Forget #NeverForget?
There’s nothing to celebrate when none among your political leadership has the courage to hold itself accountable
The writer is Executive Director News, Express News. He tweets @fahdhusain fahd.husain@tribune.com.pk
Welcome to the land of forgetting. Welcome to the lair of the forgotten. Welcome indeed to the home of collective amnesia. Eat, pray, and count your dead.
Yes count and count till you reach a figure that will make you sit up. How many dead are dead enough? A hundred thousand? Half a million? A million? How much blood will make this land fertile enough to grow an organic conscience? Perhaps more than you and I can imagine.
For why else would we embrace normalcy like a long lost brother?
Ah the joy of shameless normalcy wrapped in ignorance! What comfort as the head slowly drills itself into sand. All is well, and Maulana Ghafoor Haideri is the new deputy chairman of Senate. Hail the democracy project as democrats carve up democracy and divide it among themselves. Three blind mice, see how they run…
Mr Haideri is our poster child for the roaring success of representative democracy. His party wasn’t too happy about the National Action Plan and the pious intentions of going after those who massacred our children, but he is our darling now that he has been fairly and squarely elected to this prestigious post in an election that marks the glory of people’s power. You won’t be faulted for going all teary eyed at the enormity of the moment.
Go ahead and shed a tear (of joy) at the beautiful sight of democracy at work. See the return of normalcy healing political wounds and strengthening a system that we have ached for since ever and ever. See the government go about its business with focused gusto. There’s the electricity shortage to resolve and the gas crises to tackle. The Islamabad Metro is rising like a phoenix, all set to win it the 2018 election. See serious governance at work as ministers, advisers, special assistants and assorted sidekicks glide across the political spectrum oozing efficiency, sincerity and Churchillian resolve.
Hey, remember the little kids with bullets in them? Well yes, we do but see the army is conducting Operation Zarb-e-Azb, and yes we fully support them, you know.
Democratic normalcy is back like a blessing. Dharna over, jalsa over, see Imran Khan zeroing in on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa like a laser-guided drone. See him hover over his province like an eye-in-the-sky, looking for faults to correct, and problems to solve. See him standing next to the IG monitoring the police, see him launching plantation drives, and hear him talking to you, me and the others on the radio. Khan the Rebel has now transformed into Khan the Deliverer. He will deliver governance couched in revolutionary colours and prove that he’s the man to beat in the next elections.
And see the PPP maintain its glorious irrelevance in anything national (Raza Rabbani’s election amounting to nothing more than number juggling for spoils of office). See the Sindh government get a well-deserved royal scolding from the army chief, and still blunder through the basics of governance. See the revenge of democracy unfolding in Sindh in all its riveting magnificence.
Now that’s what you call evolutionary progress. Give it time, boys. Let the elections take place and hopefully in the next hundred years or so the system will reform itself. Yes, don’t push too hard, and don’t mock democracy’s poster children, for if you do you run the risk of playing into the hands of those lovingly called the anti-democratic forces.
But what, pray, happens to the real difficult decisions? If normalcy is defined by returning to the way things were, that’s not really an enticing option. Do I hear a howl of protest from the adorable liberal fascists and the caring conservative Nazis? Well you have your Raza Rabbani and your Ghafoor Haideri so you’ve got your democratic dividend. Isn’t that what you were looking for?
If the strength of democracy lies in the Senate elections, what about the real tough issues of Karachi and elsewhere? Who’s calling the strategic shots in this Democratic Wonderland? These icons who brought you the roaring success of the ‘Senate Returns’?
Here then is the proverbial elephant in the room: the political leadership is unwilling or incapable of taking the decisions that are required to fundamentally change this society for the better. Their normalcy is defined by the trappings of democracy instead of the fruits of democracy.
Question: Who will get hold of the criminals in the parties in Karachi to crush violence? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will grab militants regardless of their affiliations with political parties and interest groups? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will ensure we shall never forget the massacres of Pakistanis by the terrorists? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will put relentless pressure for true reform of the police and civilian law-enforcement agencies? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will tell the Sindh government in clear and stern terms not to make appointments and transfers in the police on political reasons. Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will reform the rotting education system that is hugely responsible for keeping Pakistanis down? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will seriously restructure and reform the bureaucracy so it can govern on modern lines and not be weighed down by outmoded systems and mediocre personnel. Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will cleanse the filth within the electoral system that is susceptible to abuse, manipulation, and blatant cheating? Answer: Not the politicians.
Well. Now. You. Know.
Yes, we have a problem. If you are celebrating this system that delivers a clean Senate election, then you my friend, have your head deep within a mound of sand. If you are happy with what we have, and are content with letting this charade play on till 2018, when you cast your vote and settle down for another round of this musical chairs, then you need serious counseling.
There’s nothing to celebrate when none among your political leadership has the courage to hold itself accountable. There’s nothing to celebrate when the army is forced to take decisions that are the domain of the politicians. There’s nothing to celebrate when the politicians will hold hands to distribute offices but not to educate the population. There is a deep rot within this democracy. And the only people who cannot smell this stench are those who are mandated to lead.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2015.
