Waiting for a Mamdani

What happens in New York may not stay in New York.

Ask the American Democratic Party. This week's election results in the Big Apple have sent shock waves through the US electoral system. The socialists are on the march.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani emerged as the real winner, again, as his supported and endorsed candidates swept the Democratic primaries for Congressional seats up for grabs in November. At least three Democratic Socialist candidates defeated those who were either solid incumbents, or supported by the Democratic party establishment, or funded by the Israeli lobby – or all three. It was a vote against traditional politicians, against the Democratic party leadership, against status quo, and against Israel. This was unthinkable till only a few years ago.

The Democratic party establishment is experiencing panic attacks. Between the right-wing MAGA and the leftist Democratic Socialists, the so-called centrists – who have always preferred to play safe – are finding the ground shrinking beneath their feet. After New York's results, more and more candidates aligned with the Left within the Democratic party are garnering political and financial support. The mid-term polls may hold quite a few surprises for the traditionalists.

So, what's the problem with such traditionalists?

Three stand out: First, they are products of the existing system and therefore wedded to its inertia; second, they are threatened by change and resist it; and third, they misread the electorate till it is too late.

Sounds familiar? It should.

In the Pakistani political system, everyone is a traditionalist. There is not one party in the parliament that can claim to be otherwise. Yes, yes I know the PTI will be jumping up and down to say it is as radical as they come (their leader being in jail and all that) but we all know how their 'politics of change' was co-opted by the establishment, and the rest, as they say, is history. But in our context, there is yet another layer of complication that links to a fundamental question:

What is the nature of our 'change'?

Some want change of faces, others prefer change of system, while quite a few want any change that can lead to a change for the better in their lives. All are by-products of the larger disillusionment with the status quo. Such rumblings have led to outpouring of dissent in various countries in recent years, and almost all of them are triggered by, and often led by, the digital generation. The younger you are, it seems, the less tolerance you have for accepting the way things have always been done.

In Pakistan we have, over the years, experienced change of faces and change of system and neither have genuinely led to a change for the better in the lives of Pakistanis. The latest in our long line of innovations, the hybrid model, has been in place since at least 2018. The jury may still be out (in the technical sense) about the results it has produced but as far as real change is concerned, the short order may already be in.

You may not be faulted for breaking out in celebration.

Today we are burdened with a yawn-inducing government, a purposeless and feeble opposition, an ineffective judiciary, a servile media and an all-powerful establishment. If change then cannot happen from the bottom-up, can it be enforced from the top-down?

We are hearing about more constitutional amendments being crafted to usher in change that can, finally, bring about real change in our lives. Can it?

The nature of that change that we want is no national security secret. We all want our children to grow up in a Pakistan that cares for its people more than it cares for its traditional fat cats. We all hunger for a Pakistan where the state provides quality education to every single child, where governments ensure best health care for the elderly and the young alike, and where the pampered and privileged of society are as bound by law as the weak and the vulnerable. Such a Pakistan is nowhere in sight. In fact, no one even talks about.

Which is the saddest part of the whole affair. Radical change through the ballot box is not a realistic option at this stage. Neither is a change from outside the system. The days of populists storming through the city gates and tearing down the walls of tradition are not on the horizon.

Traditional parties presently populating the parliament are so out of touch with the Pakistani electorate they should be housed in a museum. Every which way you look, gates are slamming shut.

If the present state of affairs continue we can expect, at best, marginal improvements in economic and social sectors. For a new generation plugged into a universal culture of empowerment and entitlement, and much more aware of the shortcomings in Pakistan that the older generation has internalised, a marginally better Pakistan is just not acceptable. And rightly so. For too long our country has been forced to exist far below its potential so that it can feed the whims and fancies of the entitled elites in all institutions. Change now is not just desirable, it is inevitable.

The question is what shape it will take. Will empowered local bodies throw up new non-traditional young leadership willing to take risks? Will the strengthened establishment change the non-responsive system to generate fresh momentum for top-led change? Or will we exhaust ourselves with more useless experimentation and collapse back on our mediocrity-fuelled, myopically-driven, risk averse traditional political elite that banks on the colonial era visionless bureaucracy to further run the ship of the state into the ground?

The wait for Mamdani could be a long one. But then the young don't have infinite patience.