Daily Times

When I refused to confirm a gossipy piece of information to one of the top female politicians during an encrypted chat, she accused me of being boring. As someone who gets heavily paid for talking to people, I told her that only bored people are boring; interesting people always find something interesting in all things.

We get easily bored. Are we a deeply superficial nation? Some examples of this entertainment-superficiality paradigm are worth pondering. A physicist lectures us on politics but he could not explain why cars cannot run on water. A cricketer is not only our top politician but also educates us daily about religion and philosophy of life. A part-time journalist has become a top sports administrator and sermons us about sports psychology and how the game should be played. Our failed religious leaders are desperate politicians who want to govern us rather than doing their day job. A junior office cleric has become a property tycoon and power broker, and now aspires to run this country.

There is nothing, however, more frightful than ignorance. We think of ourselves as the most beautiful, original, cultured and informed people. But the rest of the world considers us primitive, ignorant and hypocrite. We have no issue with this disconnect because we believe they are acting on behalf of our enemies. We remain proud Muslims and continue to practice our own brand of Islam. We pray five times a day but have no sense of discipline, hygiene and equality. We like to fast in Ramazan but fail to learn the relevant lesson of self-control, humility and sacrifice. We would die to perform Umrah and Hajj, even at government expense, but avoid paying taxes and shun social responsibility regarding poverty alleviation. Bigotry is indeed bigotry whether it’s dressed up as faith or otherwise.

The police are actually bureaucrats with weapons. Instead of fighting (violent) crime, they do exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it

The previous governments were only interested in increasing their wealth and control and any governance that came out of their actions was purely coincidental. We have learned how the great evil is not done in concentration camps but is planned and carried out (and minuted) in carpeted offices by quiet men with white collars who do not need to raise their voices. Our bureaucracy likes to create too many committees to deal with the problem of too many committees. A good sign that the army has been around the corridors of power too long is that it starts getting top-heavy with officers. Our judiciary has an unenviable past and often thinks that the best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep. The police are actually bureaucrats with weapons. Instead of fighting (violent) crime, they do exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it.

Under the circumstances, any sensible government would unleash the energy of its people and get them to perform instead of getting its officialdom into gear. They have instead employed a legion of functionaries whose primary function is perhaps to make poor people feel bad about themselves. They hate innovation especially which produces better results than old routines and makes them look inept sitting at the top. Mr Dar, as cling-on, believes that we should live within our income, even if we have to borrow to do so. And he is always sincere, even when he does not mean it. There is chaos at the moment in which people are being deprived of political freedom and the power to act. This is a rule by Nobody, which is not no-rule, as all are equally powerless. We just have a tyranny without an obvious tyrant.

Revolutions take place in such chaos because the old regime simply collapses out of economic inefficiency and bureaucratic rigidity. However, there is no chance of that because it does not suit anyone including the masses no longer have the requisite potential. They would like a change but are afraid to pay the price. The government is desperately trying to invite a coup with its half indifference and half malice attitude. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal seems to be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves. However, the best way the institutions can help us, and deal with this situation is to smile and act stupid. That way, no one gets confused.

We can easily predict the five stages of the next government’s mourning: denial, anger, committee meetings, scapegoating and cover-up. But the role of the Institutions is to rise from the ashes of their past and protect the democratic rights of the people by making the politicians and their cronies accountable. They must resist the temptation to repeat past mistakes because good state servants differ from bad ones only in the degree to which they resist the psychopathology of the very Institution they serve.

The writer is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Visiting Professor. He tweets @AamerSarfraz

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2017.