Daily Times

While the human spirit craves for liberty at all ages, its yearning peaks in youth. The youth are attracted to people and movements calling for liberation. While the educated youth in Pakistan have mostly had pathetic choices in the last many decades, it was not all bad in the past. The educated youth of Pakistan in the fifties, sixties and even early seventies were lucky to witness the struggle for rights in both the east and the west. Their childhood memory had the towering figure of Jinnah, the liberator of their homeland, while their youth was filled with third world movements for liberation, from colonialism to dictatorships. They saw Fidel Castro overthrow the evil, US-backed Battista dictatorship in Cuba. They witnessed a young member of Castro’s government, Che Guevara, give up his comfortable post to become a leader of the oppressed against their dictatorial rulers in South America, where he eventually met his death. They saw portraits of Guevara reproduced everywhere as he became the icon of European and North American protest movements. In the Vietnam War they saw the US attempting to bolster the corrupt regime in South Vietnam against the Communist North Vietnam and the Communist Vietcong in South Vietnam. They witnessed the brutal campaign there against ordinary villagers using napalm and defoliants and how the issue forged together people, who were living in the comfort of the west, to protest against this. The youth of Pakistan were indeed extremely lucky to experience that oppression in the third world received unprecedented attention from youth in the west — the youth of Pakistan felt a natural bond develop with them. In the context of global unity, the east-west bridge was developing in Pakistan.

The freedom loving youth of Pakistan were alive to the situation of the time and when circumstances called them into action they formed the backbone of the rights movement in Pakistan that saw Ayub Khan leave office. That it brought in another general though was not their fault as the leadership of the movement did not rest with them. When elections were called they rallied behind the PPP, the ANP and the Awami League, all of whom were progressive parties and brought about the defeat of extremist parties almost everywhere. Were it left to them, history would have been different and a united Pakistan with different demographics with due rights to all would have been playing the role Jinnah dreamt for it. The youth of West Pakistan, who had waged a rights struggle against a dictator, had no problem with giving rights to Bengalis who were politically more active even before the creation of Pakistan. It was the people at the helm of the establishment who saw the dwindling of their number in seats of power that opposed democratic rights to Bengalis.

Then came the upheaval that brought about Pakistan’s dismemberment and framing of the new constitution, which saw the leader of the time pursuing consensus, though consensus is a tribal norm, and dissent and decision by majority is the beauty of democracy. Sacrificing his goal he compromised with the extremist cleric mindset and marked the direction that the country later took by allowing the state to interfere in purely personal matters.

The dark age of Pakistan began with the coup of General Zia who used religion as his tool of choice for retaining political power. To his luck, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and this he used to his maximum benefit. Unqualified support from the US and their wealthy ally Saudi Arabia meant that he had complete freedom in changing the character of the country. He tinkered with syllabi giving special attention to history and religious courses. Religious courses had been made compulsory in Bhutto’s time to get Saudi financial assistance. This meant that all students in Pakistan were compulsorily shown selected parts of the picture and were mentored to think in a particular manner for specific matters and situations. Human equality, the need for reason and logic, and interfaith harmony were never advocated and the young mind was bombarded with propaganda garbed in religion. That one finds amongst some of the educated youth sympathy for the extremists has its root cause in this propaganda. This continues even today as the fear of extremist backlash has made successive timid governments not do much to set things right. It is because of this propaganda that when the people of the west rallied in massive anti-war protests during the Gulf War, this unifying action did not translate into bridging east-west differences in Pakistan. Anti-imperialism, which was global in the mid 20th century turned anti-west here, and the hate mongers succeeded.

A few of the youth bombarded with propaganda during general Zia’s regime and before, have grown up into some of the political leaders of today. General Zia, through coercion or bait, made people follow rituals and introduced in the lives of the unsuspecting hypocrisy, a negative trait that does not go away easily. This hypocrisy in some leaders makes them call drone strikes an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty while turning a blind eye to the Uzbek, Chechen and Tajik mercenaries in Pakistan with whom they have ideological affinity. When the people of Pakistan call for action against their collaborators, abettors and assistors, these hypocrites call for dialogue.

Our educated youth is undoubtedly faced with this serious dilemma, which is eating up the social fabric of the country. For them, the only way out is to broaden their knowledge base and try to find out the whole truth to enable them to make the right choices. Together they may even start a youth movement of their own that promotes and advocates the ideals of humanity to bring together all the people of Pakistan. The helm of leadership is calling them. They must stop following and start leading. Together they can make the mainstream political parties evolve into better entities.

The absence of leadership in the PPP after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto translated into a blessing for Imran Khan who, by default, caught the attention of the youth through his outwardly liberal appearance. The presence of pop bands and bi-gender participation brought the youth to his public meetings in numbers and made him win votes. However, since the elections, the youth have seen his style of leadership and how his stance on some issues is burdening his own party, the PTI. Some, becoming disillusioned, have switched over to others. How can the youth continue to fall for the inherently contradictory idea of liberty from the US and become hostage to the extremists? Lincoln’s famous quote “It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” holds true here.

On occasion, Bilawal Bhutto has made the right posturing and shown resolve. Will he be able to translate these into real action? Will he be able to initiate and complete the Herculean task of undoing the wrongs of history? Representing the youth he may become the liberator. Either he or some other, the fate of Pakistan rests with the youth. The older generation has failed the country miserably. The people need someone who can mould public opinion and not be swayed by it. ‘The God of the universe’ likes bridging the gaps .We need someone to do just that.

The writer can be reached at thelogicalguy@yahoo.com