A voter’s dilemma

A big fight lies ahead in the next general elections! It is going to be tough and emotionally taxing as much for voters as political leaders. And even for the invisible players here and abroad for reasons most of us know nothing or very little about. This piece focuses on the voter’s dilemma at the time when he enters the polling booth with double mind.

It would be an inner (cognitive) fight between two competing narratives infused in him over time by PTI on the one hand and all others on the other. Essentially, it is a seesaw of corruption and incompetence with slogans, speeches and stories structured around honesty versus effectiveness.

The PTI, despite having gone up 16 points on the recent TI’s corruption index from 124 to 140, keeps using the corruption narrative as its most lethal weapon against its two arch rivals — PML-N and PPP. Corruption, the PTI claims, has done irreparable damage to the economy, democracy and public institutions.

PM Imran Khan doesn’t miss an opportunity to call leadership of these parties by name and attribute every structural and cultural problem to elite capture. He believes Pakistan has failed to realise its full potential thanks to the continued nexus between power and property. A tiny rich class, IK asserts, has an inherent advantage over the bulk of population created by the British-designed apartheid education system which propels it to find place in all the power structures (legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary, military and media). Policy formulation and its execution, or lack of it, reflects interests of the elite rather than the state and society. Wealth, in Pakistan, is the source of power and vice versa.

Most people, particularly the urban-educated-middle class, have internalised this narrative. They are convinced that IK’s failure, to deliver on his promises, has to do more with the powerful mafia, which has hindered him from reforming the system of governance, than his competence and commitment. Despite their sympathies for IK, they are unlikely to vote for him next time given the fact that he too has made compromises on his principles (calling it strategic adjustment) just to cling to power. He is surrounded by ministers and advisers who were once the blue-eyed of someone else and share DNA with those who IK had promised to fight.

Contrary to IK’s sympathisers, a significant segment of population buys the ‘incompetence’ narrative developed and promoted by the opposition. It is now widely believed that IK, having no political background, had no deep insight into the complex interplay between institutions, Centre and provinces, and international relations. He had a grand vision (or delusion) of making Pakistan an economic powerhouse with ethical foundations of the state of Madina but had no plans to realise it. He has been running the country on trial and error basis and most often offers simplistic solutions to complex problems. Instead of fixing the system of governance, he deludes himself and his followers through quick fixes of making reshuffles in bureaucracy and in the cabinet.

But the narrative of incompetence, though appealing to reason and substantiated by what the common man experiences on a daily basis, does not give political edge to the opposition. Their own dismal performance over the years both at the Centre and in provinces and absence of democracy within their ranks, they (PML-N, PPP, JUI) cannot allure voters to try them again. And here lies the dilemma! People have lost faith in democracy which is evident from some surveys that point out an attitude of indifference (not voting for any party) creeping into the masses.

Democracy promotes accountability, transparency and rule of law only when it truly represents the people and when people own it. Elections, manipulated or poorly participated, hardly make any difference to the integrity and prosperity of a country. It is time for both the government and the opposition to come out with a ‘charter of governance’ to restore the lost confidence of people in democracy. There are signs of losing the train and losing it forever!

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2022.

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