‘What is it to you?’

A few days ago, I was watching a video online where a big lorry with failed breaks was speeding ahead on the motorway with its driver having jumped out. The video was made by people in a car in front of it. By the end of the video, the lorry was stopped by the person driving the other car quite courageously. It was the conversation in the lead-up to the intervention which interested me. So the car in front of the lorry had a family — mother, father and kids and it seemed that the children were making the video of the zigzagging lorry following them. Initially, it seemed that they were just making the video for fun, but when it became clear that the lorry had to be stopped or else it might hit a car and cause a lot of damage, confusion emerged. The father wanted to go stop the lorry but the mother kept preventing him. At one point she even said, “What is it to you, just let it be.” This one phrase, I think, exemplifies the general attitude of our nation.

There is enough anecdotal evidence to show that the majority of our population, while interested in other people’s business, would never intervene when something is going wrong. I have seen many an accident where easily scores of people gather together for the tamasha but only one or two actually venture to go help those hurt and a very tiny number ever contemplate being the good Samaritan and take the injured to the hospital. There is a case of my friend Raza Rumi, who after an attack on him was left helpless in the street of Lahore.

We are now clearly in a battle for our survival and there are simply no two ways about it. What makes our enemy more dangerous is the fact that he/she is among us — in our mohallas, workplaces, schools, restaurants etc. This enemy is also not clearly identifiable. Therefore, while intelligence agencies can certainly improve their workings, the public at large has to play a critical role. Put if we are to survive as a country, nation, or even personally, we need to take charge and share the responsibility for defending ourselves — no one can do it better than ourselves. Having a laissez faire attitude towards this menace and expecting to be safe will not work now. We need to be vigilant and report any untoward incident to the authorities, and do this actively. Any suspicious activity must be immediately reported so that it can be investigated immediately. The experience of Britain which had to deal with terrorism for decades clearly shows the critical role played by civilians in informing the authorities of anything suspicious. Terrorism will never be defeated if civilians are not an integral part of the battle.



We also need to change our attitude towards the government. In a democracy, there cannot be a dichotomy between the ruling and the ruled. The people who are ruling are from the ruled and are responsible to them. Therefore, having an attitude that the ‘ruling class’ — whoever they might be — will deal with this, while the masses stand absolved of any responsibility, cannot work any longer. Attitudes need to be changed on both sides on this issue, else it would be impossible to forge a partnership between the people and the government to tackle this.

Defeating terrorism, or any such menace, is never an easy task. It is always arduous and shakes the core of any nation. However, if while defeating this threat, a nation-building exercise in civic responsibility and good governance is also taken, the nation might emerge more cohesive and stronger in the aftermath. Let us take this current fight against terrorism to not only rid ourselves of this peril but also build a better Pakistan through this experience. Let us never say, ‘What is it to you?’ again. It is our business now.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2015.

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