Say it with words is a cliché. However along with words speeches that stir people's heart go beyond great script writing. Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech on 27th September 2019 at the UNGA was much more than a yearly 'feel good' reminder. It was an explanation, an aspiration, an appeal, a warning, a description, an introspection, a determination, a decision, a revelation of what was and is the level of insensitivity of the global community to the looming dangers in the world. This speech was much awaited, eagerly anticipated and rigorously debated. Normally such hyped and surgically scrutinized speeches turn out to be victims of anti-climax. However this speech has exceeded most expectations in terms of its content, delivery and impact.
Great speeches are a combination of a well-structured format, a clear and concise message, having a conversational mix and creating a call for action. Prime Minister Imran Khan structured his speech in four parts comprising Climate Change, Money Laundering, Islamophobia and Kashmir. He started his speech with clarity and focused on four big dangers to the world security and then went on to explain each danger with the help of facts and illustrative examples. For Climate Change he gave concrete facts on global warming affecting glacier melting and the resultant danger of mass flooding. He subtly highlighted Pakistan's effort of planting billions of trees and made an appeal to the world to combat this threat by control of their emissions which were endangering non-contributing countries too.
Speeches can become boring and rhetorical. To hold on to the listener interest it is essential to use a more conversational style to engage the audience. UN speeches are statements read out from paper in a formal fashion that restrict eye contact with the audience and become routine stuff that is hardly heard or noticed by the people sitting in the hall or galleries. Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke without reading from the papers and addressed the audience many times with complete eye contact panning the hall creating an active connectivity with those who were hearing him on media and in the assembly. His conversational style also was reinforced when he alluded to examples like of a Bollywood movie Deathwish as an example of justice denied turning into a radical reaction by those who suffer injustices.
Normally, UN speeches are the script for diplomatic carefulness. Rarely will you see sensitive topics being discussed beyond a cursory mention. The speech by Prime Minister Imran Khan broke all these so-called taboos. He spoke about Islam and its true spirit and declared that Muslims were being targeted under the guise of Islamophobia. He took the bull by the horn by explaining Narendra Modi's RSS history and its link with Adolf Hitler. He expressed disappointment by the evasive response of Muslim leaders and aggressive response by the West. The art of a speech and orator is to make the hardest of messages acceptable, understandable and persuasive. The most effective tool used in making that happen is to use analogies, metaphors and similes. He made some direct and hard hitting comments but used analogies to subdue any resentment that the western audience may have towards these statements. His mention of Jewish sensitivity to the Holocaust made it digestible and understandable for the western media and audience.
Words and their usage is a task itself but perhaps more difficult is the non-verbal part of the speech. Many a beautiful speech become victims of poor delivery. The truth of the matter is that words only convey 7% of the message. 93% of the impact is the non-verbal or the body language. Many a speaker fails due to the lack or incongruence of the verbal with the non-verbal. Monotone, contradictory expressions and low usage of hands and arms make the best of speeches sound like a news bulletin. This speech had all three. The tones varied with the topic. The start of the speech was in an even tempered vocal. As the subject matter became more intense the tone increased its pitch and varied it as the topic became more sensitive. The facial expressions matched the tempo and the topic. There was pain on the face when injustice and insensitivity were explained and there was concern and passion when the lack of action was highlighted. The use of arms and hands to emphasize the open appeal and global danger just added to the urgency and criticality of his message.
Aristotle described the art of perfect persuasion as containing three elements-Ethos, Logos and Pathos. Great speeches are based on these three pillars. Logos means they appeal to logic and reasoning as they are based on facts and universal principles. Pathos mean they are delivered with intensity, feeling and emotion. But perhaps most important are ethos- the ethics of the man delivering it. One of the greatest speeches of all time is considered as "I have a dream" by Dr Martin Luther King who delivered it in 1963 at the time when in US racism against blacks was at its peak. It was powerful enough to change the course of history appealing to the white race as well because it talked about universal principles of equality and justice. It had Dr Martin Luther King's passion and sincerity in it to make it convincing. But the most powerful thing was the man's character and credibility as he had worked tirelessly in the civil rights movement for this cause.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has that credibility behind him that makes his impassioned appeal so heart touching and completely appealing. Thus when he ended his speech with questioning the world community "Is it going to appease a market of 1.2 billion or is it going to stand up for justice and humanity?" it made it difficult for the UN and the world community to continue its actionless passivity. The answer to this soul stirring question will determine the fate of people in the subcontinent. A speech unforgettable that will go down in the annals of history as a call to the conscience and the soul of the world community.
(The writer can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com)