The Real Culprits: Rulers or Voters? - 1
ByMohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
“Every nation has the government it deserves.” - Joseph de Maistre, French political philosopher
Abu Dhar reported: I said to Messenger of Allah (s); “Why do you not appoint me to an (official) position?” The Noble Prophet (s) patted him on the shoulder with his hand and said, “O Abu Dharr, you are a weak man and it is a trust and it will be a cause of disgrace and remorse on the Day of Resurrection except for the one who takes it up with a full sense of responsibility and fulfills what is entrusted to him (discharge of obligations efficiently)”. - Muslim.
Simple piety or having a burning desire to be in the seat of power without the fullest sense of responsibility is not enough, neither in Islam nor in the art of good governance. A ruler is like a wheel and people its spokes. The spokes individually are weak, but collectively are its main source of strength. When the wheel breaks, the spokes break automatically, says Shakespeare. The welfare and well-being of people is inherently tied with the soundness and performance of the ruler. A ruler who is weak by nature, is shy of making timely and bold decisions, is devoid of the primary ability to maintain law and order in the country and establish justice, and most importantly a leader who is not endowed with sufficient dynamism and vision to confront and cope with new challenges, demands and situations in a fluid world, and who is not perceptive enough to read the hidden presence of innumerable opportunities in adversities, having the ability to turn a lemon into a lemonade, and who is deficit in honesty and fair-play, such a leader stands absolutely disqualified on any grounds. If people still cast their votes in favor leaders who are deficit in the leadership qualities as counted above, then they are the culprits as “People get what they deserve”.
Leaders elected with such poor choices by the voters obviously create havoc and land nations in deep trouble. One manta of leaders who have power thrust upon them on seeing themselves failing is, “These problems are not our creation…we just inherited them… it is a legacy of the past…etc.” . In a true democratic system (one in which accountability and adherence to the Constitution is effectively followed), it becomes the obligation of the voters to reject and replace such leadership by not voting for them because true leadership is all about tackling the problems and removing the hardships from the lives of people.
Any leadership which does not possess a grand vision of its country, which does not have the passion to grasp the helm of the ship of the State and steer it on the right course and to the right port, such a leadership will definitely sink the ship of the state. Pakistan, because of the folly of its voters, is where it is now. Fixing the blame on the leaders is an old cliché. Let the voters learn to take the blame on themselves as well.
Leaders also do matter in a big way, and their role cannot be minimized. Henry Adams, himself the great-grandson and grandson of presidents of America, a brilliant historian once said, “American president resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have helm to grasp, a course to steer, and a port to seek.” The men in the White House in the steering seat have been largely responsible for shaping the destiny of the people of this nation. Did such a thing ever happen in Pakistan? Did the leaders over there in their keenness to hold the helm, ever had a clear vision about the course (policies) on which they intended to steer the state ship? Or even the port (destination) they intended to seek.
Simply riding an elephant of power (people) for a joy ride is not enough. This joy ride can turn sour if the rider loses control over the elephant, or does not possess the ability to steer the elephant on the right path. The rider must know what to do when the elephant begins to follow his own instincts, or just goes wild. A country in the hands of such riders who panic when things go bad is doomed. Did the people of Pakistan ever listen to their inner voices, paying heed to the calls of their souls, while casting their votes in favor of their leaders? No. They always acted like zombies and robots in each election, repeatedly voting for the same brand of people whom they should have dumped long ago. Such apractice sets afoot “the mischief”, and then ‘the mischief’ takes its own course.
Behind America’s progress and power, there is the story of sustained toil of people and its leaders. The voters are exceedingly watchful here. They dump those leaders after the first term if they fail to act, deliver and take the country to new heights. Whiners and scroungers never can make to the White House. Parliamentarians here do not hold fake-degrees, but possess the best education and the best legal minds. All great presidents of America had maintained a deep psychic, moral and humanistic connection with the needs, anxieties, and dreams of the people of America. President Woodrow Wilson once said, “I do not believe that any man can lead who does not act… under the impulse of a profound sympathy with those whom he leads - a sympathy which is insight - an insight which is of the heart rather than of the intellect”.
