Can PTI Change Its Culture?
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Reminding us of the good old days when he was the Pakistan cricket team captain, Imran Khan, once again, has shown his mettle to the world with his aggressive election campaign of 2103. Much more energetic, a lot more confident and significantly more exuberant than his rivals, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) went after them like a fierce lion! And he took his opponents to task. He hammered them every day for their alleged involvement in corruption and slandered them for conspiring together against the interests of the people.
Whether he was addressing the rallies of his enthusiastic supporters on the election trail or discussing the matter with a television anchor, Khan utilized every moment of public appearance to put forward his agenda of bringing a meaningful change in the country through better governance and honest leadership (besides abusing his fellow politicians). In these interviews, Khan swaggered on his capabilities as a leader and built his case to be elected as the prime minister on three major career achievements: the hospital, the college and the cricket world cup. And, while we were still struggling to put the square peg of cricket in the round hole of politics, he would shift the momentum of the dialogue to demean his colleagues and refer to them with names like ‘Raja Rental’. He declared his verdict unambiguously about their involvement in financial scandals and corroborated his claims with newspaper clippings and suo motu actions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as evidence long before any official hearings or court decisions. Some of his talking points in these encounters and the basic framework of his arguments can be summarized as: a derogatory attitude towards other parties and their leaders, a strong belief in self-righteousness, over-estimation of self-accomplishments and intolerance towards criticism.
Having said that, we also need to admit that the aggressive strategy of the former cricketer has worked. And, his party for the first time after the current elections has emerged as a political reality with almost 30 seats in the National Assembly. Nonetheless, the role of his party would still be the same as it was assigned in the previous Assembly, even when it was not a part of it: simultaneous opposition of the opposition and opposition of the government. With that in mind, someone recommended that the PTI should request the next speaker of the house to allot them seats in the parliament galleries where they do not have to sit with the members of the ‘status quo’ at all. They can look down upon their fellow parliamentarians from the top yet again, and be distinguished as a superior wing of parliament! If this rumor is true, parliament then will be divided into three areas: the treasury benches, the opposition and none of the above, i.e. PTI.
Historically, long before the PTI had emerged as a formidable political party, Khan, from the day of its inception, has identified his ideology with the youth of Pakistan. His message of hope, anger and rebellion has resonated well with their age, growing passions and maturing minds. Over the last 17 years, that connection has grown much stronger and the message has further intensified.
Although a lot has happened in the world since then and people all over the world have changed, Pakistan had been kept hostage by the army general for years. The US has been attacked on September 11, 2011; in response, it has attacked Afghanistan and Iraq for two entirely different reasons. The Arab Spring has brought democracy in some of the most tightly controlled dictatorial regimes. The US economy has dived and shot right back up. Even Midwestern Americans have shown some early signs of political maturity and have elected Barrack Obama as the president twice. Yet, after all that, PTI and its supporters, irrespective of their age, gender, social, economic or educational background, have consistently shown resistance to change the culture of their party, the same political slogan that they have stood up for. They have proved to be incapable of understanding the importance of reconciliation, tolerance and political maturity. Instead, rather surprisingly, they have insisted on doing just the opposite. They have built a habit of insulting the other politicians, and taken pride in using names like ‘Noora League’, ‘Muk Muka’ and ‘Halwa party’ for people who have learnt to respect each other’s mandate and have played by the book for five years.
In this self-created incendiary environment, even the voters do not have a less inflammatory option. We are forced to like Khan; if not, we are in trouble. In the words of George W Bush: “You are either with us or against us.” There is no room for being neutral, there are no grey areas for undecided individuals and there is absolutely no role of difference of opinion. Everyone has to pick between good or bad, left or right, white or black and truth or falsehood. In response to this rigid political stance, some people have railed against Khan (many times unduly) and once they do that, hundreds of PTI supporters collude to bash their opponent (even more harshly and impolitely) on social media. The net result of this exercise is: the political temperature of the country has shot way up, when it could have been easily contained at a comfortable level.
Even many of political talk show hosts are publicly complaining about the obscene language used against them by the party supporters. This culture has to change without any further delay, not only because it hurts their cause more than it helps, but also because we should be building a ‘naya’ (new) decent, mature and a more democratic Pakistan, a Pakistan where dissent is encouraged for a healthy debate.
(The writer is a freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com)
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