October
12 , 2007
The
Makings of an Uncivil Society
When educated adults do what we admonish
children not to do, is when the blush
of embarrassment becomes severe.
The education system in Pakistan instead
of being a pyramid is an inverted one.
Approximately only 47% of the male population
and 23% of the female population of
Pakistan is literate. In this literate
group, there is a disproportionate number
that are graduates and have masters
and doctorate degrees. What graduate
and post-graduate degrees do is give
the student the power of deductive reasoning.
This accounts for the fact that a bio-medical
engineer can work in an IT department
with ease.
Lawyers have doctorates in jurisprudence
as a general rule — and education
is supposed to also file away chips
of brashness and audacity on our personalities.
In the Great Election Debate on Geo,
Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Sher Afghan Niazi,
Khalid Hameed and Munir Malik were to
debate the upcoming elections. Near
the end of the program, Kasuri lost
control totally and started to hurl
abuses at Munir Malik and at a point
even at the audience, which had started
to boo him. The program’s host
Hamid Mir tried to salvage the situation
by taking a break, but at the end of
the break, it seemed that Kasuri was
on a roll, and with voice raised, finger
wagging and words that made the bleep-machine
go wild, he made of himself an international
spectacle. And audiences as far away
as the United States sat quite stunned.
Certainly anger is a brief madness.
Even so, its retaliation was of a greater
psychosis. A couple of days later, Kasuri’s
face was sprayed with black paint by
another lawyer Khurshid Khan, who was
apparently incensed by Kasuri’s
remarks in the Geo program about Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto as well as his allegations
about the dishonesty of the lawyers
supporting Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
We are a nation desperately seeking
to find itself. But when the law of
the jungle applies and civil society
is starkly absent, there is no compass,
we shall be perpetually lost.
And if one thought that this unprofessional
and un-parliamentary behavior was limited
to those living in Pakistan; it may
be heartening or on the other hand,
extremely disheartening to know that
the curvy, canine tail has not straightened
out with the rules, regulations and
work environment of North America. It
has a bit of a chameleonic component:
Pakistani-American professionals are
indistinguishable from other Americans
as they follow all the rules and codes
of conduct living in the United States.
But they suffer from the “PIA
Syndrome”: as soon as they board
a PIA flight heading to Pakistan, they
transform into unrecognizable, semi-literate,
fiends. Sitting Indian-style on the
airplane seat, smoking on the flight
(“do what you want to do, I will
smoke”), flirting insistently
with the stewardess, running little
rivulets in the bathroom as full ablution,
like never before, is suddenly mandatory,
are a few of the scenarios created.
On deplaning in a Pakistani airport,
the same people that made arrow-straight
queues while in the US, leap toward
the desks of immigration and customs
and one does not see lines but clumps
of elbowing and struggling people.
One very essential ingredient of a civil
and progressive society is for its intelligentsia
to have the ability to exchange thoughts
and ideas in a calm and objective manner.
Several Internet discussion groups exist,
but an informal one that I am a part
of is of physicians in North America.
It is pure joy to learn from some very
great minds that participate in the
discussion. Much to the chagrin of Dale
Carnegie a lot of us love politics and
religion, and are greatly edified by
the multifarious postings on these subjects.
But when a discussion starts up about
Sufism, polygamy, Benazir’s corruption,
Musharraf’s tenacious hold on
power etc. it can be keyboards afire.
As a general rule, Pakistanis are not
happy with opinions that differ from
their own. And we are unable to convey
our dissatisfaction in a parliamentary,
professional manner. Our Achilles’
heel is to confuse the other person’s
difference of opinion as a personal
attack on us. And, God help us, we launch
into the greatest ad hominem attack
there can be. Suddenly, the discussion
is gone, but parents and ancestors have
been exhumed and reburied. Maternal
raising of children is criticized and,
Lord help me, one’s opponent in
the argument is now either illegitimate
or spreading his seed far and wide!
Banishing each other from the pale of
Islam is commonplace, and veiled and
at times shockingly bold sectarianism
erupts in the discussion group. Amazingly,
one would think that the fair sex would
not indulge in this Internet-street-like
behavior, but alas, anger really produces
a brief psychosis, and words burn my
computer screen as they do the heart.
People form informal alliances based
on these discussions, for it is hard
to forget that insult on your laptop
and the comfort that came from another
friend right after. We forget the argument
and begin to concentrate on personalities.
Dictatorship has had a chokehold on
Pakistan for most of its life. A semblance
of the independence of the judiciary
of Pakistan has been attained at the
cost of many lives and of many lawyers.
Pakistanis are weary of the military
and sickened by its politicians. The
lawyer community inspires credibility
and security, but with the antics of
Kasuri and Khurshid, one feels thoroughly
disgusted all over again.
General Musharraf has the nation on
edge with his uniform and deal stories
— all attempts to hold on to power,
a la maan na maan mein tera mehman.
It is a maxim in Pakistan that our nation
could only be ruled by the danda. When
the community that got us the independence
of the judiciary behaves in an unseemly
manner as Kasuri and Khurshid did, one
has to agree that Pakistan is not of
the age that it can be a strong civil
society, with deep democratic roots.
So, why, when we are rude and reprehensible
to one another should we be allowed
the privilege of being ruled by a just,
wise, deeply honest and democratic leader?
We have gotten what we deserve. For
60 years now.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and
freelance columnist residing in Toledo
Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
