Staying Alive

Its about living & dying, honour & servitude. Its about him being his mother’s son, regardless of voting preferences.

How does one define courage? Who is a martyr? These and other questions like these belong to the ages and the quibbling will continue forever. Yet, the test remains simple. One recognises it when one sees it. As churches, mosques and hospitals are being attacked and responsibilities claimed gloatingly, the challenge boils down to the elemental level. Either one has the courage, both moral and physical to confront it or one is an apologist, which in our context, is just a polite word for cowardice or maliciousness or perhaps a bit of both.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has got the major question of our times (existential crisis, etc. if you prefer) exactly right and Mr Imran Khan and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan have it exactly wrong. Mian Nawaz Sharif has good and bad days. Bilawal displayed incredible courage by saying what needed to be said; that there is no honour in cowardice and we will not surrender. Encouraging vigilantism and semi-coherent statements against far away, often imagined imperialist enemies requires no such nerve. One can understand Mr Khan’s embarrassment in particular — to be shown the gold standard by someone less than half his age must sting. One can spin it whichever way, bogus equivalences have a way of coming out as just that: bogus.

I do not feel the need for pseudo objectivity and make no secret of my admiration for Shaheed BB. Bilawal Bhutto is admittedly very young. However, he knows a thing or two about courage and the consequences of it. Lest anyone forget, he was speaking in the graveyard where his mother is buried. Courage, martyrdom and tragedy are inescapable at that venue. His extraordinarily brave mother was murdered for saying exactly what he chose to say. He will be acutely aware of who the enemy is; amongst other things, they are the murderers of his mother.

His speech articulated his strategy for dealing with militancy and terrorism, which had clear pre-conditions of laying down arms and bringing themselves within the ambit of the Constitution before any negotiations. One can disagree with his strategy, however, then the onus is on those who do, to bring forward their plan. What is Mr Khan’s and Chaudhry Nisar Ali’s plan? Cowardice, appeasement and obfuscation are no strategy. Good sirs, surely you have a better plan than the kid? We are holding our breath to hear it.

Courage alone does not run states. It is a necessary condition, perhaps not a sufficient one. To phrase it another way, courage alone will not make the state completely functional; however, the absence of it is enough to make a state sink. Bilawal’s speech was against sinking, it was for staying alive.

Bilawal Bhutto has thrown himself in the deep end. His speech does not mean that legitimate disagreements on issues of governance with the previous federal government and the critiques of the present Sindh government are brushed aside. There were many hardened, cynical, not-so-young people, who did not vote for his party last election for perfectly justifiable reasons, yet had moist eyes on December 27. It is not about partisan party politics alone; it is much more fundamental. It is about living and dying, about honour and servitude. It is about him being his mother’s son, regardless of voting preferences.

The follies of the previous or the present governments cannot be attributed to him. However, from now on, those of his party in the future, rightly or wrongly, will be. There is a price for affection and devotion. This is the price for standing out. Bilawal has won many admirers for himself in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh; he will have to now win votes for his party. The PPP will need to deliver and realise that governance is not a side issue. The PPP will need to offer something new to urban Pakistan. Bilawal Bhutto displays potential, yet let us suspend judgment on that for now.

Young Chairman, being your mother’s son is a privilege, which you have rightly earned now. However, remember, it is a privilege. And this privilege means the claim to be the flag-bearer of the federation. These are huge shoes. In a sane world, an ideal world, no 25-year-old son will ever have to make that speech standing at the grave of his martyred mother. This is not an ideal world. It does not get any easier from here on in. It is a terrific start; yet, there are miles to go.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2013.

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