The dangerous increase in tolerance
Transparency International report 2017 states that 70% Pakistanis pay bribes to people in the police and courts
The writer is a consultant, coach, analyst and a politician and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail,com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas
Intolerance is a trait that we all condemn. But does that mean that its opposite, ie, tolerance is what we should embrace? It depends on what our choice for tolerance or intolerance is, on what we consider ethical or unethical and on what we consider acceptable or unacceptable. The growing tolerance to absorb, accept, value and celebrate indiscipline, inequity, injustice has made this society a tale of ridiculous depravity where every day we achieve a new low in what is the worst that can happen to us.
If there was an insensitivity index that could measure the response of the society on social issues we would find a shockingly high read on it. Being human is about being four-dimensional, ie, body, mind, heart and soul. The body to live, the mind to think, the heart to feel and the soul to go beyond, and, all these four need some functional pre-requisites. When the main focus of attention is the body and the other parts are not being catered to there is little to choose between animals and humans. Everyday such shocking incidents happen all around us and the reaction is normally so minimal both in scale and duration that the incident becomes a norm.
Be it minor girls being raped, or housemaids being tortured, or billions of rupees of cash pouring out of bureaucrats’ homes, the tolerance level for such social atrocities has increased. In fact, it has reached levels where they are just gossip scandals to be shared on videos that are quickly overtaken by hundreds of other videos showing the latest affair or divorce of a celebrity. Bomb blasts are a common occurrence and will only be noticed for more than a few hours if the number of deaths exceed 20. Anything less is tolerable and forgettable. Road accidents that kill or maim hundreds of innocent people do not even register as they are reduced to just a temporary ticker on television. The protesting public will just flash across screens till they are beaten or killed to command more attention. This high tolerance for crime, corruption, inequity, and tragedy is a serious case of human failure.
The spike in the crime rate, the deterioration in education standards, the appalling service delivery in public sector organisations, the exploitation of consumers at the hand of traders, the increase in the religious, class and gender divide are all a consequence of high tolerance for letting things be till they become social evils. Whether it is the blatant cheating in academia or the tragic murder of Mashal Khan, the story remains the same — ignore and look away from the minor social and institutional deviations and they will gain a critical mass which then will define how the society works.
The recent uproar on the rampant cheating in the school board examinations is creating a ripple due to the social media revolution of videos getting viral. Imagining an academic world in this country where exam papers are not leaked out and students are punished for buying or copying them is ridiculous. According to many estimates, almost 70% students cheat in exams and almost 85% plagiarise assignments. This is such a common occurrence that when there was a scandal of a Pakistani doctoral thesis being penalised for plagiarism it came as a surprise.
Transparency International report 2017 states that 70% Pakistanis pay bribes to people in the police and courts. Overall, according to the report, the bribery rate in Pakistan is 40%. Service users that paid a bribe by institutions in Pakistan include 75% to the police; 68% to courts, 61% to government’s water, sanitation or electric services departments; 38% to identity documents, voter’s card, permit from government; 11% to public clinic or hospitals; and 9% to public schools. The bribes are not just to get legitimate work done but also to get jobs, postings and transfers. This institutional corruption is tolerated without batting an eye and the tragic part is that analysts will implore that undue attention should not be paid to it and that we must focus on “public issues”.
However, public issues are a manifestation of a deeper virus that untended systemic rot infiltrates in the moral fabric of the society. It is the high tolerance to this institutional decay that is responsible for these evils. Positions in key institutions are auctioned on connections or on sale. In lower positions like drivers and peons the rate for getting a job is minimum Rs100,000. From Wapda to public universities, this is the norm. From vice-presidents to vice-chancellors, the tolerance level for accepting illegal appointments is at an all-time high. And it takes the shocking murder of Mashal Khan to wake up the society, the police to set up an inquiry and the Supreme Court to issue a suo-motu notice. The JIT report on this incident clearly shows that it was not blasphemy but the illegal appointees of people with criminal records that planned this activity. The report revealed what we already know and tolerate by looking the other way.
It is understandable that the poor are fighting a battle for survival where load-shedding and a meal a day are major issues. What is not understandable is the tolerance of the intellectual diaspora who dismiss corruption as part of a social DNA and thus unchangeable. Just blaming politics or the police and courts will not solve the problem as it is the collective tolerance of the society to wrongdoing that gives space for crime to flourish. Mashal Khan was ditched by each one of us to fight a lone battle — and the battle started much before mob lynching incident. He was the one who protested against the university mafia; he was the one who could not tolerate the deviation of standards and illegal practices on campus. He was the one who had the courage to stand up against the corrupt gangs. And tragically he was the one who paid the price for the apathy and tolerance that we, as members of this society, are constantly justifying.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2017.
