Has our politics learnt at all?

Waziristan rally was work of an ordinary politician on routine day out with flash & disposable gimmicks, but shallow.

Ask a political scientist of a local pedigree of what the soon to be completed five years of the political rule may have bequeathed and he is sure to recount at least the following three: five years of undisturbed democratic rule — the ruling party is likely to make a song and dance of it when that materialises; the emergence of Imran Khan — one is tempted to say ‘rise’ but is soon tempered into reality; and, perhaps the rationality that seems to have dawned on Mian Nawaz Sharif as he matures with political  experience. Of these, Mian Sahib having had the luxury of a bystander away from the thick of political fray seems to have imbibed most off the essence that should define politicking even in a country as socially behind times as Pakistan.

Imran Khan’s recent foray, or a feint as we would call in military strategy, into Waziristan showcased the complete spectrum of how our politicians envisage practicing their art in this country. Don’t get me wrong; I am for Imran Khan to succeed — brilliantly, I hope, for on his shoulders are pinned the hopes of too many innocent Pakistanis — as indeed I wish any other, Mian Sahib or President Asif Ali Zardari, to succeed for the sake of Pakistan. But the spectacle was too transparent. It was vintage Pakistani politics. And, this from a leader that carries the hopes of 21st century Pakistan; someone who carries the benefit of unmatched Western exposure where politics is based on issues, not emotions and passionate frenzy. I know it is the Pakistani society that lays the demand and hence the haberdash that politicians supply, but then who has the responsibility to raise the society to modern standards of awareness and expectations? Education is one route, but there is also the informal route through those who claim a direct relationship with the masses — the politicians — using the available avenues of routine politics such as the PTI’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa rally and the pervasive media that multiplies such options of interaction. Here is  a question for the PTI bigwigs: how was this rally different from any, say, conducted in the remote towns and villages of southern Punjab or Sindh, by a leader who is not as 21st ‘centurist’ as Imran Khan? I am clearly avoiding naming anyone here; fill those into your liking.

Onto the purpose. Drones are a problem in some manner of thinking, perhaps, in the specificity of what their cumulative strategic disadvantage has been in the Fata experience — and the jury is out on that despite venerable names of Legal Clinics from both Stanford and New York — but they clearly are not the only element beguiling peace in Fata and Afghanistan. The insidious attack on Malala Yousufzai practically encompasses the intractable complexity that rules our tribal regions far beyond the reductionist lament of drones alone. I am afraid I did watch Talat Hussain of Express News grilling Imran Khan on his conceived strategy to bring peace on our western borders. Those who saw the interview will know what I mean. Unfortunately, the apparent treatment to an issue of such prime importance to the long-term health of Pakistan appeared superficial, if anything. Mere sloganeering may cause popular support but still does not make a strategy. When we resort to religion and fatalism as a refuge, we do not have a strategy. To stop a war, we should not begin another. Leaders are meant to keep nations out of war, not walk into one. I was disappointed, simply because I know the sincerity of intent and the capacity at the top tiers within the PTI, and an absence of an A-Z consideration when dealing with an issue of such fundamental criticality was disconcerting.

What Mr Khan may be losing sight of is how his party seems to be shaping up as it grows. Many have gravitated to Mr Khan and to the available structure of his party in the hope of finding abode or, at least, proximity in the harem of power and privilege. This includes politicians, some who are revered, bureaucrats finally hoping to make it big and the military types who can always seek a shorter route to relevance and ‘second coming’ after their halcyon days in their previous lives. And there are academics and reactionaries and those with some experience with NGO philosophies. Such a motley mix is bound to engender competitiveness for the attention of the Khan. They seek opportunity rather than exude commitment to an idea and are, therefore, prone to offer quick-fix solutions that lack the depth essential to a party that aspires to national leadership. This ultimately results in cheap, flashy and disposable gimmicks that can only embarrass their leadership. What results is mostly shallow.

Politics is not gimmickry; it is serious business. And one expects Imran Khan to change the paradigm of how politics must be done in this country if we wish to make anything of it. Else, the roost will continue to be haunted by those that already crowd it. The PTI is a political party, not an NGO, nor a human rights watch group, nor an adventure club; it must not lend itself to objectives incompatible with the status it seeks.

In a broader sense, then, Imran Khan’s rally to the borders of Waziristan lacked substance. It lacked enunciating a strategy that can bring peace to the unfortunate region and to Pakistan. With the world media focused on how Mr Khan may offer to solve what bedevils the world, it was an opportunity lost. Imran Khan could have been that leader who could deliver the world out, at least in our regions, of its most vexing new war against sub-state actors. Instead, what we heard was patently ordinary, routine, combative, and non-statesmanlike. The gravitas of a leader is the sum total of his mind, his vision, his heart, his experience and his ability to communicate all of that to those who lay hope in him. Sadly, this was not the case. It was the work of an ordinary politician on a routine day out. He needs to question himself and those around him on why the people should vote for him and not Nawaz Sharif or President Zardari. Not because he is Imran Khan. Unknown to him, he is being increasingly sucked into this whirlpool of misplaced aggrandisement.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2012.