Wheels in motion

Despite creaking, groaning & eventually collapsing under the weight, Qadri managed to get wheels of change in motion.

If the last couple of weeks have proven anything, it is that the people of this benighted country are finally ready for change and even — the signal may be stuck on amber but this could turn to green at any second — might, just might, be prepared to do something positive about it.

‘Long march’ and ‘revolution’ are terms that the population at large is, on the surface, sick and fed up of hearing. ‘Im the Dim’ has belatedly, and after well and truly missing the boat, threatened to organise yet another publicity seeking ‘ramble on wheels’, which has resulted in groans of disgust, as a repeat of the Dr Tahirul Qadri tamasha so soon after the original event. This will have any audience it manages to drum up, bored to tears.

The thing is that though, farcical as it turned out to be, the Qadri ‘spectacle’ — he was once known as an ‘International Peace Ambassador’— did achieve something: a ‘something’ which, when seriously examined rather than ignorantly dismissed, is indicative of a grassroots desire for peaceful change and which, furthermore, underlines the plain, simple fact that a huge segment of the downtrodden, over-exploited middle and lower class have had just about as much as they are prepared to tolerate.

The ‘fashionistas’ and ‘pretend politics players’ are, as is their wont, still waiting to see which way the cookie crumbles. One minute they are applauding the sheer, peaceful perseverance of the bravely determined souls — paid or not — who comprise Qadri’s disciples, and denigrating them the next. But even they, if largely behind closed doors or via social media networks, are fast realising that change is now inevitable and that, like it or not, the people are waking up.

Public reaction to recent events has been absolutely fascinating. People who had previously been afraid of raising their voices in more than token unrest are, thanks to Qadri’s initial example — the example set before he turned tail and bolted back down his rabbit hole — suddenly far more open in their whispering for change. This whispering is slowly but surely gathering volume towards one great big rebel yell which, when it finally erupts, will rattle whichever government then happens to be in power, to a previously unparalleled degree.

The truth of this stoked-up fire for change will be well and truly tested when, and if, elections do come to pass as promised and when, and if, the electorate actually gets itself together and casts its votes, en masse, for whichever party it perceives capable of at least an acceptable level of honesty and which declares an open manifesto for peaceful change.

Not only did Qadri actually achieve a victory of sorts by physically proving that it is possible for just about anyone with organisation and backing of one sort or another, to stand up and be counted in the clear light of day, he also did something no one else has ever been able to do: despite creaking, groaning and eventually collapsing under the weight, he managed to get the wheels of change in motion across a nation that has always, previously, opted to pull apart rather than remain together.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2013.