Politicians' Dilemma

Politics is the most discussed subject, yet least trusted instrument for change in Pakistan. People never tire of linking politicians to every ill which befell Pakistan. Politicians have been demonized to the extent that they seem devoid of all moral, social and national values. A good citizen will do well to condemn the tribe first thing in the morning and then get on with the day's work. In drawing rooms, chattering classes paint politicians in so poor a light that they dwarf aliens who have been imposed by extra terrestrial beings (read Western powers) to systematically destroy all on which Pakistanis thrive i.e, reverberating economy, practice of enviable set of social and moral values and insatiable yearning for knowledge.

Corruption stories are spread like stories from Arabian Nights with radiant faces instead of alarm which the disastrous potential of these tales demands. As the listeners are almost addicted to mind distracting doses of corruption epics they increasingly crave for them. No one is interested in authenticity of these stories. Instead the narrator is egged on to try untried twists and bolder imagination to take them to new dizzying heights from where their own wrong doings would look infinitesimal and get morphed instantly into self-righteousness. Then they feel absolved of their past 'petty' aberrations, and liberated of any lingering qualms which may encumber their 'vulnerable' minds in future.

A successful engineer was adamant that their tycoon boss was being coerced into coughing out 10 million rupees on phone in his presence by a very powerful politician in the government. I tried my best to correct his impressions for two reasons. It was not respectable sum for a person holding so high a post and secondly telephone is not a safe mode to ask for bribe. It might have been an effort by his boss to upgrade his esteem in the eyes of his employees or discourage them from asking for raise in their salaries. He defended and glorified his boss vigorously . He had quite conveniently forgotten the story he had gloatingly told had me a year ago.How he had rendered invaluable help in misappropriating government land for a housing project and had been generously rewarded by his boss in cash.Being a good son he had proudly laid prestigious reward in the feet of his mother widowed from his childhood humbly acknowledging the sacrifice she had made to rear 5 children single-handedly.

I have observed that people whose prolific minds invent stories on weekly basis tell them with astonishing confidence. The vigor with which they insist on fantastic ignominies very easily brushes aside the wailing dissenting notes which may be risked by very few who are unable to stretch their imagination that far. These entertainers are not riff-raffs and good for nothing idlers who having nothing better to do indulge in this practice to get some attention. They are respectable citizens from all walks of life holding or having held privileged posts in private or public sector and role models for the young in their extended families.

Many well meaning people also don't find any harm in lending ears to these outrages. They fail to distinguish between good manners and getting one's intelligence insulted. They don't so much as frown when they are taken for granted so brazenly, totally forgetting that' those who can make you believe in absurdities can also make you commit atrocities'.

I am not trying to say that politicians are entirely unblemished. Many have failed to restrain themselves from harboring lust for money and are sometimes caught red-handed. But then politicians are pain in the neck all over the world. 'An honest politician is the one who, when he is bought, will stay bought',said Simon Cameron. Pakistan cannot be an exception. Burlsconi, Clinton, Ulmert and many others didn't do their nations proud. But no country can do away with them.Since, according to Aristotle, 'man is by nature a political animal' , politicians are necessary evil. Burlsconi having thoroughly been discredited in the past was elected again and has wrought havoc unto himself one more time which may not be the last. Scores of members of mother of all parliaments have recently been found committing irregularities regarding personal expenditures allowed to them by the Exchequer.

A common man wants the politicians to carry his cross also along with their own.He holds them responsible for what he himself does.He openly admits that he doesn't go by the book but hastily adds that it is due to trickling down effect of what politicians have done or doing. Not only that he also finds them 'guilty of all the good they didn't do'. (The thought of conversely being true can never be entertained by him). It lulls him into indifference and makes him blind to what is happening right under his own nose. When censured for going wrong blames the distinct foot prints left by the politicians and not at all the jealously guarded self- indulgent streak he is so obviously possessive about. In order to behave well he first wants politicians to have complete change of heart.

An ordinary citizen is not directly affected by what politicians do. He is mostly at the mercy of government officials and members of the judiciary who are more corrupt than public representatives. Still politicians remain heart-throbs. It is like this. Since a considerable size of laity connives and co-operates with these government functionaries to have their way(government jobs without merit, land grabbing, power theft, driving licenses without tests etc)and routinely greases their palms, that level of hue and cry is not witnessed.There is a kind of concord not to let the greater good interfere with mutual good. Other day my neighbor very proudly told me how he had been able to get the accumulated water charges in respect of his commercial plaza in a busy market place reduced from 25000 to 5000 by just paying a fraction of the difference. Managing director of a chain of schools claimed victory before an audience of 85 teachers for having successfully avoided to pay a single penny as tax on an income of 40 millions rupees from one school. Instead of suffering for being taken for granted faculty's beaming faces more than compensated for absence of clapping which the MD rightfully expected.

People in Pakistan want the politicians on the side of the angels, but are not prepared to exorcise the demons within, inhibiting them to play their due role in being healthy member of a healthy community. They want to see them to make no mistakes not realizing that 'those who don't make mistakes usually don't make anything'. Utter lack of patience with politicians leaves very little space for them to maneuver and as a result deliver. Looming large the real possibility of being sent home packing further aggravates their pathetic situation. Public wants the radical changes to be brought about in matter of days and weeks in order to make up for the lost time after decade long lavish concession to the military dictator expired.
 
Whether politicians will succumb to combined pressure of public expectations and military's preponderance one more time, we will not have to wait for long to know.