Daily Times

Fake it till you make it. Copy it to perfection. Look it to book it. These are some clichés we have grown up with. The focus on “seeming to be” rather than “be” is at an all-time high. You are what you “are not” is in trend. Your ability to fool others is the gauge of your “smartness”, your “acumen”, and as in politics, they say your “wisdom”. This glorification of being a con artist is now seen almost everywhere. Businesses are complaining of piracy in their brands. The copies of nearly all big brands are an industry itself. Many admire these copycat producers and are in awe of their ability to make it almost “real”. Society is complaining of the frightening ratio of betrayal and deception increasing in households, in social interactions and fields of education and workplaces.

This malaise of “pretence” is nowhere more visible than in the world of politics. Politicians all over the world and particularly in Pakistan have done advanced degree programs in CIM i.e “Counterfeiting Integrity Management”. There is such a tag of “just an act” on them that it is almost given that any politician without this skill will not go far. But then what do we mean by going far? Status in society has also undergone a cosmetic change. Status is no longer defined by the depth of your character but by the depth of your currency accounts. The cars you move in, the phones you carry, the brands you wear, and the positions you hold are more important than his/her character, his/her conduct, and his/her credibility. The shine of character is overshadowed by the shine of flashy cars, Rolex watches and pompous number plates. In this world of “show”, the rather simple politicians are mocked and dismissed. Fortunately for Pakistan, somewhere this mockery is being challenged and hypocrisy exposed by breaking these myths:

1. The world of politics is a world of Optics-Eye level is buy level. In politics, they say what you see is what you believe. That is why a politician’s most important person is his photographer. A politician’s most urgent need is a selfie. A politician’s most pressing need is breaking news. A politician’s most important job description is to be seen, to speak, to become viral. Some politicians with great histrionics could win over the most difficult of the voters. A sad face, a photo sitting with the deprived, a shot of walking in flood waters, or a teardrop on the cheek could make them hot news, get sympathy and win votes. That may be true for yester years. Not totally at present. An aware and tech-smart youth, a very intrusive social media, and technology that catches photoshopped material can actually make the fake ripped apart in seconds. This exposé also creates so much buzz over the attempt to deceive that the politician now has to be careful about what is shown and what not to show. Take an example of the genuine clip and the fake one. Recently a clip where Ex-PM Imran khan is sitting and having roti dipped in tea went viral showing his simplicity. Lo and behold a clip of Shahbaz Sharif the present PM at the SCO summit having lunch with other leaders hovering around him also was released professing how all leaders were in awe of him. Hours later tech-savvy people dissected it and found out that the original video where leaders were casually walking towards the luncheon was cleverly clipped to put this fake impression across. While the Imran video has gone so viral that people inspired by it are now making videos of having “chai and roti”, the Shahbaz Sharif video has become an embarrassment that people had to delete. Thus Optics in today’s world both create and break images depending on the authenticity of the content.

In our country, this trap of saying and doing opposite things and then getting away with them had happened so many times that people had given up.

2. Propaganda dominance covers the untruth- The Goebel strategy during Hitler’s time remained popular for three-quarters of a century. Repeat the lie so much that the lie becomes the truth. Media control was the main tool. For decades the politicians used it effectively to create “made-to-order” perceptions. The Bhuttos created this dynastic perception to perfection. The father and his daughter, and then her husband and now her son, all were accepted by the public especially in Sindh as the rightful heir to the Bhutto legacy. While the Bhutto family normalized dynastic politics through Bhuttoism, the Sharif family normalized corruption and payoffs through the famous saying ” Khata hai to lagata bhi hai” (If they siphon off money for themselves, they also spend on the public). These slogans propagated over time became norms for people to accept and live with. Again, in the age of Artificial intelligence and smartphones, these norms got challenged in the last decade. Imran Khan had been talking against this “pretence culture” for 26 years but it was only in the last decade or so that the younger generation feeling the pinch of an inequitable world started echoing him. Documentaries made by BBC on the money laundering of the Sharif family started gaining serious debates. With the advent of Panama Leaks that exposed these frauds and a case that went on for two years in courts, the truth finally came out. The media has shown the previous and present statements and status in so many programs that the hypocrisy has started wearing out.

3. People will only find out when it is a too late-Another myth that went on was that promises made are only near election time and once in power, those promises get buried in the past. The time lag of finding out and then spreading word of mouth of unkept promises was too long. Now, with very quick search engines and very rapidly distributable platforms like Tik Tok, it is an almost instant feedback mechanism. While a politician is giving a statement, memes and videos exposing his or her lies are out before the program finishes. It is the public that is ahead of the media and politicians. Just look at the present trip of the PM and his entourage to UNGA in the USA. Before the media, it was overseas Pakistanis who were standing in front of the hotel making videos of the millions being spent on hotels of taxpayers’ money and comparing it with ex-PM Imran khan who used to stay at the embassy to save taxpayer money. Thus the public is now too aware and current with the news to be misled by politicians.

4. Without the superpowers you can never be in power-Perhaps the biggest myth that has been broken is that without the 3As (America, Army and Allah), Pakistan cannot have rulers of its own choice. While Allah is the constant, the myth was broken in the recent elections in Punjab and Sindh where despite every power and every position conspiring to beat PTI, they won the elections. This has restored confidence in people to question the unquestionable and challenge the conventional ways of running this country.

The problem with pretending to be someone you are not is that it is not sustainable. However, in our country, this trap of saying and doing opposite things and then getting away with them had happened so many times that people had given up. In western society, behavioural hypocrisy is severely punished. Boris Johnson is the latest example. Having made passionate appeals to stay at home during corona restrictions, a video went viral of him sitting with friends at a party. The party and public pressure of being a hypocrite were so much that he resigned. Pakistan is nowhere near that level. However, the good thing is that hypocrisy is being challenged. The good thing is that it is being castigated. However for the good to become great accountability of those whose words are unmatched by their behaviour are worthwhile causes for which the society and the nation must continue to stand, struggle and ensure that they happen.

The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas