Now or Never. Are we to live or perish forever?

There was once a king who wanted his people to be conscious of their existence and fight for their rights. So he taxed the only bridge in the land that was used by everyone to get to their jobs or homes. A month passed but the public remained dormant. The king doubled the tax but no one could be heard berating the castle walls. The king thought that only drastic measures could wake the public from its ignorant slumber, so he employed a man who would whip anyone who crossed that bridge. Three days later, the ruler was woken by the noise of large crowd around his castle walls. Contend and happy, the king thought finally the people were going to do something for themselves. So he walked out with joy to face the crowd. On reaching his balcony, he asked the people what was the problem. Their reply left him frustrated and shocked. It seemed that the traffic on the bridge was being jammed by the whipping. Therefore, the people had gathered to ask the king for another man to be employed on the bridge, for the sole purpose of whipping them all day!

Such is the case of our Pakistan today. We are amid a torrent of catastrophes in the form of electricity crisis, food crisis, unemployment, suicide bombs, civil wars, hyper-inflation and our concerns flare out and die within our hearts. Our rulers are among the most corrupt people in the world, but that is not the heart-wrenching part. The saddest part is that we know all of this, yet we are silent like an ostrich, which buries it head in the ground whenever it senses danger. Our sense of pride as Pakistanis has been lost in the wilderness of hypocrisy. When we want to feel good about ourselves, we say that we are part of a culture and a civilization that once ruled the world. We focus on ‘ruled the world’, rather than the more important part, ‘once’. We live in the glory of the past and not the present. We hear about families dying of hunger and starvation, innocent people being killed as a part of asymmetrical warfare, people losing their jobs because of ineffective and incompetent government policies yet we are silent.

Like Ch. Rehmat Ali said,’ Now or never. Are we to live or perish forever?’ They say if you keep pushing a man in a dead end, there will be a time when his back will hit the wall. Then there will be two choices. Number 1. Wait for the final blow to come to him or Number 2. Fight back with all he has. It’s high time we thought of option two. Even if we don’t make it, the world will still say, that there was a nation that went down with its head held up high… But that wont happen. We will come out of this and we will come out of this proud. And then we will tell our children that we were the ones who made Pakistan, in the words of Quaid, “One of the greatest nations of the world”. But for that to happen that the time has come to stop asking for another man at the bridge to whip us, and start demanding that the man and the tax be removed immediately……. Or else…..

Where did we go wrong?

My operations management professor said in one of his lectures that the difference between realism and idealism lies in the perception of an entire generation. It is amazing how he managed to capture the very essence of our demise in a single sentence. Our demoralization as a nation began on early, when we started using the phrase, “Chal theek ha, chalta ha.’ (It is ok, because that is how it is). That was the point in our nation’s history when we started categorizing the wrong thing as the right thing as we had labeled it ‘need of the hour’. The example given was that if survival is brought into the picture, then the boundaries between right and wrong fade away. But was it really our survival, or was it the greed of a few that led us into rationalizing a social crime, as something which could be accepted for the greater good? A deeper thought provocation points out that all of us were, in fact, the criminals.

The example my Professor gave was of his father. He said the man turned over the table of an official who asked for an underhand cut from something. The beauty of the matter is that never again, did that official ask for a bribe from my professor’s father. However, when the time came for my professor to pay his property tax, instead of his father, that same gentleman started causing a number of problems saying that, ‘Ona di gal hore si.’ (It was different with him (His father)).

There are only two types of people in this world. Good people and bad people. Good people stop anything bad from happening, while the bad people watch it, when it happens. Each and every one of us is a bad person. We became bad people or criminals when fear starts setting in our hearts. And fear gives way to rationalization. At a government office, where you have to pay a clerk 500 Rs just to pass on your file, you become a criminal the moment you hand over the note. You become a criminal the moment you cut off someone in a line, when you bribe someone to give you an overpriced receipt so you can increase the insurance cut, even when you remain silent as someone else commits a crime in front of you. But these are not crimes you would say. These are just fears onset by continuous social dilemmas that have occurred in our society. And that is the point where we have fallen indeed. We have rationalized the very essence of injustice and let ourselves free from the burden of being a criminal in our own sight.

All of us need to face the criminals inside us, if we truly wish to rise as a nation. We need to understand the very essence of justice and how it needs to be implemented. We need to understand why all the religions of the world speak of justice or the judiciary even before bureaucracy. We are born in a nation that has lost its own identity. We were once part of an empire that punished a ruler the same way as a beggar, if their crimes were the same. Now we commit crimes and walk away thinking it was the need of the hour. The unpleasant truth is the need of the hour lives only in our own minds. We will be a great nation, only if we sacrifice our own comforts and make the hard choices. Even if that means, making 10 trips a month for a job that can be done in ten minutes if you pay that ‘extra’ amount.

