Despair and democracy

Truth is tricky in politics; and trickier than the truth is the ability to speak it out loud in a socially and politically uneven society. Imran Khan seems to be doing the trickiest thing of all when he imposes the validity of his truth on the people of Pakistan as if they are a homogenous unthinking lot.

His critics say that what Imran considers to be the truth is confined by his egocentricity and his inability to see political matters beyond his own nose. What the critics of Imran Khan say has elements of truth because over the years Imran’s truth has become increasingly ephemeral – from the mantra of Naya Pakistan to that of the Panama leaks. His political strategy lacks a long-term development vision for Pakistan and for some pessimists his politics lacks strategy itself.

The political opponents of Imran Khan could have exploited these inherent weaknesses to dilute the political impact but they are not interested in ideological politics either. Politics for Imran’s key opponents – the PML-N and the PPP – has become more of an investment than an ideology which saves Imran from utter destruction of his suicidal political moves.

The difference between the Sharif brothers and Imran Khan lies in their approach to concocting truths. Other than that, there is much in common between them in their perseverance to invent truths about Pakistan. For Imran Khan, the truth is that a new Pakistan is being created where he will be the chief executive and proprietor of the truth while for the Sharif brothers Pakistan, under their rule, is the fastest growing economy of the world.

The PPP, under its young leader, is on its way to carve out its own niche of truthfulness; and under duress they are ready to let go the old vanguards, including the former octogenarian chief minister of Sindh.

Gone are the days of ideological politics, otherwise there is no reason why two right-wing parties – the PML-N and the PTI – should be at daggers drawn despite having the same moralising political hymns to drag Pakistan out of its current malaise. They seem to have agreed to disagree even on sensitive matters of national significance and they are not ready to budge for less than throwing each other out of the amphitheatre of Pakistani politics. The cognitive ability to distinguish between truth and falsity has long gone in our political culture because lies are so all-pervasive that we feel at ease to lie than to speak the truth.

For the 200 million people in Pakistan, whatever be the truth told by their leaders, the reality is simple: they are less secure, less prosperous and less tolerant than ever and they see a bleak future for their future generations. Who cares what this brand of democracy will bring to them if it does not bring peace, prosperity, happiness and tolerance.

The odyssey of our democracy is far more complex than Homer’s epic because ours creates multiple heroes who enter the scene out of the blue and disappear in a smokescreen. The heroes are so self-centred that they reek of the worst dictators of human history – they kill with impunity; they loot national wealth and publicly stash away national money and there is no law to prevent them. Ironically, they are chosen by their people.

The truth is firmly established now that no one can remove those kingly leaders – and least so through peoples’ action. As they say, providence favours the brave. But with all their knighthood, bravery and chivalry the sane voices in Pakistan are in a state of despair because the lawyers’ movement, movement for media freedom, tirades of young doctors and much more seem to be entering into a cul de sac.

What is the dividend of the struggle for democracy and freedom when everything culminates into a tyranny of family dynasty – one that rules Pakistan and another in the queue waiting its turn? Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri bring no hope either because their parties suffer from a deficit of democracy. Their politics is bereft of any long-term transformative vision for Pakistan and these gentlemen have a strong penchant for political misadventures which has dwindled their popular support.

The political narrative in Pakistan is extremely skewed towards a national security debate despite the longest ‘undisrupted’ democratic process in Pakistan. This democracy in practice is farcical because it does not add value to freeing up the national morale from a subjugated national security framework where sane voices are pushed to the wall as anti-state and non-state actors get political sanctuary. In this country justice is not being seen as happening; this is the single most important factor behind the dwindling writ of the state.

We live in an extremely dangerous global political order today and have to learn to quickly adapt to the new global realities. In the past, we lived dangerously but the future will not afford our political follies. Even our closest friend China is sceptical of our ability to deal politically with our longstanding in-house issues, from Gilgit to Gwadar. The US is even a worse choice today with a xenophobic, Islamophobic and white supremacist Trump as a president who has made his intentions clear in his political campaigns.

During the past one decade of democracy our diplomatic relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Afghanistan and India have been at the lowest of our political history. We have only one choice to make: to redraw our policy of international relations to ensure our meaningful existence as a sovereign entity among the comity of nations. India’s diplomatic attempts to isolate Pakistan became visible when India and some key South Asian states decided to withdraw from the Saarc summit last month (which Pakistan was to host). The postponement of the Saarc summit at the behest of India was just the tip of the iceberg of the diplomatic encirclement Pakistan faces today.  

We have been selling the narrative of ‘frontline’ state in the global coalition against terrorism to garner the political support of the international community. There is no doubt about our pivotal role in the global fight against terrorism but in doing so we have internalised the psyche of war and become a national security state. This is the heaviest price one can pay for others’ wars and the enemy has turned to us with a vengeance. Weak and stagnant economies like Pakistan cannot win the heart and minds of people only through the mantra of national security; they have to devise political and economic policy instruments to engage their citizens.

Pakistan needs more democracy with strong, well-governed and accountable institutions that can turn the national security state into a social security state. A state where people can exercise their free will to choose their political leaders based on their performance to address the common issues of the people. If Pakistan does not learn the art of democratic governance now it will never be able to attain this national goal and an unfortunate ‘intervention’ may be the last step towards national disintegration.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: ahnihal@yahoo.com