By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

November 02 , 2012

Rift and Drift

Five years ago, the nation was introduced to the weird concept of ‘revenge of democracy’. Five years later, the results are now in. Rift and drift have been the revenge of democracy.

Some wait expectantly for elections to be an instrument of change in Pakistan. Once again, there is a wait for things to happen. Precedent suggests that elections may not be the remedy they are touted to be. The 1970 elections precipitated the vivisection of Pakistan. The outcome sharpened the pre-existing factionalism.

Elections sometimes serve as a tool to legitimize a tainted status quo, where the focus is fixed on furthering family, finance, and friends. Through the ballot box, the same faces pop up under a different label. Only the label is changed. So there is a continuance of more of the same.

Elections are overrated as engines of change. But elections can be the pacifying injection of sedation. To cite former US President Teddy Roosevelt, from his 1899 speech at Chicago: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Embedded in the existing polity is a moral disconnect: those who are saluted publicly are held in disdain privately. Whatever be its rationale, it makes an art form out of hypocrisy. The mufti-khaki-political class hierarchy does not have the stature and caliber of yore. This is to the detriment of the nation. The status quo of the ruling structure remains adaptive, like a chameleon, and tenacious despite its lack of good intent and public reach. It has tons of money and the patronage to pitch false claims and to facilitate the switching of allegiances to keep up the pretence of democracy.

Stepping into the moral vacuum, and encashing it, are nefarious elements. The temptation is strong to go with the flow of the herd—to become one of them—and simply follow what is expedient and convenient. The martyrs—if they took a look at the ‘leadership’ of today—would be rolling in their graves. They certainly would not have been elected today.

Those without self-respect cannot give respectability to the nation. On display is the intoxication with the pomp of power. These then are the ‘moderates’ who were installed to supposedly foil militancy. Instead, their misrule has added fuel to the fire.

Thus are the doings of the elders. Their juniors—riding the high horse of derivative power—can be even worse.

Some of the evils and attitudes infesting state and society are reminiscent of pre-Islamic Jahiliya. The apathy and, in effect, complicity of otherwise decent folks have contributed to pupils being shot and schools bombed for pursuing the sacred Islamic farz of seeking knowledge.

There is one recurring rule in Pakistan polity: rulers are not renowned for making a graceful exit. An exception to this rule is unlikely in 2013.

To quell and contain the rift and the drift requires more than just casting a vote. It requires a drastic re-think.

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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