I was just reading and analyzing the recent statements of some of the leaders of the world and comparing these statements with the statements of renowned leaders like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Bonaparte, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Nelson Mandela, etc. I realized that their wisdom and polite politics always had been a guideline in defining the world’s political dimension in the national horizon. Today even the most powerful president of the world is being criticized over his use of inappropriate language. It is unfortunate that President Donald Trump is known for posting incriminating tweets which are often false but make front-page news. These posts steer public discourse, and often sideline bigger news. The infamous tweets and the recent almost-declaration of war against North Korea have frequently overshadowed consequential stories in the media. His presidential campaign received much undeserved attention due to his controversial statements. He frequently spells out false information and many news houses have a dedicated fact-checker for the statements of the ex-reality star. I was shocked by the recent crossfire of words between President Trump and Korean President Kim Jong-un. Both presidents, regardless of their position and international stature, insulted each other. Kim in his statement called Donald Trump “Dotard”, “a frightened dog” and “a gangster fond of playing with fire”, whereas in response, Trump called him “short and fat, mad dog who likes to kill and starve his people to death”. It was unbecoming for both of them. Both looked to be working in circus with directional and cheap dialogue rather than in international political arena. The contemporary standards of politics along with the way President Trump introduced his politics in the world are highly questionable. His former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s statement against Islam is highly condemnable. He called Islamism a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion Muslims. Ironically, a responsible general of the US army and later NSA to President Trump tried to create a religious wedge without proper knowledge of Islam and nobody did anything about it. People with such assessments are extremely harmful to peace process in the world. And as an ex-advisor, he had no role in decision-making. However, such individuals with zero religious tolerance and anti-interfaith harmony sentiments, working in the US administration, are capable of bringing clash of civilisations. So, people carrying such anti-religious ideologies should be kept far away from decision-making. Another factor which adds to the equation is the one man show. American politics is relying only on the decisions made by President Trump whereas his style of doing politics is far different and dangerous than the men in the past. With the growing interest in the Middle East, the US itself is heading towards autocracy /individual empowerment while dealing with most of undemocratic governments. President Trump mocking his own justice system and calling his State Department unnecessary signals his growing inclination towards autocracy. Paul Brooker in his book states that the modern autocracy is not ruled by one individual or a chief, but it is a set of powerful men across the globe, who make decisions, good or bad. President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia and the US role in support for coups in Egypt and Thailand have become highly suspicious now. This circus of division of world based on autocracy will lead the world towards the Third World War as Individual powerful leaders are following their own rules instead of following democratic norms. Similarly, in our neighbouring India, there is one more layer to the standards of politics. After Mr Modi won the 2014 Lok Sabah elections, the Indian public had a taste of the sort of politics they entered. That is the name-calling. The choice of language and words, some really of lowest quality, entered the Indian political discourse. In India, politics has become a power-grabbing game. Also politics is becoming a business, blatantly so; openly it is seeking power and unaccounted for wealth and more and more the same type of greedy activity. Most recently, I happened to see another circus character who happens to be a foreign minister of India, reading the speech of the foreign minister of Norway instead of representing his own country and there was no remorse on his face. What was more shocking that after this blunder, he was welcomed by his own Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is known to be a master of exploiting terrorism and plays circus on the heads of innocent Muslims in India and Kashmir. He is yet another character of circus creating embarrassment for people of India on many occasions, especially for those who are highly educated and intellectual. Modi is also no stranger to controversial statements and has been firing salvo after salvo. For instance, in 2012, he launched a personal attack on central minister Shashi Tharoor by calling his wife, Sunanda Pushkar, a “50-crore girlfriend”, the media furor was at its peak. Tharoor himself responded, “My wife is priceless.” Everyday, we see such statements and it looks as if the world is becoming a theatre where leadership plays in fiction, cheap publicity rather than following facts for the betterment of their respective people. In the same way, the mysterious sudden resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister also sparked a political crisis that is escalating longstanding tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and raises the real prospect of an open warfare between the two Middle Eastern powers. The intrigue began on November 4 when Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri suddenly announced his resignation in Saudi Arabia that had forced him to resign against his will and was holding him under house arrest. And now Saudi Arabia ordered its citizens to leave Lebanon. That’s the fourth time in five years that Riyadh has made such a request. Saudi allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also requested their citizens to leave Lebanon. So what may have at first seemed a small political issue in Lebanon may turn into a wider Middle East quagmire. And that’s a bad news for a region already in turmoil. Democracy is being humiliated in all parts of the world and immorality is being taken for granted. These leaders believe only in the verbal norms of democracy whereas when it comes to the third world issues, they are the best to create circus-cracy by disrespecting them and issuing humiliating statements for each other’s station. The world politics is losing morality. Unfortunately, the use of abusive language, the hurling of baseless and damaging accusations and the mocking of opponents have already been accepted as political norms in Pakistan. Ironically, all this is done in the name of upholding morality. While such practices are more or less part of the political culture of all South Asian nations, Pakistan in particular, the morality tool is used by the powers that be to legitimize or delegitimize certain political actors. Academically, the rule of law is distinguished from democracy, human rights and social justice. The rule of law neither challenges morality nor intervenes in political or democratic processes. But power elites confuse the rule of law with morality, believing that authoritarian structures can be sustained only on moral grounds. Where does the public stand in the debate over the rule of law and morality? The PML-N leadership is using the argument that it is the right of the people to decide the fate of the government through electoral process. However, the public support cannot be an alternative to the supremacy of the law, as people choose a government to govern under the Constitution and the rule of law. Secondly, the electoral accountability applies to government performance, not to an individual’s conduct violating the rule of law. Leaders are expected to behave decently and not to behave like jokers, cross-fighting with jokes, abusive remarks against physical appearances and dialogue of cheap comedy theatre. Not to talk of the world, Pakistan has also been engineered from democracy to circus-cracy because of no rule of law and individuals have taken over the system and play with the system by creating their own tune best suitable to them. Mockery of the parliament, humiliation of the judiciary and criticism of the most prestigious constitutional institutions have become a norm of the day, converting the country into a theatre of comedy rather than a responsible Islamic state. I will be absolutely right to state that statements and attitudes are deteriorating both abroad and in my own country where I see a circus like situation on front pages of newspapers and, in the evening, on TV screens and the way I see the leadership humiliating each other is no less than a circus. Where are decency and political parameters for all of us? Where from the senior leadership uses abusive, non-parliamentary and comedian Filmi dialogue for cheap publicity and cheap popularity? Both must learn that badmouthing and cheap language will add negativity to the development process in the world. Therefore, I humbly request the world leaders to let the democracy be democracy, not a circus-cracy to the disappointment of the world. I hope these words of mine would be taken seriously by the present rulers and prominent political parties so that they stop this circus of abusing institutions and use of abusive language against their political opponents. Otherwise, this war of words and humiliation of institutions through staged circus will perhaps contribute to harming the democracy. There is no more room for political circus-cracy and humiliation because the way it is being played is no less than a circus where intellectualism, decency and respect for status is evaporating with each passing day. The writer is a recipient of Sitara-e-Shujat, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, chairman of think-tank Global Eye & former interior minister of Pakistan. @Email: rmalik1212@gmail.com Twitter @Senrehmanmalik , @GlobalEye_GSA WhatsApp +923325559393