Leaders who are power-hungry, greedy, callous, cruel, mean, un-sympathetic; who are compulsive liars, are ill-educated, and whose only expertise is their ability to deftly shift the blame on others, and who, above all, are disconnected with the needs and sufferings of people, such leaders should never have been the rulers because they never can be good rulers. Pakistan unfortunately has been governed by such leaders. Vipers know how to crawl best on their bellies because they do not have any feet to stand up. The same is true of these leaders in Pakistan.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously said, “All of our great presidents were leaders of thought at a time when certain ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.” Mr. H. W. Brand in his biography of President Woodrow Wilson writes, “So Washington incarnated the idea of federal union, Jefferson and Jackson the idea of democracy, Lincoln the idea of union and freedom, Cleveland the idea of rugged honesty. Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson, as moral leaders, used the presidency as pulpit in their own way”. Great leaders often are the making of great crises. It is the crisis that ultimately brought forth their true strength and that tested their ability of how bold and imaginative they were.
American history offers many interesting lessons on this theme. A crisis does not always guarantee success to a leader. It rather has the potential to destroy a leader completely. For example, the crisis of succession did not spur Buchanan or the crisis of depression spur Hoover to any creative leadership, writes Gary Wills in his biography of James Madison. “Their inadequacies in the face of crisis allowed Lincoln and the second Roosevelt to show the difference individuals make to history”. Even when there is no first-class crisis, forceful and persuasive presidents, such as, Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, were able to impose their own priorities on the country, says Gary.
Madison the great mind, may not have been able to add Canada to America, but he did depart from the White House with his reputation always on the rise. Slogans apart, with the exception of the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid–i-Azam, no other leader has been able to add even a brick to the edifice of Pakistan. There has been no shortage of crises in Pakistan. The current crisis of handling terrorism after the tragedy of 9/11 offered a great challenge to Pakistan. Pakistan all of a sudden found itself in the eye of a crisis. Musharraf, the man riding the elephant at that time, was devoid of vision and sincerity. He avoided the boulder coming down, but failed to encash upon the situation once the boulder had hit the ground. And the current leadership is just unfit to be there where it should never have been.
In Pakistan till today, all the politicians have played the game of politics with complete disregard to the needs of the people. Crises came in quick succession, but not the leaders with a creative vision and boldness. The country always remained a battlefield of different ideologies, disputing even the very rationale behind its creation: was it created by a secular minded person to be a religious state? A democratic country where the minority would also have a say but where the majority would have the way - a place where everybody could attend to his/her religion with complete freedom, and work with equal opportunity to become whatever one intended to, leaving the part of judging others only to the Creator. Or it was a country which was created on the basis of religion. From Liaquat Ali Khan to the present incumbent, politics gradually slid downward and degenerated from bad to worse, till it became a favorite game-play for the elite to stay in power by hook or crook, and at the cost of people and the country. Politics became synonymous with corruption and callousness - a sure way to infinite riches.
One nagging question is: why do people keep electing such parliamentarians and rulers who in all fairness would not even qualify the eligibility test. Of course, people aspire for better living conditions, and they look for improvement in their living standards. Why would, then, they choose to be their own enemies? Either there is a hidden hand that is guiding them to do so, or their own mental state should be out of hinges, or it could be both. The Qur’an supplies the answer. The misdeeds of people inevitably trigger in and call forth the operation of Allah’s Law. Wide-spread of evil, and disregard of Allah Commands cannot be inconsequential. The Qur’an uses many interesting metaphors for people embroiled in such a state. It happens so when people become willfully disobedient. Grace and Light of Allah get withdrawn from them, depriving them of their freedom of action. The yoke of sin then gets fastened around their necks, and it keeps tightening, till it reaches right up to their chins. Their heads get forced up and are then kept in a stiff position so that their mind becomes befogged. This is when their immorality and obliquity begins to taint their intellect. It is that state when people lose their ability to think clearly, or act in the right way. For the Prophet of Islam, a Momen (his follower) could be a coward, or miserly, but he/she could never be a liar.
“We have put yokes round their necks right up to their chins, so that their heads are forced up (and they cannot see). 36:8
“And We have put a bar in front of them, and a bar behind them and further, We have covered them up; so that they cannot see.” 36:9.
In Sanskrit it is mentioned, “When destruction comes near, understanding is turned upside down”, and in a Latin proverb, a similar theme is repeated, “When God wishes to destroy, He first makes people demented.” So people will keep electing wrong people because the very minds get befogged, and the ability to think clearly becomes benumbed. (Continued next week)
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