Is there no one?
I WANT to be a democrat, or whatever a pro-democracy person is referred to in common parlance; perhaps I am wrong about democracy being an illusion created by the rich to fool the masses into believing that the precious one vote gives the latter power and freedom. After all, I belong to the camp that changes their views when the facts change, or they get wiser. Except that the self-proclaimed doyens of democracy, essentially the celebrity media who are direct beneficiaries of the democratic system, by their shenanigans, instigated by selfish agendas, ensure that the disbelief in the evolutionary theory of democracy gets further compounded.
Before moving on, movie buffs may have correctly correlated the origins of today’s title with Achilles challenging the army of Thessaly, after killing their champion Boagrius in single combat, from the opening scene of the movie Troy. Albeit, while Achilles was looking for another opponent, let us settle for the one ally!
Previously, I have argued about the need for an independent, performance-based ranking of political parties to help voters decide, but ended up concluding that this might even be an exercise in futility, since the fate of the election vests with the illiterate majority unable to digest any such qualitative analysis. On the other hand, the masses are surely driven, and convinced, by the rhetoric spewed by their favourite celebrity anchorpersons and senior analysts languishing around every evening on talk shows broadcast by many more than needed news channels. That said, what exactly are the masses being treated to less than 40 days before the election?
Other than the heated conflict between a divided media over the role of two pillars of government, namely the judiciary and defence, a summary of breaking news for the past few days depicts an absolutely remarkable focus. Billions of rupees worth of assets disclosed by a particular political party leader and that too at cost; deteriorating health of another leader’s spouse, may she get well soon; stimulating discussions on a yet-to-be-released spicy book about the marital life of another leader; debate on why you should not travel on a private jet to perform umrah with a friend who is on the ECL; who is leaving which party to join another party; who got party tickets and shouldn’t have; predictions about election results which are vague enough to state absolutely nothing; and so on and so forth.
What are the masses being treated to less than 40 days before polls?
More curiously, the media, this time around, has apparently decided to chuck independence out the window; sides have been chosen and daggers are drawn. Party affiliations of each and every anchor and expert are undeniably crystal clear, irrespective of claims to the contrary. With no unaligned media person; this is one fun election!
The biggest casualty consequent to the demise of independent journalism is objective analyses. And let us not forget that the electronic media already has a conflict of interest vis-à-vis democracy; under dictatorship, journalism is never a flourishing, nor a lucrative career. Conflicted and aligned, the media correctly figured out that it is best to stick to debating nonsense than real issues, which is what is happening today.
I have always maintained the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So if the above analysis is incorrect, where are the debates on what should be included in party manifestos and how each party purports to tackle the real challenges facing Pakistan?
Water scarcity and building dams top the list; fascinatingly, one thing we as a nation seem to agree upon is to disagree over building a dam which apparently experts claim is a necessity, not a choice. Even more amazingly, all political parties and their friendly anchors completely ignore the dam debate.
What are the parties’ proposed strategy and plans to reverse the trade deficits, reduce the current account deficit, manage the debt trap, invest in manufacturing and provide employment? Anybody can identify targets, but everybody cannot figure out how to get to those targets. How about a broad discussion on proposed foreign policy initiatives, especially considering that we seem to be getting isolated on the global stage? And when will we ever produce cheap electricity; will we ever educate all of Pakistan; is health for all just a pipe dream?
Dear readers, did you know that all our leaders are superheroes since none admits to ever having made a bad decision whence in government, federal or provincial? Except we are where we are because of the decisions our rulers have made for the last couple of decades.
Unfortunately, as I sit and articulate my thoughts on the need for objective journalism and focusing electoral debate on the real issues facing the country, I have an even more worrisome epiphany; there is no one!
The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2018