‘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.
