Hope from within

They gripe, moan and think that voting is a waste of time but something is stirring amongst the youth of Pakistan.


Editorial August 26, 2010

They gripe, moan and think that voting is a waste of time but something is stirring amongst the youth of Pakistan: they are not quite apathetic anymore. As the biggest flood to hit the country in 80 years takes its toll, while the government stood by incompetently and the international community looked on with indifference, the people of Pakistan, particularly its urban middle class, have mobilised whatever resources they could to help alleviate the suffering of their fellow citizens. The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1830 that the ability of Americans to organise and solve their own problems without having to rely on government was their greatest strength and the greatest guarantor of their democracy. While it is still too early to start drawing comparisons, it is comforting to see that tragedy no longer evokes woeful wailing from the Pakistani middle class but is rather seen as a call to action.

Of course, philanthropy and a sense of civic duty is not entirely new. Abdul Sattar Edhi, Ansar Burney and others have dedicated their lives to helping others for decades now. But what is intriguing are the new, previously unheard of names. Take, for instance, The Citizens Foundation or the Mahvish and Ali Siddiqui Foundation. These are relatively new charitable organisations that have taken a remarkable lead in providing aid to the flood victims. Or, for example, the students of various colleges across urban Pakistan who have gathered together whatever resources they could muster and send off caravans of relief to those in need. There is a generosity of spirit in our people that has always been unshakable, the one shining constant in our otherwise chequered history. What other country, for instance, could have more than a million refugees disperse into the homes of extended family and even complete strangers? What Pakistan has gone through in the last three years would have torn asunder most other nations, yet we soldier on, running on the fuel only of our faith in each other. We no longer wait for others to help. When tragedy strikes, we load up the car and drive to help those in need. Who says all hope is lost? We just revived it.

Contrary to common belief, it is not education or income levels that make a society ready for democracy. It is the willingness to take responsibility for what happens to the nation as a whole. This sense of civic duty was perhaps most famously ignited by the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir but it also came to the fore in 2007 during the campaign to restore the judiciary and again last year when the chief justice was finally restored. The people managing and coordinating flood relief of their accord are doing it for the same reason that the lawyers and students marched for the chief justice. It is not about personalities or political agendas or being on the payroll of a foreign government, as some conspiracy theorists would have us believe. It is about standing up and saying: “This is my country and I will not allow it to be treated this way anymore.” When a critical mass of people in a nation start believing that, as is the case in Pakistan, that country is ready for democracy. No other pre-requisites are required, not even universal literacy (though that is important for other reasons).

So when politicians start calling for the military to step in and correct what is admittedly the grossly incompetent performance of the administration in managing the flood relief efforts, they are letting their impatience get the better of them. They point out the cases, for instance, of politicians who have saved their own homes from the flood at the expense of entire cities as evidence of the corruption of the current administration. We agree that those elected officials are moral pygmies but where we diverge in opinion is that we feel that it must be the people of Pakistan who discard those amoral wretches from their perches of power through the ballot box, not the military with the barrel of the gun.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2010.

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