Desperately seeking change

A single movement cannot undo the wrongdoings of decades. Sacrifices are required by country's leaders and people.

As a student of Pakistani history, an inevitable question that arises for one is: why are we condemned to relive the same mistakes time and again? Our history is plagued with a roller-coaster ride of decades of military rule interrupted by brief intervals of civilian rule. Our love-hate relationship with our politicians, our idealistic expectations of them, quickly followed by dashed hopes and cynicism have assisted in creating an environment of persistent political instability. We facilitate in overthrowing civilian governments only to enthusiastically welcome them again after dark and suffocating years of military rule. As a result, over our 64 years, we’ve been unable to become even a flawed democracy, fluctuating between authoritarian and hybrid regimes like an obsessive pendulum.

At the surface, it may seem that our distrust and disappointment with our political system may only be due to the failure of the politicians in improving governance issues and their real or perceived corruption scandals. However, our ready willingness to periodically forsake our right to electoral accountability for usurpers of power, along with our societal intolerance towards ethno-religious diversity, sadly reflects our inability to value democracy and its associated liberties. We enjoy exploiting our authority to whatever extent our socio-economic position may allow. In addition, the increasing polarisation of our society into two distinct groups; one candidly supporting religious fundamentalism, the other harbouring a socially liberal yet, politically conservative viewpoint, also has implications for the future of our democracy. Both seem to have little regard for political and civil liberty and instead prefer the aid-rich ‘stable’ military regimes to the ‘chaotic’ and economically unstable civilian governments.

Democracy, as any other culture, takes years to develop and needs the right kind of environment to flourish. This includes regularly repeated elections, balance of power between all state institutions, active civil society organisations, an independent media and, most importantly, democrats who have the will and the patience to value and protect democratic traditions. Without the latter, even a flawed democracy would fails to exist.

To our credit though, our lack of ingrained democratic traits seem to be more due to our post-independence political history rather than our natural disposition to autocracy. Like the symbolism-filled 1980s movie Labyrinth, which shows the lead character being manipulated by countless ‘helping hands’ to choose a particular path, we, too, seem to be victims of a similar kind of manipulation and mind control. As long as power is concentrated in a single institution, the socio-economic and political change we all long for is unattainable. Moreover, fixing the power balance between institutions will take decades and that, too, if backed by a heavy mandate from all major political parties.

This long-term approach to change is inconsistent with the euphoric and zealous commitments made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s leader, Imran Khan. In the business of politics, hope sells and the fact that Khan has been able to sell his message of hope to a chunk of society that has typically shied away from the electoral process, makes the idea of revolution all the more exciting. However, our own history, as well as movements for change around the world, are proof that no single movement can undo the wrongdoings of decades. Consistent sacrifices are required by not only a country’s leader but also its people. To Imran Khan’s promise of a ‘tsunami of change’ and the powerful waves behind it, in Faraz-esque style one can only play along and say: ‘Suna hai ab ki bar kuch naya aane ko hai tou phir yeh bhi aazma kay dekhtay hain!’

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2011.