Change: A Slogan without Meaning
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
In the midst of financial crisis and the war against terror, when the United States was losing both at home and abroad, a thin, tall handsome young man swayed the majority of Americans to trust him as their President for the next four years. Barrack Obama was not the most talented or experienced candidate in 2008; in fact his administrative skills had never been tested before. Furthermore, the color of his skin, his relative inexperience in politics, lack of resources, his Muslim background and the presence of Hillary Clinton in the race, each element stood between the Senator from Illinois and the White House.
Looking back today, it almost seems like a miracle that he overcame all the hurdles, first by defeating his strongest opponent to secure the nomination of the Democratic party and then by crushing the Republican Party candidate, John McCain in the Presidential elections to clinch the victory.
Was that really a miracle? How could an ordinary and unfamiliar Barrack Obama with a dubious background become the most powerful person on earth? According to one view, the single most important reason for his victory was his simple and short yet attractive message of change. Not only that his message resonated with the people, they believe, he himself represented change in every aspect. From his appearance, background and naivety in politics, every factor that was supposed to work against him turned to support him in the right environment to get elected as the forty-fourth President of the United States, an impossible task that was hard to even imagine a decade ago.
The political environment then had played an important role in the elections of 2008, a fact that we all agree upon. Here are some polls results: the favorable rating for the US Congress (House of Representatives and US Senate) hung at only 25% and the President’s personal job approval rating hovered around 30% during the last two years of President Bush’s tenure. More than two-thirds of the Americans believed that the country was heading in the wrong direction and the overall despondency about the system ran very high. In short, people showed strong discontent with the administration; they wanted to alter the future direction of their country and indicated their dismay with the economy. Their message could not have been more transparent: they asked for change.
After winning the second term, years have passed since the President Barack Obama has sworn into office. Nonetheless, he still has not been able to keep up with many of his campaign promises, including but not limited to, the closure of the Guantanamo bay detention camp and broad-based immigration reforms. The mandatory pragmatism of the job, the partisan divide in the country, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the never-ending series of Arab conflicts, the Russian over-activity in Central Asia, and above all America’s deep recession - everything has gripped the attention of the administration in its spell, overriding any possibility of real change in the country. In other words, America remains essentially the same during the six years of the Presidency of Barrack Obama. Is that a surprise?
Pakistanis are not any different from their American counterparts to long for a change. Indeed, when one looks at their sufferings at the behest of its corrupt elite that has failed to deliver even the basic necessities of life to most of the people, one cannot resist but feel their pain and understand their urge to bring significant reforms in the country's administrative structure. Trying to accelerate the process in the last few years, some fanatics have even set themselves on fire hoping to spark the same reaction as ignited by Muhammad Bouazizi in Tunisia. But their attempts have largely remained unsuccessful, unable to galvanize enough people to agitate in the streets. (Many experts believe that the lack of public outrage on these incidences of self-immolation can be explained by the ubiquitous apathy and indifference that has infiltrated the society! I disagree).
Through their twin sit-ins in Islamabad, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) are attempting to capture their sentiments. Imran has been referring to the Tsunami in his speeches for a while to indicate the popularity of his message and lately to imply a victory in the general elections of 2013. However, the change that he wanted to bring in the whole country, even after tall claims against corruption, could not be witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) where his party rules today. Sure, we do observe some improvement in certain aspects, but those baby steps in no way can be attributed as a revolution. By and large, KPK today is governed by the same old politicians, on the same old principles, through the same old administrative model and with the same old speed as it always had been. In other words the change which was supposed to have swept through the KPK like a Tsunami, either is too slow or too pusillanimous to make a difference.
Considering that he is not someone who can bring any kind of revolution lest winning few seats in the general elections, I am deliberately leaving Maulana Tahir ul Qadri out of the discussion. In fact, it is a shame that people like him are able to destabilize the system and still get so much media attention without public support.
Having said that, my point is simple: Change is a powerful political slogan, a rhetoric that is both ambiguous in its meaning and unclear in its parameters. However, most people still find it attractive enough to get trapped, even when they do not reckon a true understanding of its nature. Why does that happen? How do educated people start believing in something that they in their hearts know is not going to be translated into reality? May be the narrative of change is so alluring that it compels everyone to fly to the “Promised Land” in their minds. It must also give them idealistic hope at a very personal level and hope, for all of us is life, even when it is unrealistic and impractical.
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