Trust and tragedy

The numbers never quite added up. It would have taken over a hundred years at the current rate. Then with the devaluation, all that was collected was worthless. There was a thinly veiled threat, that those who opposed the fund were to be considered traitors. In the court of public opinion, those who were bothered or raised questions were already considered unpatriotic, corrupt or worse, guilty of treason. The whole façade collapsed soon. Last week — we heard directly that there was no real plan to execute, there was not going to be any dam after all. This was, we are told, a sincere effort just to raise awareness!

Costly awareness it was. For one, never was it mentioned — while the over-the-top songs were created or the ads were aired or when the Pakistan consulate in New York website was adorned with the appeal — that these funds were not going to lead to a tangible structure. The list of false hopes is long — but just in the last six months, several instances show the duplicity of the whole campaign. In July 2018, Wapda officers donated part of their salary, they genuinely thought that they were giving to a real infrastructure, not for awareness. On August 3^rd, 2018 — the government notified its employees that it was going to deduct two days’ salary from officers and one-day salary from employees for the fund. The footnote that it was only for awareness was clearly missing. On August 25^th, 2018 we heard from the champion of the cause himself that the attacks in Gilgit-Batistan (of August 3^rd, 2018) were reaction to the imminent construction of the dam. One wonders, now in hindsight, were the attacks in response to the awareness campaign?

Some may argue that this was all for good cause — and there is now increased awareness in the country. I am very skeptical about that argument. Except for the awareness about the scam, and steamrolling any dissent or debate, there is no real awareness about our practices and behaviour. No one is saving more water, discussing conservation or talking about new strategy. Some are saying “I told you so” and others are coming up with weak excuses to defend their gullibility.

Unfortunately, there are no heroes in this story. Those who fell for the scam, or those who argued against it — we all lost. The financial loss of many, who live paycheck to paycheck, and were ‘forced’ to donate is real and painful. They deserve to be heard, apologised to and compensated for being misled. But there is also a collective loss. It is the loss of trust in the system. It is the loss of trust in those who sit at the top of the pyramid and claim to honour nothing but truth, fairness, equity and justice. It is the loss in future campaigns that might actually be based in substance and not in ego and institutional overreach. The real loss is that of our future.

We know, first hand, what happens when trust is lost in those who are supposed to take care of us. Anyone who has ever worked in public health and vaccination knows how the loss of trust in the polio eradication efforts (thanks to the CIA’s plot) has cost us dearly. Rebuilding trust will take time, and if that rebuilding ever happens it will call for transparency in our actions, honesty in our words and a desire to honour our contract with our people. And most importantly, it will require a recognition that someone who disagrees with the mighty and the powerful in the high offices can be just as patriotic.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2019.

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