends for the shortsighted policies that we have pursued in the past. Otherwise, this same time shall come back to haunt us.

The writer is a political and security strategist and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute. He is a former special assistant to former PM Imran Khan and heads the PTI’s policy think-tank. He tweets @RaoofHasan