Hate makes places unsafe

There were violent protests on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, on Wednesday against the planned appearance by a pro-Trump conservative fire-brand. Expectedly, Trump called it an attack on free speech and threatened to withdraw federal funds from the renowned university.

Anyway, I found one banner of the protesters rather interesting and quite relevant to our circumstances. It read: “Hate makes places unsafe so why should we make safe places for hate!” Yes, but Pakistan is becoming a very good example of a place that has been made safe for hate. And those who dispense it with such passion tend to rule the roost.

While the government is blowing its trumpet on moving forward on the economic front, the civil society feels more threatened by forces that are pushing us back in a democratic context. To a large extent, this feeling has been bolstered by how some bloggers had disappeared, and then after some weeks, were reunited with their families without their stories being told.

Responding to reports that a blasphemy case was being registered against one of them by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan issued an angry statement on Wednesday stating that the FIA had no right to do so without any inquiry. He acknowledged that the bloggers and their families had gone through a difficult situation for several days and added, “Who gave the authority to the FIA to increase their worries?”

What message do you detect in this statement when you know that the interior minister is not very sympathetic to the liberal point of view? There is, of course, a lot of speculation about what had happened but the simple fact is that we do not know and we are not being told. Consequently, there is this growing sense of fear and insecurity.

In this environment, one can decipher an increase in militant orthodoxy and hate speech against progressive elements in society in spite of the intentions and promises enshrined in the National Action Plan that was launched more than two years ago.

On Friday, a group of intellectuals, journalists and social activists got together in Lahore to discuss ‘some of the most pertinent questions, threats and predicaments that face our society and the state and resolved to approach heads of all state authorities on our concerns’. They have drafted ‘a petition of concerned citizens’.

Let me quote only the first paragraph of what they are concerned about: “The rising tide of intolerance; hate-speech; violent extremism; apostasising of opponents; sectarian hatred and killings; threats to and misuse of freedom of expression; hegemony of religious extremist ideologies; prevalence of anti-national and Daesh type of extremist narratives; enforced disappearances of citizens without lawful course; marginalising of civil society and intimidation of enlightened sections of society at the hands of fascist gangs unleashed on the streets of Pakistan as law-enforcement agencies watch helplessly”.

A pretty long list of concerns, to be sure. But the gist of it is that the enlightened, democratic and civilised evolution of Pakistani society is at risk. The forces of orthodoxy and regression are advancing. At one level, this mood also reflects the xenophobic nationalism that is personified by Trump in the US which is also emerging in a number of other Western nations.

One manifestly authentic measure of this drift was provided this week by Pildat’s annual report on the quality of democracy in Pakistan. This assessment is methodically conducted in the context of relevant indicators. Hence, in a quantitative sense, the quality of democracy in 2016 is judged at 46 percentage points. What is significant is that it is four points less than the figure in 2015.

Actually, according to Pildat’s assessment report, “It was hoped that 2016 would be the year when Pakistan moves forward towards a positive democratic consolidation through crucially required reforms in key democratic institutions. Instead, the year saw little, if any, improvement in fundamental functioning of key democratic institutions. This renders these institutions largely ineffective in resolving systemic issues behind concerns like Panama leaks, elected government’s inability to exercise its constitutional writ on national security and foreign policy domains and its failure in institutionalising consultative decision-making process”.

The report has also highlighted problematic areas for Pakistan’s democracy and has particularly noted the uninspiring performance of the national and the provincial assemblies. To be honest, the spectacle shown on our news channels is ample evidence for ordinary citizens regarding the state of our politics and, hence, democracy. It is a show that naturally creates a feeling of despondency.

In such a large country as ours, there ought to be some reservoirs of hope. As I said, the government is celebrating the economic progress that is also certified by some global agencies or an odd report in the foreign media. So much of it rests on CPEC and visible improvements in the physical infrastructure. On Friday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated a section of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway.

But would it not be, as The Economist had suggested two weeks ago, a road to nowhere if our society continues to fall apart because of the onslaught of religious intolerance and the lack of social capital that is generated by an educated and enlightened populace? And when it comes to building human resources, shouldn’t the focus be on education and the quality of our youth?

So, let us have another quantitative assessment – the recent Youth Development Index compiled by the Commonwealth Secretariat. This index tells us that Pakistan is one of the worst countries for young people aged between 15 and 29 years to live in. It ranks 154, below neighbouring countries like India (133), Bangladesh (146), Iran (94), Sri Lanka (35) and Nepal (77).

This index comprises 18 indicators that collectively measure prospects for young people in employment, education, health, civic and political spheres. Only 42 percent of children in Pakistan are enrolled in high school; the South Asian and global scores for the same indicator are 68 percent and 81 percent respectively.

One of the lead researchers of this study said, “Given the youth bulge in Pakistan, it is high time for the government to invest in young people, build their capabilities and involve them in the decision-making processes. Otherwise, the demographic bulge will change into a time bomb”. Ah, but we do like making bombs.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com