“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” That quote is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers – but it so rings true to the current state of affairs in this country. On Monday, a bunch of rioters brought to knees a nuclear power, signaling that Pakistani state and society seem content to just muddle along, even if that means giving up on valuable human freedoms.
So much is wrong with the contents of the ‘deal’ made with the self-imposed custodians of religion last Monday, the way that deal was made, and a harrowing precedence this latest abdication is likely to set. “The State is collapsing but at least the roads are going to be open soon,” a prominent magazine editor sarcastically tweeted just after the deal went public. Well, the roads are open, but reasoned discourse now has a huge stop sign.
There is enough blame to go around. A government on crutches allowed the dharna to go on indefinitely. It had no strategy to defuse the sensitive issue. Yet again, citizens’ rights were shamefully compromised at the altar of political expediency. An ill-planned operation later, the façade of state’s writ came tumbling down with an epic surrender to hooligans who had disrupted citizens’ lives and destroyed public and private properties.
While their conduct before, during and after the dharna is deplorably irresponsible and incompetent, the government is not the only one left with egg on its face. Why did the khakis back off, and so publicly, from an ongoing security crackdown just days after endorsing such an action? The involvement of a senior army official in the ‘deal’ is raising eyebrows. Sure, but perhaps more pertinent is this question: if the khaki interlocutors are indeed so ‘influential’, why could they not push for an agreement that let the government do some face-saving? It’s hard to tell who was batting for whom.
In the three weeks that the capital was in chaos, the government failed to muster support – neither from the opposition nor the public at large – for a security operation to clear out the Faizabad protest site. The political opposition played the same sad charade: ambivalent during a crisis and opportunistically critical in the aftermath. This sort of behaviour comes back to haunt later. Arguably, things would have been different had the leading political parties like the PPP and the PTI supported actions to restore government’s writ.
Another disappointment has come from the citizens themselves, who continue to allow a vocal minority to hijack the political discourse in this country. Pakistan’s silent majority – riven by ethnic, sectarian and political divides – is too busy with their lives to organize for their constitutional rights. They seem just fine with the temporary reprieve that follows every crisis rising to a crescendo. (For more on that, read “Pakistan’s silent majority,” published Monday, November 27, 2017)
In the words of Eliot Cohen, “When you sell your soul to the Devil, he prefers to collect his purchase on the installment plan.” While Monday was a notable debacle in this nation’s history, the citizens’ humiliation is not yet complete. The threat of political engineering via mainstreaming of the fringe, hard-right outfits will tack even the moderate political parties to the right. This Faustian bargain gives up far more valuable that belongs to the citizens than it receives in return. Can anyone turn the tables?
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