Daily Times

I do not know whether to laugh or cry. The drama and its antics have engulfed the people in and outside the assembly. Each day there is a new twist in the ongoing freedom and the revolution marches. A very renowned senior Urdu columnist for an international publication very aptly stated that he can comfortably guess what anyone is going to say, without even listening to them. The anchors, leaders and so-called analysts have nothing new to add. It is like everyone just going through mundane and unnecessary motions. While this drama is in full swing, there are so-called negotiations happening as well between the government and the freedom seekers. You hear so many terms, so many spins and so many speculations that it is hard to predict where this camel will eventually rest.

No one knows what tomorrow will bring and everyone is just waiting for some win-win scenario. However, people with pre-determined agendas who hog airtime on the idiot box are trying to beat the dead horse to a pulp, every night, without fail. My critics — I hope God blesses them all — tend to send their scorn in an e-mail format too. Perhaps it keeps it more personal and discreet. The diehard loyalists of the dynamic revolutionary duo think I am one of those journalists who is expressing his opinion based on some envelope from somewhere. When I read such stuff it makes me wonder where these folks live and what planet accommodates such wise creatures. To clarify for such Aristotles of tomorrow, I am not a journalist or an employee of this publication and my opinion is expressed totally pro bono, absolutely free of charge. I express myself here and on Twitter as a social service to perhaps unlock some clogged minds. Even if one individual thinks differently because of my scribbles, I would consider the effort worth my while.

What is deeply depressing is that our collective mindset is so corroded with so much hearsay that we as a nation have become totally nonsensical. For instance, it is very easy for anyone to accuse someone else of anything without having a shred of evidence, and most folks who are listening to such baseless rumours not only absorb them but also believe and spread them to others. This is an extremely dangerous trend that will ruin us forever. Because we are creating a society of people who dwell, breathe and rely on rumour mongering anybody can be called corrupt or a sell out and any person who holds a different opinion can be termed an agent. This negative trend will produce very immature and irrational individuals, who are supposed to take the reins of this country. May God save us all from such educated illiterates.

What is quite disturbing is that most of our passionate youth, who are often offended by my rather blunt tweets, are ignorant about their own history. I mostly hear many parroted lines about a lot of events in our history. I see people who have regurgitated information from textbooks to perhaps pass an exam. We as a nation lack young people who dig and question the events of the past and derive their conclusions on research and facts. In short, there is a dangerous dearth of critical thinkers.

Most people, including our passionate youth, are so brain washed with the daily dose of this dysfunctional and corrupt system that they are either completely hopeless or of the opinion that only one person can fix it. This in itself is a major myth. What I hear and sense is being anti status quo or rebellious is considered cool and, hence, the buzzword of “change” is repeatedly heard from these quarters. When engaged or probed, about this phenomenon, most youngsters are relatively clueless about what it means but rather quick to retort that only so and so can bring it and then it will be all kum ba ya!

I hate to say this but we are raising people who are not questioning the facts. Why squarely blame them when the people who are raising them are no different? For instance, take Chaudhry Shujaat’s recent statement of inviting the military to takeover and fix our mess. Can someone remind our dear Chaudhry that our dear military has tried to intervene four times directly and our mess is still the way it is? Furthermore, there is a former general facing charges for violating Article 6; would the new intervention not embroil another general in the parametres of the aforementioned article?

What leaves me speechless is when people say only the military can save this country. The people give all kinds of laudatory comments about coups. However, what I hear are either plain stutters or senseless retorts when I raise a very simple question for these rather ill informed folks. What severe external threat or internal chaos prompted the four coups that you so religiously gloat about?

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar