Jean-Jacques Rousseau lamented about his times, “Ancient politicians spoke incessantly about morals and virtue, ours speak only of business and money.” Can we say our times 250 years later are any better in terms of morality and virtue? Well, the answer is not that simple; one needs to employ Einstein’s theory of relativity to decode the query. The whole world is not bad, normatively speaking. Nor has our country gone to the dogs absolutely. There are good and bad things, often coexisting, but in the end, the good would seem to squeeze the bad out of the system. That is the lesson of history. Many would not subscribe to this historical pre-determinism, but the tomes of history and social sciences would tell a more promising story, in addition to lamenting the idiocies and crudities committed by humans in the name of power, pelf, faith and idea. Thus, we had century-long wars, civil, regional and global conflagrations, palatial intrigues, partisan conspiracies and mass mayhems, persecution of socio-political and religio-ethnic minorities, and the ghastly use of nuclear weapons, causing millions of casualties to prove national ‘grandeur’. Indeed, the previous centuries saw unending wars — first among the rich and powerful states and empires, and then among and within the poor and week, colonised and newly independent states. Presumably, the US-led west emerged ‘triumphant’, but the raw and ugly colonial and imperialist world also gave way to a much more politically refined and legally defined world. Even now, there are autocrats and dictators who treat their domains as their personal fiefdoms, and citizens as their subjects; most of them unfortunately fall in the Muslim world. Out of the 57 Muslim states, there is hardly any true democracy or welfare polity. Indeed, Latin America, Asia and even parts of Africa are coming out of pre-modern socio-political orders, becoming developmental democracies. More phenomenally, our temporal siblings, China and India, have blazed a huge trail of success, lifting hundreds of millions of the poor from utter dearth and deprivation. These times are also unique and blessed on a more general plane. Man has reached the frontiers of technology and science that were unthinkable in Rousseau’s time. Modern societies are increasingly sounder and fairer, though still not perfect. The democracies are obsessed with three buzzwords: security, welfare and development. Particularly, medical science has made giant strides, conquering many a lethal epidemic — typhus, malaria, plague, tuberculosis — and the scientists are burning the midnight oil to stamp out the last threat to human life: cancer. Resultantly, life expectancy has increased and infant mortality has decreased, though admittedly still one-sixth of mankind is suffering malnutrition and dearth of civic services. More importantly, having waded through rivers of blood caused by venal wars, revolutions, regicides and fratricides, mankind has finally come to accept democracy as the best possible form of governance — but a different democracy, not the one that panders to a majority. Electiveness is therefore no more the only yardstick of legitimacy. It is mainly good governance, economic efficiency, rule of law, protection of minorities and political liberties inter alia that sustain a government in power. Every day elected governments step down or are forced out for their failure to meet these objectives. The Belgian prime minister has recently resigned for his failure to sell his austerity plan to coalition partners; before him, the Greek, Spanish and Italian premiers had also resigned for similar reasoning: economic failure. Our situation, as a state and society also presents a mixed bag. On the one hand is the crass failure of governance and widespread moral turpitude. The ruling and propertied elites are seemingly beyond the pale of law and morality, considering the breadth of their involvement in corruption, cronyism and tax evasion. Moreover, the newfound institutional ‘liberty’ thrown up by the recent constitutional reforms and the civil society-media awakening, is yet to find its true moorings, hence the ‘perpetual conflict’ among state organs. Just as a scientific idea takes time to break into collective acceptance leading to a technological expression, democratic reforms also take time to dismantle old power structures. The establishment’s continued stranglehold over the civilians is a case in point. Miraculously, society for all its ideological schisms and economic holes is still waiting to be catered to by the state. It desperately needs an infusion of new solutions to resolve the worsening socio-economic conditions and the ethno-cultural conflicts. Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and much of south Punjab and Karachi have taken up arms against a lethargic, exploitative, inefficient and elitist state. Coercion has failed to put a brake on the centrifugal forces. A new vibrancy and commitment is needed. The rulers must be capable and candid enough to correctly diagnose the underlying causes of strife in society. And then, the rulers must have the will to set a corrective course going, disregarding the vested interests. Balochistan can no more be treated as a ‘colony’ of the Centre. If it ‘joined’ Pakistan, it was not to become an instrument of self-destruction for itself and a source of promoting others’ interests. KP and south Punjab would be cleansed of virulent jihadi movements only when Islamabad (read Rawalpindi) forgoes its untenable strategic goals, focusing only on internal security and development. And Karachi needs a ‘government’, not a convenient ‘arrangement’ to govern rather than rule this multi-conflicted metropolis. A coalition government whose members are involved in ethnic cleansing has no moral or legal right to exist. Would the current leadership do that? As it is, one can only draw a blank from the performance of the existing ruling, state and propertied elites. But history has a built-in factor to spur reforms and that is the fear of an impending apocalypse. That fear is writ large on every powerful face in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi. So no worries! Let us, the dispossessed and disparaged, sing the Bessie Smith classic, “Don’t cry, baby, don’t cry.” The writer is a lawyer and academic. He can be reached at shahabusto@hotmail.com