The Pakistani Spectator

“The audience watched in awe the circus where harlequins faint and cry, and jokers await their cues as thieves in the dark. Mesmerized the cobra danced in the ashes, eyes glistening blankly, tongue darting like a ventriloquist’s puppet with no thought of its own. They clapped and danced merrily, pierrots of the centre stage. Secretly they grinned from ear to ear like the clown with that forlorn face; and the king who washed his hands, playing safe, acting cool on his throne soon to be washed away. Like fireflies in the night, the show sparkled from a distance, a thousand and one lights of magic and trance. Then the breeze of summer blew, like a tongue of fire, ravaging memories of existence into dust. And the farce ended; smoke filling the morning mist with soot and tears…..” (Watus Solis - Circus).

We are human and as politics here is no longer politics but business, democracy fails on this very human factor because of the innate self-centered nature of our humanity. Elections are a necessary condition for democracy but are not sufficient evidence to ensure that a functioning democracy is in place. The mantra in our democracy is that those elected to govern can only be judged after five years. In simpler terms this means those elected can perform like a circus, that too only before a clapping audience however painfully pathetic the show might be. The paradox about our latest democracy has been their propensity to suffer serious reversals immediately after their moment of greatest electoral triumph. Despite all the rhetoric there seemingly is only one political crisis in the ruling duos term; they came to power without a clue as to what to do for a better Pakistan.

It is seldom in politics that a government finds itself effectively in a perpetual no-win situation. Bragging, like Musharraf, about their Midas touch, everything this government has touched has turned to dust and ashes. Their policies eerily similar to those of the Musharraf era have the same tenor too. Musharraf had  shamelessly declared a foreign visa reason enough for Pakistani women to get raped whereas PM Gillani, a peer to his followers, callosly declared that women can give birth in planes and rickshaws too. It simply belies any norm, even the lowliest of the low, that we think we have. Talking of the ability to listen, it is all very well but the foremost requirement of any able government is the ability to make right decisions at the right time. The two year blundering flip-flops and u-turns, much having been written and said about it, reads morbidly like Malice in Blunderland. To make it even more absurd they are then coined as fruits of democracy and proof of a listening government hell-bent on “reconciliation”. Saner elements, though, see a body no longer in control of events, reeling from one crisis to another. In this pall of gloom the only job done ably and efficiently has been the rewarding of careerists having a perverted sense of loyalty and priorities. Plato said: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light”.

This is not only a politics of power at its worst; it is also a politics of paranoia which applies a conspiracy theory to everything not in line with the prescribed. This paranoia sees the establishment (read army) working in tandem with the media to deprive them of their luxurious life. The army apart from (a welcome) twisting of arms on key issues has kept to itself.The “conspirator” media, saying and showing what it does is not a matter of bias. As has been proved, time and again, they have a logical narrative whereas those elected simply do not have one. The now overtly beleaguered government is bogged down in its failures and the effort to preserve self-esteem. One feels at a total loss how those who pretend to be in power and the legitimate authority, always listening yet tin-eared, can infuse faith and credibility without assuming responsibility for their numerous blunders.

The problem with this weak government is the proven lack of faith in their ability to do anything positively effective, fire-fighting becoming more and more about their own selves than for the common man. Whereas the current mode meant that a major restructuring was necessary, the clueless ruling elite single-mindedly reels on benefiting and encouraged by a pliant (no) opposition. Those in power and those who pose as if against are playing a lethal game of chance, Russian Roulette, with the lives of those very who brought them to power. The politicians naively hope that by re-spinning the gun-chamber the game can go on indefinitely. They forget that this game of chance is a very limited one with the players never in control of the deadly outcome.

The Supreme Court NRO decision is certainly bound to become yet another political juggernaut in the coming days. Besides that, the government is plagued with self-created factors that contribute to its failure. Their disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy gaffes and executive “misconduct” has resulted in a total erosion of public trust. President Zaradari, willing political martyrdom and resurrection as a glorious messiah, should stop placing himself on the cross every other day and doling out the hammers and nails to those very he then dubs as conspirators. We have had our fill of messiahs; what we would mercifully welcome is a mere mortal who means well for the people of this hapless land.

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