Empire, court and court jesters

When the homeland is in danger, God and the soldiers are called for; and when danger passes, God is forgotten and soldier is judged.

An essential part of any form of warfare and statecraft is ‘know your enemy’. Sun Tzu instructed this almost 2,500 years earlier, somewhere around 500 BC. Good intelligence is extremely essential for the conduct of any form of warfare, without it, it’s difficult to win wars. In WOT (war on terror) and in the lead-up to victory, good intelligence continuously helps save lives. The policymakers (politicians) can make better decisions only when they have better information. Intelligence agencies provide them this information. Many countries and their security establishments around the world are deeply involved in fighting the war on terror yet we have never heard politics in these countries ridiculing the efforts of their own security agencies. Politics does nothing to erode their own security establishment’s tactical and strategic advantages. Why then in Pakistan politics contributes to the erosion of the security forces advantages? Why politics in this country ends up indulging not only in weaponisation of social media but also use it to undermine the achievements of its own security forces?

Pakistan is a unique country in the world where its politicians (the younger lot that is taking over from their fathers) instead of creating powerful incentives for national unity give irresponsible statements against their own security establishment, devoid of any substantial input or information and suffering from spontaneity these politically incorrect statements only mislead the nation. Should our politicians take political stands that enhance the capabilities of our enemies and undermines ours? PTM-backed MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir who led and provoked an attack on the military check post had no business interfering with the military’s work at the tactical level. Being members of the National Assembly, their status propels them to politically engage at macro and not micro level — not in any case to interfere with the business of the security establishment.

What these MNAs (being the extension of Manzoor Pashteen and his foreign sponsored, funded and guided movement) did was anticipated as well as expected, but what the leadership of the PML-N and the PPP is doing is pitiable and politically pathetic. Nowhere in the world politicians stand up against their own institutions. After the 21^st century great shock, the US has spent billions of dollars to prevent another 9/11. US intelligence services and its military may have made many mistakes but they were never ridiculed and were only credited by the American people for having sacrificed their lives for preventing many other attacks on the US homeland. Many analysts are even calling this period the ‘most successful period in the American intelligence’. What are our politicians doing? What about national dignity, pride, self-respect, honour and sacrifice? What about adhering to some principles, ethics, and values to seek common national ends? Why are we like this? Maybe there is an answer.

There was a time that there were centralised monarchies in Europe including the monarchies of 16^th and 17^th century King Louis III of France and Phillip II of Spain. All they did was consolidate power and rule over slavish empires. Then came the period of Enlightenment and the Europeans stopped becoming Princesses and Emperors and amongst many things that changed slavery was abolished, women got their rights and the Emperors courts stopped having the clowns and the court jesters. The ‘privileged laugh provokers’ the court jesters and the clowns in the Emperors Courts had a definite sense of purpose and their presence always remained significant as the Emperor had to be kept happy and with nothing but pure entertainment that these court jesters provided. We learn about these clowns and jesters popularly known as ‘Shakespeare’s fools’ in many Shakespeare’s plays such as Touchstone in ‘As you like it’, Feste in ‘Twelfth Night’, Bottom in ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ and the unnamed fool in ‘King Lear’. All these court jesters and clowns retired as the Empires finally collapsed and the world became very serious and democratic.

But not in Pakistan. Politics in Pakistan over the last many decades has continued to produce not leaders but ‘Emperors’, Princes and Princesses, all of whom hold an absolutely different world view — ‘ an armchair, sofa, drawing room view’ of the environment and circumstances of the lives of the poor people that they rule. The many court jesters and the clowns that surround them are equally ignorant of the sufferings of the people and they induce in their Emperor’s, Prince and Princesses satisfaction and smiles by reminding them how popular and well-loved they are in the masses. Their difference of income, the standards of living, education, vacations and even work environment has no resemblance to the poor people that suffer under their rule. While their rise to aristocracy is the maintenance and sustenance of their Kingdoms and the Thorne on which they sit and rule — the ruled are oppressed as the corrupt and inefficient state that these aristocrats created has gifted them nothing but poverty.

We don’t have to search for today’s clowns and the court jesters in the Emperors courts — we find them on television, on Twitter, Face book, Instragram, in fact all over the social media doing the same thing what their predecessors did — appease their lordship and masters. Licensed to present (repeatedly) political arguments in the defence of their lordship and thus providing unlimited laughter and entertainment to their listeners (audience). When will we get serious? When will this nation like the ancient Chinese or Europeans politically jettison their Emperors together with their clowns and court jesters? When will the Emperors end their drama which is no more popular finally leave the political space to be occupied by the leadership which is from within the poor suffering people of this country?

It is being said that after Eid the surviving Emperors of the great Empire of Pakistan are likely to put up a great political show. That they will challenge the writ of the government and even the security establishment by maybe incorporating PTM’s protest brigade in their ranks as well.

To Imran Khan and his government, I can only suggest: be the Erdogan that you can be; be assertive, autocratic, authoritative and ruthless like him. Before democracy this land needs order in the society. It’s time for the Emperors to step down; it’s time for the clowns and court jesters to seek other courts. It’s time for Pakistan to finally make amends and move forward.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2019.

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