Involving youth in politics

Change will come when average graduates from our local universities start aspiring to a career in politics & enter it

Being in the government, I’m repeatedly asked by youth at different forums: why do the same politicians keep getting elected over and over again? This question is also at the core of Imran Khan’s campaign against what he calls the ‘status quo’ powers — the political families that do not allow space to newcomers.

The reason why the same politicians, Sharifs or Bhuttos, keep winning over and over again is because the dominant youth of Pakistan doesn’t enter politics, neither fancies it as a full-time career. How many college graduates around us do we see, who even entertain the idea of becoming a politician? Family pressure, according to some of the youth, is what keeps them away, but is it really?

What really is politics, beyond our superficial understanding that it involves corruption, power and VIP culture? Politics is about making sacrifices, tough decisions and having lots of patience. Sacrifices, in aspirations of a fancy corporate sector job, or a six-figure salary package. Patience, in dealing with hundreds of thousands of people daily, listening to their needs and demands, and socialising, even at times when you’d rather be doing something more intellectually stimulating. Public life is about devoting your life to the needs of the public and being present in all their happiness and sorrows. There is no I, me or myself here. It is all about the people — mostly who are not pleased easily and who will criticise you at every move.

Moreover, politics requires passion beyond social media activism — a tangible effort on-ground. It can be monumentally difficult to go out in your constituency to engage with those lower than you in status and serve them in improving their lives or getting their problems fixed.

The youth often raises another question: what is the best way to enter politics, and without a family name and land, do you stand a chance? With sprawling urbanisation, the myth that you need to be a ‘somebody’ to enter politics is redundant. Pakistani politics has changed. People don’t cast votes based on ideology alone. No political party in Pakistan is an ideological party anymore.

People vote only for one thing: delivery. The party that will deliver will win elections. Without delivery, you may be talking about all the right things, but if the local farmer hasn’t got the three hours of electricity that he needs for his tube well, you might as well bid farewell to being elected next time. The evidence to this is how southern Punjab, during the 2013 elections, wiped out the entire old guard (gaddi nasheens) from parliament in a single stroke, be it Yousaf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim or Faisal Saleh Hayat.

Third, politics is not only about running for elections. There are several ways that one can get involved in politics — advisory roles, being a party worker, working in the media, campaign manager etc. The only way one can enter politics is by taking the first step and actually entering it. Expecting political parties to hold your hand and invite you to join them has never been the case anywhere in the world — the youth will have to create its own space.

At the Ministry of Planning and Development, we have made special efforts to involve the youth in policymaking affairs and expose them to the realities of politics and state-functioning. National programmes, like the Young Development Fellows, internships and the Young Policy Scholars Competition, have got the youth to learn about and contribute to the work of the government so they can become future leaders through direct exposure. Through these programmes and through proximity with government and politics, the youth can take immense inspiration and become part of the system, and change it from within.

Politics is a competitive arena, but to believe that entry into it is impossible is far from the truth. The only way I see a real change coming to Pakistan is when average graduates from our local universities start aspiring to a career in politics and enter it. This is a life that gets very little appreciation, but plenty of criticism.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2014.

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