Fighting elephants and the trampled grass

Prolonged political confrontation between popular political leaders divides the nation and society

Henry Kissinger considers that the best determinants of a society’s fate are neither its material wealth nor other conventional measures of power but rather the quality of its people and the vision of its leaders. But when a society is deprived of progress and is seen living in poverty then more than the quality of the people, it is the quality of the leadership that can meet a struggling country’s expectations. In a strange and false sense of accomplishment, political leadership in Pakistan likes and feels proud in being declared Sadiq and Ameen (truthful and righteous) by the Pakistani courts. Yet a leader should be more judged not by his nature but his history. In fact, it was Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset who said that man has no nature… what he has is history.

These days the end point of all political discussions in Pakistan is that all we have to do is bring a functional and reliable political system in the country. There are no two opinions that politics in Pakistan has so far failed to deliver; and despite this and against all estimates, expectations and political wisdom, the realisation is that we will overcome the current political crisis and besides other things will be able to attract foreign investment which is so important for the revival of our economy. With great sadness I recall how Pakistan under the previous government had announced that henceforth geoeconomics and not geopolitics will guide our national interests. Sadly, that was not to be and the government was brought down and since then Pakistan has, under the current government, only struggled to survive.

Rebuilding Pakistan will not require just the reforming of the political system but a strong and powerful leadership to take the system forward. Power without purpose is like a tree without fruit. Both a fruitless tree and purposeless power are identical in how the former will never bear fruit and the latter will never produce righteousness. A worthless and fruitless tree has no place amongst healthy and fruit-bearing trees. Like fruitless trees that scar and mar the beauty of an orchard, the purposeless power spreads hopelessness and eventually decays and dies under its own weight.

The ornamental appeal of the colourful fruit trees is not a work of few days and unless there is an enabling environment no tree can grow to become fruit-bearing and so the tree growth is not just a response to its genetic makeup but also a response to the environment in which it grows. The qualification of a leader is also not just its genetic makeup or its fortune of belonging to a dynastic political family but that higher sense of purpose which must guide it to stand up for its nation and deliver. Purposeless leadership is a nation’s curse and if I am comparing purposeless leadership with fruitless trees let me quote from Bible (Matthew 7:17) how nature demonstrates and reinforces the eternal principle that, “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Such dead, fruitless trees are to be hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

So, what do the people of Pakistan expect from a purposeful leadership? They expect their poverty-stricken lives to be converted into respectable ones. They expect the end of corruption and mediocrity in matters of governance so that their country can be converted into an honest and safe place to conduct business. They also expect a legal system in the country that responds to such a leader’s purposefulness and which is willing to hold the corrupt politicians accountable. They also expect from their legal system to curtail media outlets from running propaganda and opposing the grand and purposeful designs of such a leadership. Such a leadership must get the women out, provide them with opportunities to work and earn. Giving economic progress priority over any ideology, this leadership is expected to project that it’s one big world in which we live and we can only progress and prosper if we become part of it and not oppose it. No uneducated leader can ever be an educator of society and the strategic realities are also best understood by the leaders that are educated; and sometimes a leader may have to halt his pursuit of the national ideals and adjust and adapt to the circumstances that are being dictated by such strategic realities.

Such leaders even in their death desire that their nation should concentrate on the future rather than be locked in the past. Lee Kuan Yee imagining that his legacy should inspire rather than inhibit progress willed that his home on Oxley Road be demolished after his death to avoided becoming a memorial shrine. Lee ruled Singapore for 30 years and is considered amongst the leading statesmen of the world in the 20^th Century. He transformed Singapore’s society and made it a model of economic progress. On his death and before his funeral his dead body was kept lying for three days for the people to pay homage to him. To reach his bier in drenching monsoon, people were required to wait in line for over three hours to pay their respects but they never stopped coming. It is famously said that Lee Kuan Yee during his life was able to forge a society that transcended his death.

Leaders with popular following have great responsibilities, and prolonged political confrontation between such leaders divides the nation and society. It is said that when two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled. In Pakistan and in the current political context, we may say that the grass gets trampled even when the elephants make love as well. This is explained in how many political forces fell in love with each other and joined hands to thrown out a government. For the unfortunate trampled grass in this country to re-grow either of the two must quickly end — fight or political love making between our two political elephants.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2022.

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