Candid Corner
- Let’s put off petty politics for another occasion
“Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.”
Mary Oliver
COVID-19, declared a pandemic, has virtually impacted every country of the world with some suffering more than others. No one really knows what is in store for tomorrow. People of all dispensations are busy trying to stay safe from the onslaught as scientists struggle to find a curative vaccine.
In the face of an existential threat as that COVID-19 poses, nations are likely to unite behind the singular objective of defeating it. In this effort, they are guided by their political leaders. The contemporary media, with its reach and influence, is a key factor in mobilising them around the common cause. Then there is the government which has to chalk out the strategy and provide the resources and expertise to overcome the threat.
What do we have here in Pakistan? We have a trail of leaders who are brazenly politicising the pandemic, a media that is spreading disinformation and playing a devastatingly divisive role and a government which is struggling with paucity of resources and wherewithal. I heard a senior PPP leader proclaiming that he would do politics on corona, he would do politics even in a mosque, and those who don’t want to do that should leave the country. In highlighting such grossness, the media’s conduct is infected with an overdose of malevolence with the anchors combining the pretensions of being clairvoyants, experts and pontiffs.
This is not a time to pour sarcasm on the efforts of the government. It is time to encourage it to do more. It is the unity and homogeneity among the people and institutions which would make an impregnable bulwark against the danger that is upon us
This is why even an existential threat like COVID-19 has been criminally politicised. While politicians may do it as a matter of professional right, it is the institution of the media which, ever so consciously, is jeopardising every effort that is made to combat the threat. There are caustic insinuations flying around that the government is not fully abreast of the gravity of the situation, or it is not sincere in averting the crisis, or it is discriminating among the provinces, or its performance has been below par. Even the Prime Minister’s speech has been subjected to scathing criticism. A cartoon has appeared in a leading national daily showing the chief ministers of the provinces taking their positions on the victory stand to advance a pre-orchestrated narrative.
Even the judiciary has started making caustic comments with political undertones. In one such instance, the Chief Justice has held the government responsible over its “inability to contain the coronavirus at the border leading to an outbreak in the country”. In a similar vein, another one of the judicial tribe had asked the government to provide certification to the effect that nothing would happen to Nawaz Sharif over a certain period of time. What are the judges up to? Where do they want the country to be headed? The manner in which they belittle the executive branch as a matter of routine is highly condemnable. They hardly have a laudatory past to flaunt. While they were quite accustomed to taking instructions on telephone, the lowest point has been their complicity which legalised military take-overs in the country. They protect their corrupt colleagues and wouldn’t check the rampant hooliganism of the lawyer community, even their daylight attacks on hospitals resulting in unfortunate deaths of patients.
They have a role to play which they must, but they should not act beyond the call of duty and the Constitution. It is time they hold themselves back and begin operating within their domain as stipulated in the statue book. I have often pleaded for introducing parliamentary oversight of their appointment and performance. The government is strongly urged to take steps to make that possible.
As expected, all guns seem to be pointed in the direction of the Prime Minister as if he is the one who has brought this scourge upon the country. Any defence of the government is anathema to the proponents of this vile and divisive narrative with the specific objective of rendering the Prime Minister controversial. My last Sunday piece is an example which exposed the rapacious smallness of some so-called champions of democracy and civil rights. Their comments reflected huge quotients of hate and spite for an individual whose success may spell political demise for many. Even more disappointing has been the excessively opinionated, crass and insinuating narrative that most of them used in their posts. While I accept it all as a matter of their right, it may be time for them to look inwards and evaluate where this excessive venom is coming from and why? That may mellow them down a little and expose them to a necessary reappraisal of their perspective and understanding of others as what they are, and what they stand for.
Why is it that such-like people hate Imran Khan so much that they stoop low to use language which is construed as beneath human dignity? While they criticise the Prime Minister for not coming up with a financial relief package during his speech, they are neither willing to see why the country is so heavily indebted, nor do they agree to talk about the criminal loot and plunder that it was subjected to during the periods when oligarchs Zardari and Nawaz ruled. They speak of the incompetence of NAB, but are unwilling to talk about the manner in which institutional credibility and competence were grossly compromised during these previous tenures so that they would not pose a challenge to the dictatorial and corrupt indulgences of the despots.
But, it is the Prime Minister alone who is to blame just because he does not see things the way his predecessors did. Let me enact a comparison here. In her address to the German people, Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the significance of the rampaging scourge. She cautioned her people that “this is serious”. She then urged them to also “take it seriously”. This is termed as a model of leadership, and rightly so. But, when Prime Minister Khan makes a similar plea, he gets no credit. Instead, he is blamed for not announcing a relief package. Such is the duplicity and such the hypocrisy of the tribe of evil-mongers whose spite and venom are all meant only for seeing the back of one person.
This is not a time for creating artificial divisions simply because someone does not look at things the way others do. It is time for uniting the nation to face this scourge because it is only then that there would be a chance of beating it. A divided people will fall easy prey to the onslaught.
We all know that there is scarcity of resources. The government is not in a position to inject millions into the economy. I am certain that it will do its utmost to alleviate the sufferings, particularly of the impoverished segments of the society. This is not a time to measure the working of one province against the other/s and grade them accordingly. It is time to urge them to coordinate their efforts to defeat the scourge together. This is not a time to pour sarcasm on the efforts of the government. It is time to encourage it to do more.
Most importantly, in these times of trial and travail, it is the unity and homogeneity among the people and institutions which would make an impregnable bulwark against the danger that is upon us. Let’s put off petty politics for another occasion.