Death of Rage

Never a dull day here. So much is happening it makes your head spin. Senate elections are round the corner and the prime minister is holed up in Raiwind with his family to decide who gets to become a senator and who sulks his way back to his miserable un-senatorial life. Then of course there’s that small decision about appointing a new governor of Punjab. Much head-banging going on for it. Back in Islamabad, the energy crisis annoyingly persists and keeps nagging the premier like a bad habit. He’s busy. Just like Imran Khan who’s burrowing into electoral malpractices in between chopper trips over Hazara to witness the baring of mountaintops and then putting the errant persons to the sword. How dare they kowtow to the timber mafia? Meanwhile, the maulanas are frothing at the mouth for one thing or the other and being their sweet angry selves. And while this hectic activity unfolds in slow motion, the nation is gradually catching the cricket World Cup fever as the greenshirts set up a fighting chance against far superior teams. Seems like all is swell and normal in Pakistan.

Except it’s not.

Yes it’s not, because we are a nation at war. It may not look like that, or even sound like that, but that’s the harsh reality. It hasn’t even been two months since the horrendous inhuman tragedy that unfolded in the Army Public School, but already a sickening forgetfulness seems to be creeping into our psyche. Time, they say, heals all wounds.

But this one must not heal. This one should not be allowed to heal.

As the true horror of December 16 unfolded, it seemed clear that we would not be able to live this down. No craven politician, no Taliban apologist, and no ambiguity-peddling media parasite would have the temerity to add ifs and buts to this tragedy. If ever there was a call to arms, this was it. A nation shocked into unity — and action. A leadership horrified and shamed into resolve. That was then.

And now?

Now you see the leadership going through the motions. Meetings are held, handouts issued, figures released and statements made. The National Action Plan has become a procedural liability for a government weighed down by its own incompetence and determined vacillation.

Here then is the shameful tragedy that appears to be trumping the actual tragedy: the apologists are back. And so are the ambiguity-peddling media parasites. They are back with a vengeance, having recaptured the toxic narrative with nauseating relish. Look at them grinning that evil grin, mocking the martyred and their memories. Look at them vomiting justifications as they rage on the streets; look at them puncturing the national resolve with noxious rhetoric dipped in deliberate confusion; look at them polluting minds and reshaping opinions with unsacred insinuations and unholy intent.

How heartless does a leadership need to be to allow this to happen? Make no mistake, this slide back into darkness is happening because the government doesn’t have the moral and physical courage to make the decisions that need to be made. The National Action Plan includes 20 points, each one of which requires a massive effort by the leadership to get it off the ground. In the immediate aftermath of the plan being agreed upon, dozens of committees were formed to get the plan into action. Sombre-looking men and women then gathered around in plush conference rooms, sat around well-polished tables, and prepared to do a whole lot of pointless things. That they did really well.

As a result, suspects got picked up, loudspeakers got sealed, registration documents got shuffled and ministers got trotted out in front of cameras to claim credit for things that mattered just a bit in the larger scheme of things. The provincial governments also got into the game, and spewed forth a litany of facts and figures conjured up by their law-enforcement set-ups. These guys have an answer for every terror-related question now, all painted and polished in brightly coloured, slickly designed PowerPoint presentations.

But do you feel safer?

Men who promise violence still stalk the streets. Books that teach hate still adorn the shelves. Curriculums that nourish intolerance and bigotry still grace schools. Madrassas that get unaccounted for funds, still get those funds. And they are still unaccounted for. Sectarian militias that kill humans for their beliefs still walk around armed and ready to kill. Target killers in Karachi still kill their targets and find shelter under political wings.

The only thing that divides the new normal from the old normal is the brutal martyrdom of 140 of our beautiful children. Do we remember them still?

We said we shall never forget. Do you remember saying that from behind those scalding and burning tears on your cheeks as you saw the tiny coffins being lowered into the ground by shattered mothers and fathers? You do remember those scenes, don’t you? We said this horror would change us forever; that it would galvanise us into action and shed all doubts once and for all. Do you remember clenching your fists and shaking with uncontrollable rage at the monsters who slaughtered our children? You do remember aching for vengeance, don’t you?

And look at you now. Poor weak and helpless you, led by men who bleed courage and resolve like a hemophilic patient. Look at you all out of anger and rage, and shriveled up like a sorry looking raisin. Look at you reconciling to your destiny as a citizen of a nation that lets monsters eat its children, and does nothing. Nothing. This is what your leaders have reduced you to — a flock of sheep ready to be slaughtered. Again.

And all because the leadership is weak. And scared. And incompetent.

So go back to your Senate elections, your governor appointments, your electoral frauds and your cricket World Cup. Go back to what you were doing before December 16, 2014. Go back and bury your hand in that bloodied sand and wait your turn.

Or find leaders who will never forget, never forgive, and never rest till this land is cleansed of monsters that eat our children.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2015.

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