Wajeeha Bilal
Our historical timeline seems to suggest that colonial and empirical wars might
be a thing of the past. While the human population has improved with an
inclination towards democracy and a better civilization, we tend to believe more
in peace and diplomacy. But with all the ongoing conflicts, it is hard to
imagine that we have achieved peace. Most of these conflicts are mostly civil
wars as a result of cold wars or political instability. We may be directed
towards peace with the establishment of peace-oriented organizations and defined
international borders, but we are a long way from achieving true
peace.Apparently free from colonialism or communist dictatorship nowadays, civil
and local wars are the primary cause of global conflicts.
In his book, “The Anarchy”, anotable British historian William Dalrymple had
examined East India Company’s contribution to the decline and crippling of the
Mughal Empire between 1756 and 1803, as “the supreme act of corporate violence
in world history”. “Anarchy” is related to the subcontinent’s condition
following the death of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1707. The company’s story
that left a permanent mark in the history of the subcontinent, is a dreadful
warning about the possibility for the abuse of corporate power and the
corruption by which the influence of the investorsis manifested. “… if history
shows anything, it is that in the intimate dance between the power of the state
and that of the corporation, while the latter can be regulated, the corporation
will use all the resources in its power to resist.” The corporate rule could be
the main demon, but the fact is that violence, exploitation, and corruption were
not merely corporate’sdebt but continue to mark the timeline of human existence.
The influence of multinational corporations or foreign takeovers in the third
world countries could be as harmful as colonialism. Violence and exploitation,
the absurd atrocities still continue, which only makes us more depressed. In the
recent decades, American invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq have revealed that our
world is far from being free of colonialism or powerful manipulation. The
superpowers or empires act as global powers that use marketing strategies,
multinational and global campaigns with the accumulation of new
surveillance-capitalism. The corporate influence is enhanced with military
conquests and economic sovereignty. The use of force and economic power are the
main manipulating weapons in this war of exploitation, hiding behind the
curtains of diplomacy. Though the means and tools might seem different, yet
manipulation of the masses continues both at the national and the international
level.
With the ongoing electoral battles in ourlocal politics as well, the
manipulation of the public continues in a spiteful manner through mendacious
propaganda. At a time when the powerful campaigns need to the standing
of the high commands, a dirty game of mud splashing continues. Amidst the chaos
and corruption, a superior exploitation once again takes advantage of weak and
poor. It was heart wrenching to see the major stress of the electoral campaigns
being shifted from a platform of democracy to one of manipulation and anarchy.
There was more focus on aggressive attacks than on the issues faced by the
public or the land itself.
Though the election commission had given directives to ensure decency in their
conversationsand avoid use of improper language, as the campaign for elections
in Azad Kashmir warmed up, political rivals fired all kinds of accusations at
each other that proved to be a mere insult to the right cause. Electoral
campaigns needed to align with the just cause of the Kashmir issue rather than
based on shameful allegations that could adversely affect Pakistan’s stance on
the Kashmir Dispute in the international community. And the elections that came
after weeks of heated and disruptive campaigns, from the three mainstream
parties — the PTI, PPP and PML-N throwing spiteful allegations at each other,
were bound to be chaotic in practice. According to reports, this year the
pre-poll campaign had surpassed the previous records of hostility towards their
rivals and as a consequence of the violence, voting in some polling stations was
temporarily suspended; several people were reportedly injured, and a number of
political activists were also detained.
People may buy into the malicious propagandas for peace but only because the
powerful have been trained to believe that they have an advantage. But when the
means and campaigns are anarchic, so will be the results. Chaos and anarchy will
only follow when the focus ofpeaceful solutions for a dispute are undermined by
spitting poison at the opposite parties. Democratization and globalization may
have helped humans understand the idea, but true peace can never be attained
unless the powerful learn to embody the true spirit of these words. When the
technical tools and means of marketing campaigns are used to value the people
they tend to serve, only then can humanity progress on a massive scale.
(Wajeeha is the author of "The Conscious Ego", "The Beautiful Present")