Political culture: Politicians need to move beyond ‘tactical gains’

Experts say only peaceful way is to convince armed forces to ‘back off'

ISLAMABAD:

Despite the military leadership’s repeated announcements that the armed forces would stay away from politics, Pakistan’s politics is mainly characterised by its dominance and feebleness of the political forces as the civilian leadership’s ultimate desire is to become the security establishment’s “favourite child”.

The toxic political culture is dominating the political discourse, hatred is further increasing in rival camps and gun-blazing statements have become a norm. Amid this political wrangling, the civilian leadership is still looking towards the powerful stakeholders.

The PML-N-led ruling alliance, which lashed out at the establishment not so long ago, is now seeking its support to complete the process of “reverse engineering” and demanding a “level-playing field”. PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who ruled the country with the establishment’s help till April this year, has now started crying foul and issued veiled demands for the restoration of the “hybrid system”.

PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said in our country's political culture, the words “compromise” or “deal” were considered “dirty”. “Although in all advanced Western societies, the ability to ‘compromise’ or make a ‘deal’ is a sign of political maturity and good leadership,” the chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence added.

“If today the political forces agree on just two things, the political crisis will be over -- the supremacy of the Constitution and parliament in letter and spirit; and the road to power lies through the ballot box, not a wink or nod from Rawalpindi,” the veteran politician said. The senator feels that the political parties can stand united against the establishment's interference in politics.

However, he added that for this to happen, the political leadership should be willing to discard the “winner takes all” mindset and move beyond tactical gains for their parties for the sake of the democratic system and the country. Sayed also feels that reducing toxicity that is dominating the political discourse was certainly possible and doable.

But this is only possible if the political class is willing to subordinate their egos to the larger interest of the nation. He added that politicians should stop being hostage to “political tribalism” or their petty parochial or vested interests.

“For that you need to see the bigger picture with large-heartedness and flexibility,” he said. To a query what was really stopping the political parties from being on the same page, Sayed fired a volley of questions, asking what stopped Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto from compromising in 1971 that could have saved the country from disintegration; what stopped the PPP and Pakistan National Alliance from reaching an understanding in 1977 that could have prevented martial law; and what stopped the two main parties from compromising during 1988-1999 or after signing the Charter of Democracy in 2006.

READ Imran compromises national interests for personal political gains: Marriyum

“Now we are witnessing the slow-motion demolition of the democratic system in the fifth lost opportunity for our political forces,” the veteran politician regretted. “Our tragedy is two-fold: we repeat old mistakes and we don’t even make new mistakes,” he added.

To a question who gained the most from this situation, the senator said it was no rocket science to understand that such never-ending, relentless political wrangling not only eroded the legitimacy of the democratic political system among the people, but also led to a firm conclusion in the minds of those who were already holding the conviction that “these politicians can’t deliver”.

In addition, he said that Pakistani politics was a political game of musical chairs, where the people did not matter, only the interests of the elite counted. Sayed recalled that in July 2016, when there was an attempted military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, all the political forces, even the opposition, stood in front of the tanks.

“Erdogan had popular support and he delivered through his performance to the people of Turkey, both on domestic and foreign policy fronts,” the senator added. “Conversely,” Sayed lamented, “military coups in Pakistan are welcomed by the political opposition by distributing sweets.”

The senator said lest we forget, General Ziaul Haq ousted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with the full support of the opposition from all  the provinces, adding that the political leadership had not learnt any lessons from our chequered history.

“Truly, the people of Pakistan deserve better,” he concluded. Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob while answering the same set of questions said that the only peaceful and least destructive way was to convince the armed forces to back off.

“Sadly, our politicians have not adopted a strategic path to open a dialogue with the military in the National Security Committee. Instead, it has been making deals with the military for staying in power,” he lamented. The eminent analyst recalled that Indonesia and Turkey had adopted this path and successfully transitioned away from being military-dominated states.

“Our forces should also realise that a military-dictated farce of democracy is not possible any longer,” he added. Mehboob said he wished to believe the recent announcements of the military leadership that the armed forces had decided to stay absolutely away from politics.

“Only time will tell if that is true,” he added. However, he warned that a mass movement against the armed forces would be suicidal. When asked if it was easy to give up all the powers, Mehboob replied that it was an uphill task but now the alternative was staring in the establishment’s face. “The alternative is fighting the people,” he said.

“Whenever in the past the army came eyeball to eyeball with the people, either the military blinked or the country got truncated,” he added. To a question if he agreed to the notion that the establishment became stronger every time because of the political wrangling and the parties’ desire to make deals with them, Mehboob said politicians also needed to “get their act together”.

However, he added that would not happen unless the politicians overcame their autocratic tendencies within parties and governments, organise themselves and develop the capacity to deal with policy issues.

“But the greater responsibility rests with the military,” he said. PTI and PPP leaders were also asked to share their views but they did not respond.