If there was an insensitivity index that could measure the response of the society on social issues we would find a shockingly high read on it. Being human is about being four-dimensional, ie, body, mind, heart and soul. The body to live, the mind to think, the heart to feel and the soul to go beyond, and, all these four need some functional pre-requisites. When the main focus of attention is the body and the other parts are not being catered to there is little to choose between animals and humans. Everyday such shocking incidents happen all around us and the reaction is normally so minimal both in scale and duration that the incident becomes a norm.
Be it minor girls being raped, or housemaids being tortured, or billions of rupees of cash pouring out of bureaucrats’ homes, the tolerance level for such social atrocities has increased. In fact, it has reached levels where they are just gossip scandals to be shared on videos that are quickly overtaken by hundreds of other videos showing the latest affair or divorce of a celebrity. Bomb blasts are a common occurrence and will only be noticed for more than a few hours if the number of deaths exceed 20. Anything less is tolerable and forgettable. Road accidents that kill or maim hundreds of innocent people do not even register as they are reduced to just a temporary ticker on television. The protesting public will just flash across screens till they are beaten or killed to command more attention. This high tolerance for crime, corruption, inequity, and tragedy is a serious case of human failure.
The spike in the crime rate, the deterioration in education standards, the appalling service delivery in public sector organisations, the exploitation of consumers at the hand of traders, the increase in the religious, class and gender divide are all a consequence of high tolerance for letting things be till they become social evils. Whether it is the blatant cheating in academia or the tragic murder of Mashal Khan, the story remains the same — ignore and look away from the minor social and institutional deviations and they will gain a critical mass which then will define how the society works.
The recent uproar on the rampant cheating in the school board examinations is creating a ripple due to the social media revolution of videos getting viral. Imagining an academic world in this country where exam papers are not leaked out and students are punished for buying or copying them is ridiculous. According to many estimates, almost 70% students cheat in exams and almost 85% plagiarise assignments. This is such a common occurrence that when there was a scandal of a Pakistani doctoral thesis being penalised for plagiarism it came as a surprise.
Transparency International report 2017 states that 70% Pakistanis pay bribes to people in the police and courts. Overall, according to the report, the bribery rate in Pakistan is 40%. Service users that paid a bribe by institutions in Pakistan include 75% to the police; 68% to courts, 61% to government’s water, sanitation or electric services departments; 38% to identity documents, voter’s card, permit from government; 11% to public clinic or hospitals; and 9% to public schools. The bribes are not just to get legitimate work done but also to get jobs, postings and transfers. This institutional corruption is tolerated without batting an eye and the tragic part is that analysts will implore that undue attention should not be paid to it and that we must focus on “public issues”.
However, public issues are a manifestation of a deeper virus that untended systemic rot infiltrates in the moral fabric of the society. It is the high tolerance to this institutional decay that is responsible for these evils. Positions in key institutions are auctioned on connections or on sale. In lower positions like drivers and peons the rate for getting a job is minimum Rs100,000. From Wapda to public universities, this is the norm. From vice-presidents to vice-chancellors, the tolerance level for accepting illegal appointments is at an all-time high. And it takes the shocking murder of Mashal Khan to wake up the society, the police to set up an inquiry and the Supreme Court to issue a suo-motu notice. The JIT report on this incident clearly shows that it was not blasphemy but the illegal appointees of people with criminal records that planned this activity. The report revealed what we already know and tolerate by looking the other way.
It is understandable that the poor are fighting a battle for survival where load-shedding and a meal a day are major issues. What is not understandable is the tolerance of the intellectual diaspora who dismiss corruption as part of a social DNA and thus unchangeable. Just blaming politics or the police and courts will not solve the problem as it is the collective tolerance of the society to wrongdoing that gives space for crime to flourish. Mashal Khan was ditched by each one of us to fight a lone battle — and the battle started much before mob lynching incident. He was the one who protested against the university mafia; he was the one who could not tolerate the deviation of standards and illegal practices on campus. He was the one who had the courage to stand up against the corrupt gangs. And tragically he was the one who paid the price for the apathy and tolerance that we, as members of this society, are constantly justifying.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2017.