Trust and truth

Ministers and indeed most parliamentarians, too, often suffer from risible delusions. For instance, on March 9 within the hallowed halls of parliament, our army-bashing defence minister had it that the parliament is Pakistan’s most powerful institution and that the “Pakistani people always trust their government.” No, he wasn’t joking. He was merely being a seasoned politician, grandly stating that which he knew to be untrue.

Parliament, from what one can glean, has little clue as to how the top layers of cabinet and government are operating. Its members know as much as we do about the “talks”, about what “deals” are to be struck with the mighty militants, about the prime minister’s endgame in the General (retd) Pervez Musharraf fiasco, about deals done with friends who dole out hefty cash presents –– indeed about much that affects the daily life of the country. It is paralytic facing a dysfunctional government whose writ does not reach large areas of its country and which presides over the rest of the land in a complete void when it comes to law and order.

As for the people’s trust in government –– nothing needs to be said. What has the government done for the people? Khawaja Asif and his pals, in particular the interior minister, should ask them and the truth they cannot admit to will be confirmed. Take the media. It would be risky to ask the press-people –– at least those who are not traditionally “close” to the power seats –– about such trust. For starters, someone might plonk under the ministerial noses a very fine editorial in this publication on March 30, which asks a string of questions that need answers, questions resulting from either the apathy or impotence of the government.

Either the much trumpeted ceasefire agreed to by the TTP obviously does not embrace the media community or there are independent militant groups who go their own way. The editorial was written under the title “Should we stop telling the truth?” following the fifth attack in a period of eight months upon members of the Express Group, resulting in four deaths and “scores afraid for their lives”. The answer to that question will not be unanimous.

There are those who will say, no, no, soldier on with your job, which is to tell the truth, no matter the risks and cheer on Raza Rumi for writing that he will not accept “forced silence”. That’s a tough call as the risk factor is very real in the land of the pure. Then there are others who will say: don’t be foolish, think of your families, step back (as the editorial admits the Group did for a brief time, though to no avail), you have no protection from the state, you are out there on your own. Leave the struggle and railing against insanity to those such as Bilawal Zardari –– endowed with massive state protection and security.

The latter is easy and it has been tried. Just one example: Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and one of the delegation members who met the prime minister last month to discuss means to combat threats to Pakistan’s journalists, in a recent report recorded how, on March 21, he was “shocked to observe a giant white space on the front page” of a foreign publication available in Pakistan. “[A] hard hitting piece” on militancy in the country had been excised. He was again shocked seven days later to read about the attack on Raza Rumi. Stepping back is no solution.

The saddest question asked is: How can we hope for anything from the government when our own industry doesn’t stand up for us? A terrible truth, but that’s how it is. Such is the larger national mindset. If the government is in the pits, if it is feckless, it all tends to permeate downwards. Expectations that even one’s “own industry” should be better are unrealistic in this day and bitter age.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2014.

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