Pakistani Pride, where art thou be ye?

My Operations Management professor, said that he is a part of the group that is currently working on a project of correcting history. It seems that most of our history is not true. For example, a huge chunk of the population believes that we actually won the 1965 war, and there was no UN ceasefire. The Mughals have been portrayed as ambassadors of the peak of Islam in the sub-continent; the part about the prostitutes and dancers present in courts has been left out. The reciprocal killings by muslims of hindus at the time of Independence are not mentioned. So my question attacks the very norms of truth itself. Is it really necessary for everyone to know things as they really are? Answering this question is like stepping into the grey area where the right thing is not the right thing to do.

There are a number of ways to unite people. One of them is by giving them heroes. Textbooks in primary and secondary school take care of that by implementing a force of love and affection for Islam and Pakistan. They paint glorified pictures of war and mercy shown by muslims and Pakistanis throughout time and as a result the new generation starts feeling proud of its heritage. But somewhere along this instillation, some unpleasant factors start kicking in. We start hearing stories of betrayal and fraud being associated with the nationality and then the little bad things, like running late for an appointment or cheating someone are phrased like, “He has proven himself to be a true Pakistani.” So where did our pride go? Are we not the same people who were masters of the sub-continent and loved by everyone, as written in our textbooks? We hear stories of corruption by each and every individual in the bureaucracy. We hear millions and billions of the tax-payers money, vanishing in thin air. We hear about poor planning of policies, people dying of hunger, rising unemployment, industries shutting down, and so our pride starts disintegrating. We lose affection for our homeland and soon we want out.

A reason why a common American feels that he is a part of the greatest nation in the world is not because he really truly is. It is because throughout his life, the only thing he has heard is that his nation is the best nation in the world and there is no other comparison to it. So, it does matter what kind of information you need to give to the country. If information is controlled then you have patriots, if not, you have terrorists. I agree that truth should prevail. It is just the ‘under all circumstances’ part that really bothers me. No history is untarnished and pure. There are areas or incidents that should never have happened, a part of every civilization the world has ever had. The reason people do not know about them is that knowing them will only cause harm to everyone. I believe that there should be no corruption and everyone should have equal rights. I also believe that the judicial system should be fair and MPAs and MNAs should really truly represent the will of the people. But apart from this, I also believe that sometimes, doing the wrong thing is the right thing to do. In this case, the right thing seems to be, distorting the truth.

Our personality crisis

A Harvard professor once stated that death and sex are the two main things that make men lose grip over themselves. Apparently they release a chemical inside your brain that intoxicates you by either dimming your emotions or making them hyperactive. The thing is, Hollywood knows this well. A multi-billion dollar industry and what do they sell? Ideas about sex and death artfully spun to give us delightful pictures of glorious wars, secret service agents, assassins, moonlit romances, passionate acts of love and what not. If this was just one of those things, then I guess it would not have mattered, but these movies have a way of affecting the youth of a nation so that they forget their own norms by standing for secular freedoms that neither their culture nor their religion permits. Perhaps, this is the dilemma faced by the youth of Pakistan. They are a caught between a compromise of civilizations, trying their level best to figure out who they are and what they are supposed to.

Elite educational institutions in Pakistan such as LUMS, LSE, FAST, FCCU, GIKI host more breakups than you would expect from an entire Islamic country. Valentine’s Day is spent with so much delight that you have special shows being conducted by television and radio to make the lovers meet each other or express their love in different ways possible. Balls and dance parties are held where the boundaries between the two genders diminish. The telecom industry, has provided night packages where you can talk with someone for the entire night and be charged an affordable amount. The service is only available on pre-paid service as it is used by the younger generation. But that’s not all. We have the movies to really add spice to the picture. As Brad Pitt kills a large number of people to fall onto the bosom of Angelina Jolie, a teenager watches in fascination, thinking how amazing and wonderful life would be like that. I once heard that the power of the dark side lies in its sheer force of attraction. Therefore, his mind spins to different ideas, revolving around how he can be as cool as the people on the big screen. As our society still has a law against killing people, what he can accomplish is meet someone from the opposite gender and engage in a relationship with her. But things don’t stop here. Sooner or later, he is out on the net surfing pornography to satisfy the lust which has been built by the society around him or engaging in sex with either his girlfriend or someone who takes a fee. But then again, we live in an Islamic society. True we are given the right to choose our own companion, but we are not allowed to go out on dates or parade that person in front of our peers, so that we too may fit the profile of the ‘cool’ gang.

