The key stakeholder and people’s expectations

Projection of power is not about where you sit but where you stand


Dr Muhammad Ali Ehsan July 03, 2022
The writer is associated with International Relations Department of DHA Suffa University, Karachi. He tweets @Dr M Ali Ehsan

In the kleptocracy called Pakistan, power had long been concentrated in two dynastic political parties — responsible for our unhealed social, political and economic wounds. If power is defined as the ability to achieve intended results, then what were the intentions of these parties? If the intentions were well-meaning and noble, then why the results achieved by them have been so damaging for the country? Both parties benefited from the blessings of another key stakeholder of power which is a key asset of this country — the military establishment. But this key stakeholder also benefited from one other key asset: the lack of any serious challenger. It is when that challenger came that the whole ball game changed and so changed the entire dynamics of power in this country. Today the big question being asked in the country is: where should power reside and how should it be projected and by whom?

The political and social disruption being experienced in the country and its economic consequences are no surprise at all. Since the arrival of this new challenger on the political scene, the political debate has been deliberately shifted to whether he, along with his political manifesto, is acceptable or not. This is not for anybody to say but for the people to determine. The twisting and turning of the Constitution over the years or crafting of circumstances and conditions of regime change are all political gimmicks and superfluous, time-wasting activities. Those who have indulged in such activities have only pushed Pakistan’s progress back by years and punched the dignity and pride of this nation in its face. No nation can be proud of the looters and plunderers of its wealth. If there were not enough of them already ruling the roost, the news is that others who had run away from the process of accountability are planning to move back. This country doesn’t have a political system and that is why you can come and leave the corridors of power without being held responsible regardless of whatever you have done.

Projection of power is not about where you sit but where you stand. It is more about the intent and purpose for which you want to project that power and the skill and efficiency with which you want to utilise resources at your disposal. It is all right if one doesn’t understand this at individual level, but at the national level, the punishment for misunderstanding the abuse of power can be catastrophic. When the image-reality gap is far and deep, power in whichever hands it is concentrated sucks. The democratic image of this country is a farce. The reality is that democracy here is an arrangement only to conduct loot and plunder without being held accountable.

The key stakeholder of power that used to bring political sanity to the political talking tables has chosen to become disinterested. If nothing else, this key stakeholder was supporting and pushing the wound-healing political agendas in this country. Now with their disinterest and neutrality, the wound-healing talk and the hope that people used to attach to it has even gone off the table. The resultant people’s frustration is dangerous. What this disinterest has fed in the system and which is clearly noticeable is that everything today seems to be in a temporary existence — even the government is taken as temporary and nothing seems to be permanent not even the hope for this country’s good fortune.

People — who dare criticise or protest against the occupiers of these high offices from where public abuse flushes down in the form of government passing self-serving laws that bypass and shut down the process of their accounts — are being subjected to state coercion. The government is working to ensure that no reform takes place to act as a hurdle in their return to power when and if they have to go to the electorate. All values, ethics and morality within the country have hit a low point, and it will be unfair not to say that the society is breaking down and with it the country.

These politicians thrive on such illiberalism which helps them sustain their power. But the people never attached big hopes to the politicians, it was always the military establishment, the key stakeholder, that acted as their wound-healer. Politicians, none of whom have ever plowed a piece of land or carried a gun on their back with the purpose of defending this nation, were never considered redeemers, liberators and saviours of this nation. Their image has never been of those that fight and win the battles but those that huddle and sit around the bonfire after the battle is won. Therefore, this current political huddle, this get-together around a celebrating bonfire without winning any battle, is not acceptable to the people. Thus, their disappointment with the key stakeholder is not uncalled for.

FIRs are being registered against the very journalists with whom evidence was shared against the very people who were inflicting wounds on the body and spirit of this nation. Now those very people are back in power so how can such journalists be expected to go mute? The inability, or the unwillingness, of the key stakeholder to act as the national saviour is giving rise to a deep sense of national resentment. Pakistan’s image is taking a huge battering in the outside world. Our relationship with China seems not as warm as it used to be. CPEC seems to have slowed down considerably. There are reports that China even blocked our presence in the recent BRICS event on Indian insistence. All this doesn’t sound well about our strategic partnership with the country that we call our all-weather friend.

The intellectual structure of society is anxious, under stress and afraid to point out any domestic or foreign policy mistakes for the fear of annoying the key stakeholder that is seen as having aided the return to power of the looters and plunders of national wealth. People’s ire on social media is for all to see, yet little or nothing is being done to clarify what has gone wrong and why.

Political parties carrying corruption stigma cannot and must not be supported or the public opinion will continue to be built against those who have the power to stop self-serving political doings. There is need to continue to talk tough on matters of corruption, read the public sentiments correctly and stop aiding and supporting and even reinforcing politics of failures.

The key stakeholder cannot afford to back off from the love and respect it has earned over the years from the people. The problems of this country have gone so bad that it would take an outstanding leadership and an enormous effort to fix them. It is hard to see how the crooks and criminals who have been brought to power and who are the very reason for our misfortunes can even reverse many of these problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2022.

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