Revolutionary protest
The PTI is a classic case of how ignorant and distant the elite of Pakistan is from the ground situation.
Raza Rabbani in his recent speech in parliament couldn’t have been more accurate in expressing the dichotomy of the ongoing ‘revolutionary’ protests in Pakistan: the haves are crying foul pretending to be have-nots.
Let’s call a spade a spade; no one in the PML-N leadership has any doubts of the legitimacy of the demands made by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. But the point at which Imran and Qadri lost the game is the way with which they have proceeded to get their demands met, making it obvious from the first day that it was a revolution for the elite by the elite.
As party leaders stood in the air-conditioned containers, the general public walked. Leaders stayed at Serena, Bani Gala and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House, the poor supporters struggled for shelter under the trees. And when the crowd started to disperse, upper middle class and elite from Rawalpindi and Islamabad joined the ranks at night, after work, and good sleep to enjoy the festivities. Who suffered in all this? The poor that went from Mardan in the hope of making either a ‘New Pakistan’, or getting paid 6,000 rupees to attend the ‘revolution’.
If this was not enough, the PTI’s elite leadership went ahead into the Red Zone, and then towards the PM house. The leadership exclaimed, “I will take the first bullet”, but at the very first tear gas, the bravery and spine got a reality check. I have been told by a PTI insider that as the party leadership looked at the negative social media trending, Imran was taken on top of the container after half an hour with a cameraman, posed for pictures, and then came back down in the comfort of the container. And since Imran Khan loves to discuss the French Revolution, for the record, the French Revolution didn’t bring about a change in France. It only abolished Louis XVI’s empire and replaced it with Napoleon’s monarchy. It took almost 100 years after the French Revolution that basic democracy paved its way into the French society.
The PTI is a classic case of how ignorant and distant the elite of Pakistan is from the ground situation. The result of which is that people on the ground question the intentions and legitimacy of the Azadi March that Imran calls ‘revolution’. Khan sahib, if this struggle of yours is about bringing justice, where were you when Mama Qadeer marched with a handful of his people for thousands of missing Baloch people? And as Ahmadis ask where were you when their houses in Gujranwala were razed to the ground by a mob? Was that injustice not enough, or is your definition of injustice tailored by the establishment?
If your long march is all about ending inequality and poverty, Khan sahib, where were you when 150 children in Sindh died due to malnutrition? Why did you not march then? Was that not a good enough reason?
The peasants are astounded that the jagirdaars, gaddi-nasheens, and land mafia members in your ranks are giving fiery speeches on the rights of the poor, equality, and ending oppression. Such hypocrisy? Who are you fooling? The class that does not know the economic and political history of this country? Or those people that blindly follow you?
Revolutions are not a part-time fare and they definitely do not materialise through the rich elite aristocracy. Imran Khan, and those around him, and people like us who are fortunate enough to write and read, can never understand the suffering of the poor in Pakistan; since we are not one of them, and we shouldn’t pretend to be either. This does not mean, however, that we shouldn’t raise a voice for them — we should! But only when we have, first, done enough to change their situation at our own end.
Inequality and poverty will indeed end when we start paying our domestic labour their fare share. As flowery and slow process as it all sounds, all this is unfortunately the hard way that nations grow. There is no easy way, and expecting a shock therapy or ‘inqilab’ to change the situation will only change the rulers in the name of ‘revolution’, replacing them with opportunists that we see on the Azadi/inqilab containers.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2014.
Let’s call a spade a spade; no one in the PML-N leadership has any doubts of the legitimacy of the demands made by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. But the point at which Imran and Qadri lost the game is the way with which they have proceeded to get their demands met, making it obvious from the first day that it was a revolution for the elite by the elite.
As party leaders stood in the air-conditioned containers, the general public walked. Leaders stayed at Serena, Bani Gala and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House, the poor supporters struggled for shelter under the trees. And when the crowd started to disperse, upper middle class and elite from Rawalpindi and Islamabad joined the ranks at night, after work, and good sleep to enjoy the festivities. Who suffered in all this? The poor that went from Mardan in the hope of making either a ‘New Pakistan’, or getting paid 6,000 rupees to attend the ‘revolution’.
If this was not enough, the PTI’s elite leadership went ahead into the Red Zone, and then towards the PM house. The leadership exclaimed, “I will take the first bullet”, but at the very first tear gas, the bravery and spine got a reality check. I have been told by a PTI insider that as the party leadership looked at the negative social media trending, Imran was taken on top of the container after half an hour with a cameraman, posed for pictures, and then came back down in the comfort of the container. And since Imran Khan loves to discuss the French Revolution, for the record, the French Revolution didn’t bring about a change in France. It only abolished Louis XVI’s empire and replaced it with Napoleon’s monarchy. It took almost 100 years after the French Revolution that basic democracy paved its way into the French society.
The PTI is a classic case of how ignorant and distant the elite of Pakistan is from the ground situation. The result of which is that people on the ground question the intentions and legitimacy of the Azadi March that Imran calls ‘revolution’. Khan sahib, if this struggle of yours is about bringing justice, where were you when Mama Qadeer marched with a handful of his people for thousands of missing Baloch people? And as Ahmadis ask where were you when their houses in Gujranwala were razed to the ground by a mob? Was that injustice not enough, or is your definition of injustice tailored by the establishment?
If your long march is all about ending inequality and poverty, Khan sahib, where were you when 150 children in Sindh died due to malnutrition? Why did you not march then? Was that not a good enough reason?
The peasants are astounded that the jagirdaars, gaddi-nasheens, and land mafia members in your ranks are giving fiery speeches on the rights of the poor, equality, and ending oppression. Such hypocrisy? Who are you fooling? The class that does not know the economic and political history of this country? Or those people that blindly follow you?
Revolutions are not a part-time fare and they definitely do not materialise through the rich elite aristocracy. Imran Khan, and those around him, and people like us who are fortunate enough to write and read, can never understand the suffering of the poor in Pakistan; since we are not one of them, and we shouldn’t pretend to be either. This does not mean, however, that we shouldn’t raise a voice for them — we should! But only when we have, first, done enough to change their situation at our own end.
Inequality and poverty will indeed end when we start paying our domestic labour their fare share. As flowery and slow process as it all sounds, all this is unfortunately the hard way that nations grow. There is no easy way, and expecting a shock therapy or ‘inqilab’ to change the situation will only change the rulers in the name of ‘revolution’, replacing them with opportunists that we see on the Azadi/inqilab containers.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2014.