The country will soon be 73 years old. That's the age you enter a room looking for something and forget what you had come looking for. Your memory becomes more selective, more nostalgic, more wanting to believe what you want to and not the inconvenient truth.
Nations too choose to believe what they want to, even at the relatively youthful age of three score and ten. In choosing they get divided, forgetting how news is manufactured and disseminated. It is narrative-building that shapes what is perceived as the truth. A constant reiteration of the narrative serves to overpower 'facts'.
But before we drill deeper into the cause and consequence of what divides us, let's pick a few easy examples to test the transience of news and the frailty of our memory.
Do Shahzeb Khan (December 2012), Perveen Rahman (March 2013), Rashid Rahman (May 2014), Sabeen Mahmud (April 2015), Mashal Khan (April 2017), Naqeebullah Mehsud (January 2018) ring a bell? Do we know the current status of these high profile murder cases? What has happened to the perpetrators: found, convicted, and sentenced in accordance with law?
Remember the 190 million pounds that had been repatriated to Pakistan following the 'settlement' with the National Crime Agency in that case of 'unexplained wealth'? Whatever happened to it? Has the amount been credited to our consolidated fund? Oh yes, there was also this prized property overlooking the Hyde Park. Sold, and proceeds remitted?
Recall the hullabaloo over a former head of ISI collaborating with his Indian counterpart to produce The Spy Chronicles? It wasn't much of a read but got us fixated on Asad Durrani's temerity to have a 'public dialogue' with the enemy. Any idea why he is still on ECL?
We easily recall the Tamizuddin case and how Justice Munir used the doctrine of necessity to give a lasting jolt to our incipient democracy. How many remember the fate of the Justice Shahabuddin Commission appointed by Ayub to frame the constitution?
We have kept alive the Asghar Khan case without bringing it to a logical conclusion but the calls for making public the Hamoodur Rehman Commission, or the Abbottabad Commission for that matter, have faded out.
We had all but forgotten one Ehsanullah Ehsan until his purported escape from prison hit the headlines. Perhaps more intriguing than his managing to bolt, not just the prison (high security?) but the country as well, is the manner in which the news surfaced: he announced it himself through his widely circulated audio clip!
Is a random selection of news-to-remember in the nature of the beast, the unbelievable lightness of being? Is our overloaded mental computer programmed to archive away what we would we would rather not remember?
Contrast it now to the obstinacy with which certain memories refuse to go away. The three dharnas will forever remain etched on our memory card. Much as we want to put aside the Zainab case it will remain there to haunt us. We will never forget Miandad's last ball six to beat India and lift the Sharjah cup.
We all believe Korea built its growth on the planning model borrowed from us, that ZAB said idhur hum udhar tum, that Ayub's economic model was premised on private enterprise-led growth.
Will you consign us to Giddu Bandar if we told you all this is factually incorrect, pure fantasy? There is no evidence to suggest Korea's economic ascendency owed anything to our Planning Commission. ZAB never said idhur hum... This catchy headline was the handiwork of Abbas Athar, news editor of Azad. Ayub's model was entirely public sector dominated - not just large state enterprises like PIDC, Wapda and Agricultural Corporation, but almost total control of the private sector through investment permissions (CIPCOC), import controls, licensing, and development finance superintended by the State. The legacy issues of 'licence raj' continue to this day.
The problem with memory is that it is not a perfect processor. The ways by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved can be corrupted. Make-believe, superseding the real, is an easy sell.
In the post-truth era the art of propaganda - the simple practice of incessantly dinning into people's mind what you want them to start accepting as gospel truth - has now evolved into a science. The huge amount of data that can be gleaned from social media platforms - call it data colonialism or digital dictatorship - and a deft use of algorithms gives you the formula to control people's minds.
This science - 'occupation of the mind' - has transcended commercial advertising. It has developed into a powerful tool to manage political outcomes, from BREXIT to races for the highest political offices around the world. It is now a strong weapon in the armoury of oligarchs who want outcomes to favour their interests.
'What is truth' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Epistemology - ways of discriminating the true from the false - has been redefined. Trump is not alone in believing 'Truth' is what we want to hear - the rest is fake news.
Welcome to the world of social media.
The traditional media was easy to control. Not so the social media. Countries are struggling to balance social media's strengths - contribution to the digital economy, for instance - with problematic and illegal online content. Vietnam's cyber security law 2018 is yet to be implemented. The UK's Online Harm White Paper seeks to check hate speech and child abuse, but has challenges of privacy and freedom of expression to overcome.
If the social media can be used to violate religious sensitivities, or threaten national security, there would be a case for controls. The trouble arises when these controls have the potential to violate freedom of expression and privacy. What is a good check and what is not will have to be decided by a government authority that most can't trust!
More importantly, what leeway do you have with the global platforms? Asia Internet Coalition (grouping of international firms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo etc) was quick to react to our Citizens Protection (against online harm) Rules. In not so diplomatic a language they told us to get on our bike.
So, it appears, the social media is here to stay. The relentless battle to control our minds is likely to continue. Truth shall remain a matter of opinion.
shabirahmed@yahoo.com