Daily Times

“Every time I hear a political speech, or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounds human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed, that they gamble — yes, gamble — with a whole part of their so-called vital interests.” — Albert Camus

When younger, there are countless dreams which one sees and wishes would come true. These are powerful dreams flowing in all directions, across all expanses, beyond all barriers. There is nothing stopping these dreams. There is a consuming passion that dreams are not just meant to be seen, but to be realised for one has an indomitable will to make that happen.

As years pile on, one learns that realisation of dreams is not just a matter of wishing. It is more, much more than that. It belongs in the realm of so much else happening that may not be within your control, not even within your domain. It may belong elsewhere, being the prerogative of powers and circumstances that may be beyond your grasp.

But that does not make the dreams go away. In most instances, any temporary setback would further intensify the yearning and the longing to realise them.

It is time to recreate the dream. It is time to rework the passion. It is all the way back to the beginning and then moving further, one step at a time, in quest of creating a liberal, egalitarian and progressive state in total conformity with the enshrining vision and character of the Quaid. Nothing less will do

These dreams resonate endlessly through Faiz Sahib’s inimitable eloquence:

“We longed for the flowers of your lips,

And they hanged us from the dead tree branch.

We longed for the candles in your hands,

And they killed us in dimly-lit backstreets.

But, beyond the scaffold, in the far distance,

The red of your lips kept leaping in the air,

The black of your hair kept casting its spell,

The silver of your hands kept shimmering.”

The undying dreams and the unyielding passion constitute the power that keeps one going in pursuit of what one may desire to achieve, or how one would like to see the world around. Through centuries, change has always been driven by this indomitable combination of the imagination to see the dream and the underlying passion to realise it. To put it differently, it comes at the pinnacle of a combination of one’s act of dreaming and one’s soaring confidence to make it happen.

This is like being transported to a different world — a world where good things are conceived of and a genuine effort made to seek them, not just for your own sake, but for the sake of the general good of people around, more importantly for those who are in dire need of succour and support to sustain their bare existence.

From the poet to the pontiff is almost an unbridgeable distance. Just like it is from the humanist to a politician. It is like two worlds apart with hardly a prospect of the twain ever meeting.

I had started with a quote from Albert Camus — a quote signifying his loathing for a different breed — the breed of politicians, which is what takes one away from anything human, anything elevating for the spirit or the soul. Hearing this breed is like being interned countless feet beneath the surface in the dungeons of a world one knows little about. That’s the world of darkness. That’s the world of deceit and plunder. That is the world which does not offer a ray of light, let along hope.

Understandably, politicians should constitute the breed that would give a shape to the dreams of the people. They are the ones providing hope to those surviving on the fringes of existence. But, such a breed of politicians is nowhere to be seen. Instead, we have a coterie of blood-suckers and dime-merchants who advance their personal interests at the altar of the dreams of the destitute and the damned.

Even if one were to concede the prospect of having some good people practising politics in Pakistan, the question that I ask myself often is where can I find them? Why aren’t they raising their voice in protest over what is happening in terms of belittling of humanity and its multilayered manifestations? Why don’t they speak when the fate of the downtrodden and their dignity and self-respect are being mauled mercilessly, to which end they would also be deemed to be contributing through their silence?

Let me also make it clear that a bulk of this breed has nothing to do with democracy because the background they come from and what they uphold is neither democratic, nor accountable. They are, by and large, the by-product of dictatorships and have carried forth that mantle with pride. As an unbearable symptom of hypocrisy, they hide their despotic spots beneath the cloak of democracy. They neither believe in democracy, nor are they willing to practice it within the domain of their own political fabrications.

They sit at the head of family oligarchies and facilitate passing of leadership from father to the son/daughter. No one else in their ranks can lay a claim to lead the party. They are all supposed to remain obsequiously subservient to the whims and fancies of the lord and master.

They preach democracy in the country without holding even a shadow of elections within their outfits. There is no accountability within their tiers and the cult of the leader is what everyone should bow before, accepting his/her crimes and corruption in the process.

This was not what Pakistan was created for. This was not envisioned in the foundational principles of the state, or the vision that its founder had set forth which was one of all being equal citizens of the state, and all being equal before law: “We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one State”.

From dreams to delusion, from passion to perversion, the gaping space separating the two extremes — between what should have been and what actually is — has increased painfully with the passage of time owing to the malevolence and manipulation of the political breed. And it appears not to be ending anytime soon. On the contrary, without remedial steps undertaken without further loss of time, the state may degenerate to becoming but a mere extension of the family fiefdoms of the beneficiary elite, to be brandished and plundered the way it may suit their whims and their insatiable gluttony.

It is time to recreate the dream. It is time to rework the passion. It is all the way back to the beginning and then moving further, one step at a time, in quest of creating a liberal, egalitarian and progressive state in total conformity with the enshrining vision and character of the Quaid. Nothing less will do.

Let’s weave dreams. Let’s not breed contempt.

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd2018.