When the GATT was created, it had the single motive of earning as much as possible, even if it meant victimizing the third world in the process. Modernizing a society is the step that comes between penetrating an economy and neo-colonialism. It helps the society be more welcoming to multi-nationals entering the local market and shutting down small and cottage producers. The way it is done is that glorified ideas pertaining to a better more exciting standard of living are attached to free-market open economies so civilizations think that the only way to go forward is to become more westernized. Immaneul Wallerstein, pioneer of the World Systems Theory argues that unchained capitalism exploits inequality, therefore the first world exploits the third world by utilizing its resources. The modernization theory on the other hand argues that the only way to develop is for the entire world to go to a single culture, so huge corporation can ravish resources without any kind of check or balance. The only thing achieved by Globalization is imperialism all over again.

But the question is, why have secular freedoms chosen to lead us to the western better life? A simple answer, because the dark side attracts you more. Penetration is easy; it does not take time or cost that much. Just let it run wild, and it is going to do a lot of damage.

So the conclusion is, we are running towards a ghost of a better life. And in that process, we are trampling our religious and social values. So what can we do to make this all go away? The answer lies in embracing our true identities and becoming Muslim Pakistanis. Only then, we can truly prosper.

An Islamic dichotomy

The youth of Pakistan seems to be tired of the myriad politicians that seem to march around with false promises regarding a better Pakistan. They are to be turning towards more religious figures to which they can relate. Apparently the bearded mullahs are not what they are looking for. Instead they have found their saviors in the forms ranging from Zaid Hamid to Farhat Hashmi to Zakir Naik. But does this phenomenon end with figures like Zaid Hamid marching the nation to a better world. Lets hope so, But before we do that, its better to have a grip over what the dichotomy is all about.

First come the undisputable facts. During the early 1990s, Pakistan was receiving huge chunks of money for development by the Saudis and the United States. But let us not kid ourselves. Most of that money was going towards training the Taliban that were going to fight the USSR when the time came. Apparently the time did come and they did fight. After they had successfully managed to throw the USSR out of their country they were deemed useless by the United States so the country was left to rot. Absence of any kind of developmental funds left the country in a huge crisis. You had trained muslim fighters looking for Jihad. But fighter will be fighters and not policy makers, therefore the country faced a civil war.

Now the blurred part starts. When the US entered Afghanistan in a self-proclaimed war against terror the Taliban started disappearing. Whether it was just because they went underground or they entered Pakistan no-one knows for certain. What we do know is that soon enough we had our hands full with terrorist dominating our northern areas. So the question is, are they the same people who were trained by our intelligence? The enlightened minds seem to think so. But there are some who don’t. Information brought to light may suggest that involvement of RAW in Afghanistan has led to some religious dichotomy where we have misguided souls with their own notion of Jihad going and blowing themselves up in Pakistan. But the interesting part is, Afghanistan has a lesser amount of innocent casualties by a suicide bomber. Here in Pakistan, the bomber targets chunks of innocent people. So are these bombers the same Taliban that were trained by the ISI? Their idea that we are following an American mindset, therefore we must die is accepted as their mode of thinking by many uninformed intellectuals. But the same mindset applies to Afghanistan where cat-walks and foxtrots are starting to dominate the picture. Why not target Afghanistan. It is not that difficult to form a clear picture about the people who are making our lives more miserable each day.

So we seek reformation in a pure Islam. An islam that teaches us the disciplines of life. We are taught tolerance, but is tolerance really the answer? We have our sovereignty infringed upon each day as drones cross our boundaries and kill innocent civilians. We have confirmation of involvement of extremist Hindu elements in major acts of terrorism. We have a rising death toll where the only crime of the victims is their nationality. So what has tolerance given us so far? It has been 9 years since we are tolerating the deaths of our brothers and sisters. We do not hate them because of their self-proclaimed freedoms. We hate them because they kill us every day. This is the reason we look for answers outside the realms of silence and being meek.

As far as the notion of Zaid Hamid goes, why cannot people accept that you have someone with the ability to unite masses. Whether you like it or not, Mumbai attacks have shown how much love the Indians harbor for us. Drone attacks show each day the affection and respect the United States has for us. So is there really a question of why we have hate burning inside us?

Social reformation is not an abstract concept. It is achieved by means of deciding upon a way of life. Throughout time, we have been caught in a debate of whether we want a Pakistan that is secular or theological. We are therefore, caught in a compromise that has been labeled as a system of Government by the constitution. We are arrogant rigid people and apparently we are not close to deciding what is best for us. As far as the Quran and the Sunnah go, we label it as subject to time and therefore in need of modern interpretation. To what extent should we really fall before we realize that we are chasing a ghost. A secular Pakistan is not acceptable because Islam itself is not limited to us. No matter how much we make ourselves believe, accepting religion as a personal matter leaves room for interpretations by the individual himself, that leads to distortion of social and moral norms. Therefore, welcoming a secular Pakistan will be saying bye bye to our culture. And please, let us not even think of comparing us with India as any informed intellectual knows that the secular India is nothing more than a façade created by the BJP to cover areas of extremism.

