When denial trumps, there’s no space for reason

Karachi
Having been born and bred in a country which has so far failed to keep intolerance in check, our society has by and large been devoid of a culture of healthy debates; consequently developing a practice of refusing to accept mistakes or responsibilities.
This was observed by speakers at a panel discussion titled ‘Pakistani Denialism: State, Media and Society’ organised by Habib University on Friday.
Dr Nauman Naqvi, acting dean of the university’s School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences while moderating the discussion said the objective of organising the talk was to understand the issues caused by refusing to accept responsibility of the problems in Pakistan, which prevented us from finding meaningful solutions to critical national problems.
Prominent journalist and political analyst Wusatullah Khan opined that our children grew up in a society which analysed situations only in black or white, the presence of grey areas was never brought into question.
Owing to this situation, a child was naturally brought up with the negative connotation attached to raising questions; for them somebody could either be a hero or a ‘nobody’ at all. “Unfortunately, this denial has seeped into our DNA as permission to ask questions are not granted and the culture of blindly accepting what the elders of the society do or say are appreciated,” he said.
Sharing his personal experience when he was a student of grade IV, Khan said that back in early 70s, his social studies book contained a lot of information regarding the 1965 Pakistan-India war and its heroes.
Around four years later when he came across the book again, he was disappointed to see that two of the generals were not part of the course anymore. On inquiring why was that so, he was told they were Ahmadis and could not be eulogised as heroes.
Comparing the political leadership as well as the general public’s silence over China’s policy of not allowing the Muslim community in the country to observe fasts in the month of Ramazan, to the hue and cry created over an Indian minister, of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, forcefully trying to break the fast of a Muslim employee of a canteen, Khan observed we as a nation lived in a state of selective denial.
Renowned writer and journalist Mohammad Hanif said denial had become an integral characteristic of the Pakistani society.
He also held media organisations responsible due to their biased reporting of various local and international issues.
Giving donations to organisations continuously blamed for carrying out violent activities in occupied Kashmir, Hanif said it was disturbing to note that people still revered such people as heroes.
Citing the menace of sectarianism, he opined that it was one of the biggest issues being faced by the country but our sympathies lay with the victim who belonged to the same sect as ours.
“Concerns raised by both Baloch and Sindhi activists regarding agencies allegedly involved in abducting and torturing political workers are out rightly considered wrong,” he opined.
Nazish Brohi, a writer and researcher in the social development sector, was of the opinion that people had a habit of playing the blame game. Further elaborating, she cited the example of the floods of 2011 and said that the whole country was busy blaming the wrong people instead of taking the authorities to task. “The most important events were met with flagrant denial of their local and national reality,” she observed.
She also mentioned the end of the Mughal era in the sub-continent due to the kingdom’s constant denial of a threat. “Denialism is not a stance one takes in arguments; we need to differentiate between reality and false facts by accepting the right path.”
Later, Habib University President Wasif Rizvi stated: “The problem with our nation is its state of denial. We conveniently play the blame game for all the issues this country is facing. The root causes exist within us and before resolving these issues, we need to shoulder the responsibility of eliminating denial from amongst us.”