After Noon

So here’s the bitter truth: Noon ain’t gettin’ it. Yep, they’re just not gettin’ it.

And that’s really weird. It’s weird because Noon has been around since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. It’s rooted in the soil, so to speak. The squirming tentacles it sports wiggle down to the lowest of levels, yes galli mohalla type level. The party has workers spread over every inch of Punjab, drinking lustily from the patronage wells being dug up in a neighbourhood near them. They are supposed to have their ear to the ground; finger on the pulse, etc. They are supposed to feel the slightest shift in mood, the ever-so-delicate fluidity of emotion and the slightest of change in morale.

And yet Noon ain’t just gettin’ it. It’s really weird.

Except it’s not.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visits flood affectees in Jhang on Saturday. He’s wearing his traditional light-coloured shalwar kameez and waistcoat. Cufflinks glitter on his wrists as he addresses a gathering through a megaphone. And what does he say? That his government is not corrupt; that he’s not doing anybody any favour by coming here; that he will use funds to help the poor. Blah, blah and blah.

This is officialspeak. Serious, unadulterated, toxically-rich officialspeak. The thing about officialspeak is that it is derived from a strange language called officialese, which comes from a number of places — except the heart. And that is the problem with our third-time prime minister: he’s not feeling it. Which is perhaps why he is not getting it. Yes, there is a soft rumble on the ground; a faint echo of a distant thunder; dark tidings of a storm building across the horizon. Yes, the wind has picked up; the leaves are flailing about, trees leaning to one side and the air quietly belching moisture.

But Chief Noon is not getting it. It’s a train wreck in slow motion. A classic case of a hardened politician missing the change even as it opens up like a giant yawn in his face. Noon derives its strength from its traditional way of politicking — the way of clans, biradris, electable candidates and their captive vote banks, and of course, working the system to their advantage. That’s how politics has been waged in this country forever. That’s how it spins around a system lubricated with taxpayer money and state patronage. Here, Noon excels like no other. And so Noon keeps muscling its way back into power.

But now Noon is not adapting to the change. Noon is not being flexible and innovative. Noon is lumbering like it is weighed down by heavy body armour. Yes, this constitutional armour may provide Noon some protection, but the opponent is nimble, agile, energised and fuelled by hi-octane motivation. As steel blades collide, and passions drips down like heavy sweat, a new discourse is being born amongst us. This birth spawns tales of a glorious future where moth-eaten tradition will sleep with the fishes while glorious idealism will roam our land like a tiger uncaged. Such tales are now echoing across the airwaves, mobilising men, women and children to transform themselves into mammoth crowds gyrating to a music that weaves dreams and promises a better tomorrow.

But wait.

Winds of change can also sweep away a sense of reality. And the reality is that fiery rhetoric can fuel passions and drive movements, but it cannot construct change brick by agonising brick. Imran Khan’s juggernaut is gathering momentum by the day. His every jalsa is hammer-blow to Noon; his every accusation an arrow piercing deep into the government’s soft, blubbery flesh. The hunger for a new dawn is revitalising a dejected electorate, and Noon is fast finding itself on the wrong side of the future. But if David does indeed fell Goliath; if our political Godzilla is indeed brought crashing down by a thousand fatal blows; if Gulliver is in fact tied down, and kept down by the political Lilliputians; if all this were actually to happen, what then?

What after Noon?

Here’s where the fairy tale begins. Or ends, depending on how you look at it. This system that we have, this system abhors change. It is a system evolved over centuries, held together by tradition, by family and clan linkages, by a steel web of kinship and patronage, all housed within an archaic state that is hard, brittle and resistant to any kind of change. It is Noon that is dependent on this system, not the other way round. Yes, Noon feeds of this system and extracts the most out of it, but it is the system that ultimately nourishes Noon. Noon may go. The system will most certainly not.

And this reality will knock the dreamers awake. The reality that we are awash in tradition and inertia; the reality that deconstructing a status quo regime will not usher in utopia; the reality that Imran Khan ascending the Pakistani throne will not lead to a dramatic transformation of this nation. Slaying Noon may bring satisfaction, it will not bring an end to status quo.

After Noon, we will continue to suffer the high noon of an unrepenting system built to last external shocks. Change in this modern world is a generational phenomenon, driven by patience and perseverance. Change in our context will mean living with a humbled but persistent Noon, a chastened but determined PPP and the all-pervasive establishment that likes to keep change on a tight leash.

The Khan juggernaut’s success lies in the fact that it has triggered an avalanche of emotion; and set the wheels of change in motion. This juggernaut is now leading the charge against Noon and all that it represents. It would soon discover that taking down Noon was the easy part. The real battle will begin when it comes face to face with the system that feeds all — including many in the PTI juggernaut itself.

After Noon, the story actually begins.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2014.

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