Politics: A social mystification in Pakistan!

‘Democracy is the ultimate means to figure out egalitarianism in a broken society.’ ‘It isn’t chaos rather the manifestation of freedom ensured by the democracy.’ ‘Oh, don’t consume it so badly! Since we are in transition from absolutism to democracy and it would take time to have a mature politics in Pakistan.’ These were the resolutions of my students to an open ended question about their views on whether or not we are heading toward a civil disorder with the present state of governance in Pakistan.

Frankly speaking, It wasn’t unexpected for me because what else can you expect of the young  creative thinkers for whom everything said in a Prime time TV talk Show is the ultimate fact—a revelation.  A plain folk rhetoric presented and reinforced every day by the mainstream media.

Nevertheless, all of them were thunderstruck to a follow-up question on what do they believe that whether an uninterrupted decade isn’t ample for a nation to learn the job of running a country, especially when the country has such a struggling political past.

Our routine political affairs in Pakistan today give us a vibrant hint that we are entirely unaware of the usage and benefits of persuasive politics-an essence a country vitally needs for serenity— Persuasive politics practiced on the part of government contributes diversity and Rule of Law to the state where the rules are legitimated by traditions, customs and constitutional procedures. 

The most silent attribute of this system is the compromise politics of give and take. Such system automatically discourages and to a certain extent blocks the opposition’s opportunity to a configuration where political parties and media merge into a network to test government through rallies and litigation. Media in this setting isn’t capable to fuel the hype by having the dedicated coverage of rallies and opinion shows on wishful outcomes for the litigations against government. Media debates in such setting revolve around the advantages and disadvantages of government legislation and development.

The modus operandi for political regimes in Pakistan can rightly be drawn as of pressure politics.Our political parties, even before winning elections and beginning of tenures try to conquer and manipulate competitive parties and the electoral operation. Soon after, formation of government, hunt for the security review, censorship, surveillance, harassment, discrimination, infiltration of opposition and misuse of emergency legislation. The opposition on the other hands under the regime of pressure politics, then, are only left with the options like extra-parliamentary actions, social protests for political persuasion of rulers and masses, demonstrations to show the strength of public support, strikes, boycotts, non cooperation, civil disobedience, and strive to enforce other forms of pressure that are short of violence.  In all likelihood, I think it was the reason why Henry Louis Mencken said that under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to show that the other party is unfit to rule and both succeed and both are right.

The continual practice and praise of pressure politics in any country more often leads to the dominance of violent politics, where, in the words of Noam Chomsky, “people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.” Governments under influence of pressure politics have a propensity to use violence and repression in maintaining control of the state powers. Mass arrests, banning, deportation, Assassinations, torture, death squads, concentration camps, disappearances and counterinsurgency becomes the routine affairs of state. 

See this video on how Political Violence works in Pakistan

As a preliminary stage to transition from state of peace to a state of civil war, it becomes hard for the populace to differentiate between the state-actors and non-state-actors. Transition moves further and statesmen evolve into fraction leaders. Ethno-lingual centrism enters the domain of politics and in order to counter the political party in power, the opponents start practicing violence too to challenge state powers. Material destruction, sabotage, arson, individuated and de-individuated political murders, indiscriminate massacres and insurgencies become normative of the socio politico change in the country.

It is typically the defying movements for states to escape labels like Banana-Republic, fail or a rogue nation. I believe to have a keen eye on the public governance and administration of politics in the name of democratic norms needs to be the concern of our utmost importance in Pakistan, if we are interested to see democracy prosper. It wouldn’t be utopia to formulate a constitutional advisory body in the country, comprising political thinkers, lawyers, judges and seasoned politicians, to keep cheek on the limits and exercise of politics and to determine where we are about to lead the political paradigm of this country in decade or two. The politicians, I hope, will then not be needed to write the chapters of political errors, mistakes and tickling in their post rule autobiographies and National reconciliation Ordinances will not be needed for the transition of governance in this country. 

Otherwise, the question remains identical whether or not an uninterrupted decade isn’t enough for us to learn and we need to be clear in our thoughts that next stage in history is the stage state of civil war for our country.