Till 2018: five years of pain or gain?

It’s becoming harder and harder to sift through the swarms of politically-motivated youngsters for an honest opinion on what the elections could bring. The old guard have seen their graphs fall, but dynastic nature of politics in this country will have assured that a good number of them, no matter how unpopular, will still be back in the lower house. Most of the new parties will have done well to make any inroads into those guaranteed vote banks.

Meanwhile, the PTI, with its Naya Pakistan and anti-conservation lion-hunting agenda, seems to be the most popular party. Whether that popularity was a mirage or fact will be well-known by the time this piece is published.

Whichever party wins, the participation of first-time voters, or lack thereof, could well be what forms our next government. And that is what is really scary. Apart from the tried, tested and mostly failed old guard, a plethora of new faces have emerged. While most are from the PTI, the PPP and the PML-N have not been afraid to send out some newbies and political amateurs as well. In each party’s case the call has been the same — vote for the party, not the candidate.

And that is the problem.

The party is not going to be responsible for my constituency. The individual is. Whoever won, that individual is not Imran Khan. It is not Nawaz Sharif. And it is certainly not Zulfikar Bhutto (although even in death, Bhutto seems capable of being a better MNA than most of these guys).

By the way, the only reason I did not mention the ANP or MQM is that both of these parties are inconsequential as far as the Islamabad-Rawalpindi region is concerned. The PML-Q, once a contender here, has moved into the same category.

Back on topic, each of the big six parties in Pakistan, and even some of the smaller ones, are based on a cult of personality, rather than their manifestos or positions on issues.

If you disagree, just honestly ask yourself, are you voting for Imran Khan or the PTI?

Are you voting for Nawaz/Shahbaz, or for the PML-N?

Are you voting for the PPP, or for Bilawal Interchangeable-Last-Name?

Almost 2,500 years ago, Plato objected to the Athenian concept of democracy on the grounds that such democracies lacked unity and votes were cast on impulse rather than any interest in the greater good.

The impulse, in Pakistan’s case, is rooted in the desire to see the unpopular rulers ousted by any means, usually without thinking through about the alternatives. With an electorate that is mostly illiterate, the ability to comprehend what ones vote stands for is limited, usually boiling down to a free meal or familial ties.

However, as Plato wrote in The Republic, “The people always put forward a single champion of their interests, whom they nurse to greatness. Here, plainly enough, is the root from which despotism invariably springs.”

In 1977, Bhutto was called a despot and removed by a ‘saviour’, who turned out to be a genuine despot. His daughter was accused of corruption — a despotic trait — and also removed. Nawaz Sharif met the same fate in 1999. Musharraf, then a saviour and media darling, was branded a despot as soon as he sacked the judiciary. Some would brand the sitting president as the same. Each time, the ‘despot’ was greeted with garlands of roses and left with garlands of shoes.

There is a reason why no party has been able to hold a majority for two consecutive election cycles. Parties come to power promising the sky, and leave after delivering sand. All because they don’t know what they stand for. Roshan Pakistan when we can’t afford to produce enough power? Roti, Kapra, Makaan when poverty and inflation are out of control and food insecurity is rife? A utopian Naya Pakistan months away, made from a country which needs foreign aid just to stay afloat?

We all wish the best for our country, but for that, we need solutions, not rhetoric. The battle was not won on Saturday. It starts on Monday.

The writer is a sub editor on the Islamabad desk.
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Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.