The internet has become a busy hub of revelations, facts challenging facts, locked chapters of history being re-opened, or scandals being unearthed. With 5.3 billion internet users in a world population of eight billion, several hours are spent sharing and forwarding (and challenging what is shared), thus creating an unprecedented ‘people power.’

An important part of this people power is its watchdog role. A watchdog is an individual or a group that monitors the activities of individuals, organisations or governments on behalf of the public, to ensure their actions do not harm common people. They may become whistleblowers or try to prevent wrongdoing by lobbying or by going to the courts.

From fact-checking websites and small local groups to larger international organisations such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Avaaz and Change.org, people have stood up to protect forests, animals, children, women, the poor, small businesses and the consumer. On the January 11 this year, South Africa took the matter of the Palestinian genocide, a country thousands of miles away from South Africa and on another continent, to the International Court of Justice.

Watchdog journalism was once a very powerful tool, whose best example is the 1972 Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of the US president. However, as the power of the press became evident, a counter-movement came into being and journalist Margaret Sullivan believes “the press will never have another Watergate moment.”

Both citizens and institutions must take up the responsibility of ensuring that accountability is present at the individual and collective level

This is the world we live in now — caught between those that throw dust in our eyes and those who wipe it away. The internet has created people power, but it has also generated mistrust and a growing despair, as protest is not effective enough without institutional support. The revelations of watchdogs have to be integrated into policy.

The 1915 Khadi movement of British India mobilised the population of India to boycott British textiles by raising awareness of its destruction of the local textile industry. It became a rallying point for independence. However, it did not change the statistics, as India once used to produce 25 percent of the world’s textiles, which was reduced to two percent under British rule.

In 1980, the activist Ansar Burney took on the cause of illegally imprisoned people, missing children and prison reform, and established an international network. Yet, without sincere policy change, prisons still remain overcrowded, with many unjustly imprisoned, while ‘missing persons’ continue to be endemic in Pakistan.

Despite many governmental regulatory bodies, illegal and harmful activities continue unchallenged, be it counterfeit medicines, contaminated food supplies, inadequate health facilities, poor education and land grabbing — an endless list of social injustices.

Fraud is a worldwide phenomenon, from the lie about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, to identity theft. However, Pakistani institutions are, by and large, indifferent to public opinion. As a result, watchdogs in Pakistan are often ineffective and, consequently, public outrage becomes restricted to drawing room conversation or social media.

In the 1980s, artist and human rights lawyer Iqbal Geoffrey enabled the establishment of the office of the Ombudsman or Mohtasib in Pakistan. From the root word hisbah, “enjoining good and forbidding wrong”, a Mohtasib was first appointed by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to regulate the suq or markets of Mecca and Madina.

By the 14th century, the role evolved into the regulation of weights, money, prices, public morals, cleanliness of public places, supervision of schools, general public safety, the circulation of traffic, price limits, standards of craftsmen and builders, safe food, clean eating places, accurate measuring equipment, and a check on all doctors and medical supplies.

There is only so much that can be regulated by an appointed authority that could be susceptible to corruption. Right and wrong has to be internalised from childhood, with an emphasis on character development and social consciousness. There is a need to be one’s own watchdog. A hadith says, “Whosoever of you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart.”

Has the world really lost its moral compass or have we relinquished this power to others? Rumi reminds us: “Whatever you ask for, ask for it in yourself, seek it in yourself.”

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.
She may be reached at
durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 21st, 2024