Reinventing yourself through manipulation

When one of the most innovative political scientists, William H Riker, coined the term heresthetic in his pedagogical book The Art of Political Manipulation in 1986, who would know that, Imran Khan, the then shining cricket star, would precisely fall under his term in over three decades’ time. Riker sees politicians more than just rhetoricians who do not take the political world as they find it, but to invent new political processes in an attempt to gerrymandering the electoral results so as to tilt the political equilibrium in their favour.

Since its inception, the term heresthetic has been appended to many British leaders, to name a few, such as Robert Peel, a two-time British prime minister from the nineteenth century, among others include the prime ministers as recent as Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. These preceding British leaders skilfully employed 'heresthetic' as a tool of manipulation for managing, even deliberately fostering, conflicts within their cabinets and parliament in order to achieve their preferred outcomes.

It is no wonder that politicians engage in acts of creative destruction of their political opponents. As the winners, for instance, prime ministers or presidents, often do not need to do very much as they have already claimed the high ground in their political careers. They are only interested to play heresthetical defence to destroy the opportunities for their challengers to halt any chances of their winnings.

But it is the losers, the out-of-power aspirants, who are more keen to play a heresthetical offensive in inventing new dimensions of political conflicts and controversies. These losers in politics are always in a hunt to see how they can manipulate the relevant set of agenda by bringing in a new set of frameworks through a process of political assessment. They evaluate different political outcomes so they can advance their own agenda. In this game of manipulation, these losers will not hesitate to use all the available weapons at their disposal to alter the political processes to achieve their optimal point: premiership.

Like Peel, Thatcher and Blair, who infiltrated their political agendas in perpetuating conflicts in the British politics in order to attain their desired results, Imran Khan can be seen as the Pakistani version of heresthetical politician, nonetheless the difference between Imran and those British leaders is that, they had accomplished their optimal points whilst playing as herestheticians, and Imran is still on the march to get his one.

Imran raised his political fortunes from a single-man party to undoubtedly the second-largest party in the country, aspiring to be the first. When he established his party back in 1996 under the banner of Tehreek-e-Insaf, there was hardly anybody who took him seriously. This must have been an extraordinary journey for Imran which requires a great amount of commitment and determination. And, arguably, there was no better person than Imran Khan in Pakistan to demonstrate that higher level of stamina which he acquired through his time in sport.

With the passion to provide justice — an implicit resonance to the party’s emblem — to the people of Pakistan in the hope that he would use his cricket fame to lure his followers to turn the political league table upside down. However, Imran was unaware or naively overlooked the political realities on the ground. He, too, grasped politics as the bunch of some rhetoric which most politicians deliver to entice their followers, without realising that it is, in fact, a science of manipulation, a science of political manoeuvering as argued by Riker.

It is well said that defeat is the mother of all inventions and with Imran’s persistent losing streak against his arch-rivals gave birth to a new Imran: from an illusionary politician who was living in the bubble of his old fandom to a heresthetician who now comprehends the dynamics of being a clever politician as defined by Riker. Politics is not what you see from outside, politics is a manufacturing machine which constantly engages itself in producing propaganda so as to belittle and deprecate your political opponents by bringing in a new set of factors which favours one’s own agenda.

And Imran has mastered this by not letting the current incumbent settling into office since the election of 2013. He perpetually fostered an atmosphere of agitation in the forms of rallies and street protests as well as within parliament in doctoring new controversies day in and day out. He did not waste any opportunity where he could have brought the government to its knees, however with no success in this regard.

Apart from that, if we gaze at his party’s affairs, Khan is no different from any British herestheticians and had sequentially driven out most of his critics from his party who dared to come in his way and he would continue to do so in the future. It is reminiscent of Thatcher, who successfully managed to wipe out all the ‘wets’ — a term denoting the ministers who used to disagree with her economic policy — from her cabinet, ultimately paved the way for her to implement her own preferred policy.

Under the true spirit of the Riker’s term, persistent losers, like Khan, always have an incentive to repackage the issues so that they come together in a way that turns the tables. Of course, it takes artistic creativity at the highest level to invent precisely the right kind of new alternative.

Here comes the heresthetical device into play to divide the majority with a new alternative: one that he previously expected to win. If successful in doing this, this political manoeuvering will produce a new majority composed of old minority and the portion of the old majority will be a part of the new alternative. Remember the current debacle of so-called Janoobi Punjab Suba Mahaaz and its eventual merger with the PTI, and the party dubious role in the recent Senate elections, nevertheless at the minimalist level.

The logic of heresthetic is all about the art of constructing in new alternative so as to be able to manipulate outcomes. And since it applies both to winners and losers, it is the losers who are the desperate ones; they are the ones for whom survival is at stake; they are the ones who are driven by despair to seek ways to triumph; they are, therefore, the inventors. And Imran Khan is the inventor of contemporary Pakistani politics.

Imran had to wait many years on the sidelines as the 12th man before he grabbed this high stature in politics. As he has set his firm eyes on the biggest prize in politics, he is ever more determined.

And it is this very political manipulation which turned these losers in politics, sometimes, winners. Imran Khan is the new heresthetician.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2018.

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