Rewarding Failure
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
The rewards showered on the cricket team after losing to India at Mohali is a symbolic reminder of the overall decline in pride and performance.
Ineptness is covered up in a flurry of fake felicitations. It is a ruse to mask bad results. The already over-fed and over-pampered cricket team is being given the lollypop of lucrative inducements. None in the cricket team had the self-esteem (Khudi) to say no to money after a dismal let-down of the hopes of the nation when it mattered. In fact, such is the depth of avarice embedded in society that even the selectors had no sense of shame in supplicating for cash.
But, in all fairness, this phenomenon is not limited to the sporting arena. It is much more so in public life where the scale of plunder is mind-boggling.
Here, politics, in effect, often serves as a platform for self-enrichment and fattening the fortunes for kith and kin. Predictably, much of the top political hierarchy has become a virtually a self-centric billionaires club. Their political circle is a family circle. Issues of governance, corruption and rule of law are neglected.
What is, in fact, plutocracy is presented as democracy. It is pathetic to see scholars bow down before scoundrels. Excesses are hidden under the hijab of democracy.
The power-seeking gain of musical chairs continues. Additional compromises on top of an already over-compromised set-up are seemingly endless and senseless.
Allama Iqbal was noted for his dervish life-style, and the Quaid for his incorruptible integrity. Neither trait is much evident in today’s landscape.
Careful notice needs to be taken of the distraction being created through the accelerating momentum developing around the issue of breaking up Pakistan into smaller provinces. Its pitfalls are not being properly weighed. It carries within the separatist seeds of fragmentation. It is further roiling the national environment with prejudice and paranoia. The slumbering state and society are hardly alert to the perils of opening a new Pandora’s box. Watch for the hidden agenda.
Meanwhile, the spillover effects of the conflict in Afghanistan continue to cast a lengthening shadow. The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan took place 32 years ago. Therefore, 50% of Pakistan’s existence has been consumed and dominated by happenings in Afghanistan and their aftermath. Yet, no coherent Afghan strategy has crystallized.
To expect an intrigue-infected set-up to come up with a solution is an illusion. What is part of the problem is unlikely to be a part of the solution. Over and over again, the ruling classes have proven their unfitness to lead.
Persisting with a decaying order is a reminder of Einstein’s famous definition of foolishness: doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting a different outcome.
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