Descent of politics into warfare

Democracy's fate depends on many factors but it most crucially depends on behaviour of political leaders, parties

Descent of politics into warfare is a recent gift of the government and the opposition to the people of Pakistan. Politics in Pakistan has always complained that it has been treated unfairly by the establishment but for it to execute an unwarranted assault on itself is unprecedented. Our Parliament where the legislators undertook a pledge of loyalty to serve the constitution and the people of this country has only become a debating club where the ‘promoters of rule of law’ no more respect law — democracy in Pakistan is backsliding like a heavy boulder and the democrats are finding it harder and harder to push it. The boulder has backrolled earlier in this country and I hope it doesn’t backroll again.

The fate of democracy depends on many factors but most crucially it depends upon the behaviour of the political leaders and their parties. As long as the politics and those who practise it in this country don’t learn how to distance themselves from their leadership’s ‘worst behaviour’ and ‘controversial moves’, politics in this country will only muddle forward.

Former US president Donald Trump appointed his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner on high-level advisory positions. These appointments were technically legal but violated the democratic norms and the spirit of law. The same spirit of law is violated every day in this country. Norms are not written, they are created, protected, understood and practised. Norms become those soft guardians of democracy that hold democracy together at its seam. When norms are violated, ‘the zone of acceptable political behaviour expands’. What we saw in the Parliament on February 4 was the breakdown of democratic norms and because of that the zone of the poor behaviour of our parliamentarians continues to expand.

Yet again, the opposition is ready to embark on a long march. Despite knowing that the government’s popularity has not eroded, the PDM has decided to execute this political strategy. The strength of the current political system lies in the great support that the government has been able to draw from the military; and knowing that the alternative is worst, the military will continue to support the system rather than contribute in any manner to its disruption. So, all that we are likely to witness is lot of time wastage and postponement and abandonment of so many more important causes that matter to this country so much. I find no reason for Prime Minister Imran Khan to even temporarily overlook disagreements in order to find common ground with the opposition. Both the PDM and the government will continue to reach out and appeal to people and I think PM Imran’s appeal is being heard with more seriousness than that of the opposition.

Appealing to the masses reminds me of Abraham Lincoln’s principle of democracy which says, “You can fool some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time but not all the people all the time.” The people of Pakistan have suffered. They suffered both during the military as well as the civilian rule. What is different today is that all that suffering that used to remain subsurface now surfaces with great ease. It’s like how violence was the cause of 15% of human deaths in the agricultural age, it was the cause of 5% of human deaths in the 20^th century and only 1% human beings have died due to violence in the 21^st century. Yet the world looks harsher, more violent and more uncontrolled than at any other time in human history. Imran Khan’s government may be making mistakes but the future governments are also likely to continue doing so because of how easy it has become to determine and expose failures.

If politics was more knowledgeable it would regret its decent into warfare. If there was more sensible politics nourishing in Pakistan, we would have our politicians doing their business in parliaments and not out on the streets. Hitler hated the Jews and wanted to obliterate them and waged a war against them. Yet he and his hated ideology is dead and the Jews live on. They are just 0.2% of the population of the world but are the winners of 20% of the Nobel Peace Prizes in the world. Maybe they spent more time in the libraries, research centres, laboratories and universities. Maybe their elders made smart and better choices. Whatever the case, our leadership is dragging our young generation backwards, and they are calling them out on streets instead of making more universities for them and sending them there. Politics in this country tells lies, cheats and serves power instead of truth.

Pakistan’s politics great polarisation is likely to endure beyond PTI’s government. This polarisation is a result of the death of political norms in our democracy. Social resentment will continue to deepen depending on how politics is organised. Its descent into warfare needs to be prevented as it will not die of an assault from without, but given its likely trend it will die of one from within. The pursuit of politics as warfare suits only the ‘democratic losers’ — those who fear the loss of their political relevance which they perceive to be under existential threat. Any civilised brand of politics cannot be expected of these losers. They are the dividers and not the unifiers in our society who for their personal benefits will go to any limit to ignite the partisan warfare and force the defenders of the political system to bow to their coercing political methods. They don’t wage and fight the political war for this country; their vision of politics as warfare is limited to only seeking power. They are our new ‘serial democracy killers’. To confront them, and do that amicably, the government will have to exercise extreme caution and considerable restraint. History tells us that smart, popular and competent leaders in the world have gained power not by seeking it but by their readiness to give it up. Such have been the ways of the leaders who have been popular with the people.

Lastly, there is a lesson that the government needs to keep in mind while dealing with the PDM. That is actually a quote in the international bestseller book, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die. Explaining how a fly destroys a China Shop, they say that it buzzes in the ear of the bull and the bull rages in the China Shop and destroys everything there. So, the bottom line for the government is that despite the descent of politics into warfare of the PDM kind, when push comes to shove, it should not overreact.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2021.

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