Too dangerous to contest?

Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, while addressing officers in Lahore Garrison on April 17, said misinformation and propaganda threaten state integrity requiring a timely response to effectively counter speculations and rumours. Without referring to the ongoing social media campaign from the followers of ex-PM Imran Khan, Gen Bajwa said the Army draws its strength from people and any effort to create a wedge between the army and the people won’t be tolerated. One wonders what is stopping the State from taking action against those involved in this dangerous game. Such action should have already been taken because the poison is already reaching the brains and hearts of the youth.

DG ISPR Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, while briefing the media about the circumstances that led to Imran Khan being voted out of power, said the Army had nothing to do with political developments. However, senior PTI leader and former federal minister Shireen Mazari instantly rejected the DG ISPR’s statement, creating further doubts against the military leadership. Other members of Imran’s former cabinet are also directly or indirectly claiming that everybody was involved in “this regime change conspiracy carried out at the behest of the US”.

Civil-military relationship is one of the most sensitive issues for Pakistan because our enemies don’t leave any chance to harm us, and the current situation is much more dangerous when the followers of a populist leader are trying to create doubts against the military leadership. Unfortunately, this is leader who had never been contested by anybody in the past rather he had been praised and promoted as a forerunner fighting against a system that was producing traitors, liars, thieves and corrupt and criminal politicians. This leader became the first-ever PM in the history of Pakistan who never did a handshake with opponents in National Assembly during his three and a half years in power because he thought the entire opposition was chor i.e. thief.

Imran’s opponents claim he is an anarchist and narcissist who has an inflated sense of his own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration. Some political scientists claim he has become a cult leader and we know that cult followers are programmed in a way that they feel supremacism effects in their existence, their cognitive system trained to un-inquisitionaly follow the rules. In a psychopathological cult, the leader is considered sacred and heavenly and acts in a divine way. The human mind’s higher-order cognitive functions such as reasoning, judging, evaluation and decision-making get mercilessly impaired, and followers behave like a herd and find comfort in that.

Differences between political parties and cults can be studied under the cult models and I had been researching this issue in reference to cognitive and semiotic theories. Cults have a fixed paradigm of being righteous, pious and worthy while political parties keep the possibility of being wrong in the past and fixing the ill within them. Political parties work within the rule of competing with each other. The cult leader creates his entire narrative around the difficult yet desired ideals, for instance, peace, justice for all, and a utopia that no sane person can offer and cult leaders nurture their narrative by dehumanising their rivals, portraying them as the lowest of humankind.

We have seen in history that cult regime disobeys conventional norms of public speaking that provide space for linguistics, and offers dictions that are highly polluted with slurs, name-calling, and sarcastic puns. Unapologetic conduct becomes the new normal. If we try to understand the semiotics of populism and populist leader, we will find at the core a flawed personality that signifies the chaotic life of youth, especially under uncertain circumstances, such as a weak state, and an insecure future. Mostly a cult leader is relatable to youth by signifying all the flaws and bumpy track record of the leader contrary to conventional leadership which must be picture perfect; a straight life, a wife two perfect kids, a smooth-paced career, and a socially acceptable past.

Instead of engaging ourselves in the debate about whether Imran Khan is a cult leader or not, I believe we should educate youth that any human can be wrong to a certain level and nobody is perfect in the human world.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2022.

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