Daily Times

We are holier than thou and you are dirtier than all. This phrase sums up the competitive strategy thrust of nearly all political parties in the country. The style of leadership that accompanies this strategy is brash, aggressive, contemptuous and, many times, downright obscene. The verbal and non-verbal rubbish dumping going on from parliament to the many talk shows is a reflection of the complete loss of civility in our so-called leaders. There is a political civil war going on where heaping filth is just a euphemism and drawing blood is the art of the possible.

The leader in this political sumo wrestling is the PPP and befittingly so as they have to lead by example. The president himself set the tone by blaming all state and non-state actors, whoever they are, for all that has gone wrong with the country. Having done the leadership job of training his second-in-command on this skill of bashing all opposition, he has now decided to instigate and initiate the process and then sit back and bask in the glory of seeing his protégés do an admirable job of taking the legacy forward. The stars in this show are Rehman Malik and Babar Awan, creditably followed by Firdous Ashiq Awan and Sharmila Farooqi. The way the recent atrocities of the PNS Mehran, Abbottabad and Saleem Shahzad scandals were handled was a prime case of practicing offence-is-the-best-weapon-for-defence. All blame on them was either deflected to other institutions or a counter-blame lashing strategy was adopted, which has made the issues so polluted that even the media is finding it difficult to make head or tail of it.

Not to be outdone, the major opposition party, the PML-N, has declared an all out war on the PPP and its coalition partners. Led by the emotional aggression of Nawaz Sharif and the aggrieved objection of Shahbaz Sharif, they have adopted a ‘defend and attack’ plan of action. While the big brother digs into history to brings out all that ever went wrong in Pakistan because of all other governments except his own, the younger sibling cries foul over the discrimination being done to Punjab by the federal government. In truth, the public’s memory is not that short to forget the corruption galore of this party in each successive reign. As the government lashes back at their allegations and asks in typically immature style about the PML-N’s performance in Punjab, the chief minister blames it all on the step-motherly treatment being meted out by the unfair parent at the Centre. They have an anti-strategy for everybody, be it the PPP, MQM or Musharraf. Whoever their think tank is has advised them that if you bring down everybody you will automatically stand out. This, unfortunately, is such a moth-eaten approach that even the staunchest of party supporters are finding it difficult to go by this party line: if you cannot join them beat them.

What to say about the smaller parties? The MQM on paper and on TV claim to be the party of the masses, for the masses and by the masses. They berate all parties who dare say anything about their past and present and come up with factual and abrasive counter-allegations on anybody who dares to question their oppressive style of voter acquisition and retention. They talk against the feudal and autocratic system and feel that their position of declaring all other parties as being the elite and only themselves being commoners will lure the public into believing their claims. However, their constant support of Musharraf in the past and presently the PPP has exposed their claims of promoting the cause of the common man. They make these temporary departures from the government on apparent policy issues but, in reality, only to corner the government to give them more share in the power pie. On the other hand, the PML-Q has proved that it is one party that does not make a pretence of being anything else than power grabbers. Having sided with Musharraf till he was in power and swearing against the PPP till a few days ago, they have settled for a few ministries in return for the replacement of lost PPP coalition partners in parliament. Their style of politics management epitomises the depth of the rot that has infected the very roots of our political foundations.

With so much focus on bringing other parties down, none of these parties realise that they lower themselves much more in the process. For any rational thinking party it would be natural to understand that if all competitors have the same strategy there is nothing much to choose for the public. What the public is sick of is hearing about how damaging the other party is and how the present problems are a result of the bad policies of each of their opponents while in power. Competitive strategy has one simple rule: to be able to win over your audience you must be different from your competitor. Thus the logical strategy for a political party in search of popularity is to, instead of focusing on problems, focus on solutions and constantly come up with a plan of action that presents a feasible solution to the many ills facing the political economy of this country. However, the prerequisite of this differential advantage approach is a critical self-assessment as well as the dynamics of the competition. Unfortunately, none of the parties are willing to look at themselves and their approach with the attitude of what needs to change and improve. With complete oblivion to their own shortcomings and an absolute focus on other parties’ weaknesses, their rhetoric has become an echo of each other’s accusations and allegations. With a media that has a singular strategy of pitching these opposing parties against each other in talk shows and exposing their lack of self-respect, the members of these parties have become pawns in the hands of anchors who are experts at instigating verbal and sometimes physical abuse. The more of this scandalous behaviour, the more viewership.

Any strategy not built on focusing on your own strengths and instead on competitor bashing is likely to create momentary interest but expose the fact that those who resort to screaming murder about others are trying to obfuscate their own crimes. It is this lack of substance and character in most of these political players that has led to a leadership vacuum waiting to be filled by a party whose ideology, based on focusing on sound character and a feasible solution oriented approach, will be ‘the’ transforming tonic to reform the country.

The writer is a consultant and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com