So area are simple and the choices are laid out there. We have been warned centuries ago that there will be people who will be with us and they will promise a better Islam, but their way will be completely wrong. It’s about time we realize who these people are. We need to make a better Pakistan. Let us forget our differences and just follow a man who can actually shows the right path for once.

Blasphemy revisited?

“I may not agree with what a man has to say, but I will fight to death for his right to say it.” The quote can be attributed to Voltaire except for a tiny fact. It cannot be found in any of his texts or writings. Perhaps that is mankind’s greatest travesty. Not realizing that argument. in essence may be a good thing, but sometimes it may lead to public outcry, civil disobedience or even destruction of public property. What many writers term as the very essence of democracy, freedom of speech is not only over-rated but a tool that can be effectively used to cause panic and havoc in the general public.

Throughout time, writers have used different means to blemish Islam by giving out fallacious information in the form of distorted facts and cartoons of revered Islamic figures and sentiments. They have mocked the Quran by printing a book called Satanic Verses, drawn cartoons of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), made movies showing Islam to be a religion where men are terrorists and women are oppressed and published writings like “Among the Cicadas” vilifying Islam. It seems they are not done with this yet. A cartoon program called South Park shows the voice of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and him hidden behind a bear costume. The thing is they have not shown any image or any body part of the Prophet, so why the voice over? Apparently the entire episode of the cartoon is devoted to finding out the reaction of Muslims to the notion of showing the voice of the Prophet (PBUH).

What I find disturbing is that why does their freedom of speech have to lash out against the sentiments of a number of people. Imagine a person standing in the middle street shouting obscenities. The police will undoubtedly use force to stop him. What about someone who exposes himself in a public place. Does that fall under the freedom of speech or expression? If there are laws against these ideas why do they question laws that target any kind of attack on religious figures? Muslims find them offensive, which makes a good enough reason not to show them in public but apparently freedom of speech must dominate the feelings of a large number of people.

When the Pope Benedict XVI says something offensive Islam there is a public outcry and the pope is forced to stop being ignorant and do the right thing by apologizing for hurting a number of people. It is nice to see a German opera house cancelling a Mozart concert just because the concert showed (Nauzubillah) the head of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). But for how long will the west do these things? For how long will the banner of the self-righteous “freedom of speech” be used to insult human beings? For how long will these “free-thinkers” be subject to the law? Times change and so do people. Showing the voice over of the Prophet (PBUH) is just a test to see how will the muslim world react. The show did show the cartoon of Hazrat Muhammad in an earlier episode, but apparently it fell on deaf ears. But this new episode is designed to measure how strong our belief in Islam is. No public outcry or anything shows nothing more than the fact that most of us have lost faith. It is just a matter of time before things get worse. We all know there are monsters under our beds. The really frightening thing is not realizing how real they actually are.

Chief Justice VS NAB

Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhary has said that NAB grabs the poor man like a butcher grabs a chicken, yet it does nothing when it comes to a Senator. He has ordered action to be taken against lawyers who take money after giving the impression that they have certain judges under their control. He has also summoned the Chairman of NAB. NAB was essentially created so that there would be no one who would be above the law so with the passage of time it transformed into the anti-corruption bureau. Ironically, it seems to be the most corrupt department inside the Pakistani government. From sitting idly by as money is transferred to Swiss accounts, to making sure every MNA gets a chunk of the tax-payers’ money for his own personal petrol mileage, the institution itself has turned into nothing more than a joke. But talking strictly in terms of the judiciary, corruption is spread not only to judges but also lawyers. Many of them refuse to become judges just so that they will not lose the payroll of the darker side. Senator Babar Awan’s name also appears to be included in this group of people. As far as I can make of the Judiciary in Pakistan, it seems that the elite has become quite clean. I mean it is not the judicial coup that Musharraf thought would happen if Justice Iftikhar was reinstated. It seems that the man is back with a will to change the system. From ordering letters to be written to the Swiss courts to making sure that the entire judicial system is clean, the road seems long and tough.

On a lighter note, Babu Baraal, a renowned comedian has made a statement that he is tired of load-shedding and wishes it would stop so that his life would stop being miserable as well. As far as I make of it, shortage of electricity has made the comedian lose of all his jokes. There are two types of actors in Pakistan. The first make people laugh, the second make them cry. It seems that everyone in the second category has taken up office in the government.