Yes count and count till you reach a figure that will make you sit up. How many dead are dead enough? A hundred thousand? Half a million? A million? How much blood will make this land fertile enough to grow an organic conscience? Perhaps more than you and I can imagine.
For why else would we embrace normalcy like a long lost brother?
Ah the joy of shameless normalcy wrapped in ignorance! What comfort as the head slowly drills itself into sand. All is well, and Maulana Ghafoor Haideri is the new deputy chairman of Senate. Hail the democracy project as democrats carve up democracy and divide it among themselves. Three blind mice, see how they run…
Mr Haideri is our poster child for the roaring success of representative democracy. His party wasn’t too happy about the National Action Plan and the pious intentions of going after those who massacred our children, but he is our darling now that he has been fairly and squarely elected to this prestigious post in an election that marks the glory of people’s power. You won’t be faulted for going all teary eyed at the enormity of the moment.
Go ahead and shed a tear (of joy) at the beautiful sight of democracy at work. See the return of normalcy healing political wounds and strengthening a system that we have ached for since ever and ever. See the government go about its business with focused gusto. There’s the electricity shortage to resolve and the gas crises to tackle. The Islamabad Metro is rising like a phoenix, all set to win it the 2018 election. See serious governance at work as ministers, advisers, special assistants and assorted sidekicks glide across the political spectrum oozing efficiency, sincerity and Churchillian resolve.
Hey, remember the little kids with bullets in them? Well yes, we do but see the army is conducting Operation Zarb-e-Azb, and yes we fully support them, you know.
Democratic normalcy is back like a blessing. Dharna over, jalsa over, see Imran Khan zeroing in on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa like a laser-guided drone. See him hover over his province like an eye-in-the-sky, looking for faults to correct, and problems to solve. See him standing next to the IG monitoring the police, see him launching plantation drives, and hear him talking to you, me and the others on the radio. Khan the Rebel has now transformed into Khan the Deliverer. He will deliver governance couched in revolutionary colours and prove that he’s the man to beat in the next elections.
And see the PPP maintain its glorious irrelevance in anything national (Raza Rabbani’s election amounting to nothing more than number juggling for spoils of office). See the Sindh government get a well-deserved royal scolding from the army chief, and still blunder through the basics of governance. See the revenge of democracy unfolding in Sindh in all its riveting magnificence.
Now that’s what you call evolutionary progress. Give it time, boys. Let the elections take place and hopefully in the next hundred years or so the system will reform itself. Yes, don’t push too hard, and don’t mock democracy’s poster children, for if you do you run the risk of playing into the hands of those lovingly called the anti-democratic forces.
But what, pray, happens to the real difficult decisions? If normalcy is defined by returning to the way things were, that’s not really an enticing option. Do I hear a howl of protest from the adorable liberal fascists and the caring conservative Nazis? Well you have your Raza Rabbani and your Ghafoor Haideri so you’ve got your democratic dividend. Isn’t that what you were looking for?
If the strength of democracy lies in the Senate elections, what about the real tough issues of Karachi and elsewhere? Who’s calling the strategic shots in this Democratic Wonderland? These icons who brought you the roaring success of the ‘Senate Returns’?
Here then is the proverbial elephant in the room: the political leadership is unwilling or incapable of taking the decisions that are required to fundamentally change this society for the better. Their normalcy is defined by the trappings of democracy instead of the fruits of democracy.
Question: Who will get hold of the criminals in the parties in Karachi to crush violence? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will grab militants regardless of their affiliations with political parties and interest groups? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will ensure we shall never forget the massacres of Pakistanis by the terrorists? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will put relentless pressure for true reform of the police and civilian law-enforcement agencies? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will tell the Sindh government in clear and stern terms not to make appointments and transfers in the police on political reasons. Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will reform the rotting education system that is hugely responsible for keeping Pakistanis down? Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will seriously restructure and reform the bureaucracy so it can govern on modern lines and not be weighed down by outmoded systems and mediocre personnel. Answer: Not the politicians.
Question: Who will cleanse the filth within the electoral system that is susceptible to abuse, manipulation, and blatant cheating? Answer: Not the politicians.
Well. Now. You. Know.
Yes, we have a problem. If you are celebrating this system that delivers a clean Senate election, then you my friend, have your head deep within a mound of sand. If you are happy with what we have, and are content with letting this charade play on till 2018, when you cast your vote and settle down for another round of this musical chairs, then you need serious counseling.
There’s nothing to celebrate when none among your political leadership has the courage to hold itself accountable. There’s nothing to celebrate when the army is forced to take decisions that are the domain of the politicians. There’s nothing to celebrate when the politicians will hold hands to distribute offices but not to educate the population. There is a deep rot within this democracy. And the only people who cannot smell this stench are those who are mandated to lead.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2015.