Daily Times

Pakistani citizens,
unfortunately, are quite accustomed to finding themselves at a crossroads. Every few years we find ourselves at a decisive point in our lives where it is a matter of now or never; we can either do or die. A wrong step, we are repeatedly told, is bound to herald the arrival of the day of reckoning for us. We have managed to pass over several of those moments of truth, avoiding death, but not without being severely beaten and bruised. Our decrepit state makes each new crossroads more critical and the magnitude of our past blunders has quite steeply reduced the margin of error available to us.

We are at another such clichéd crossroads, where at one end our feeble condition can easily induce hopelessness, reducing the likelihood of a collective and strong enough response to get ourselves out of this mess. However, at the other, there are enough indicators available that make this crossroads unique, indicators that suppress the hopelessness and frustration, ironically maybe, as these indicators may have appeared out of the same hopelessness and frustration that they serve to reduce. Freedom of the media, a strong third party voting option, and the interest and involvement of youth and civil society in the electoral/political process today is unprecedented in our history. These factors with all their potential of initiating a resolute response to the challenges we face, if not begotten, have certainly also exposed a dangerous and bitter divide in our society into left-right wings, liberals-conservatives, and we have been introduced to terms such as the ghairat and be-ghairat brigades.

Despite being a minority, these extremes shape the discourse in our society and as with any minority group, they are a cohesive bunch. Each extreme has its own way of reinforcing and dictating its terms to the rest of society. Our right wing has always had the street/mob power, which it never fails to (mis)use to make up for the successive rejection by the voters and the lack of argument; however, it is the left, the liberals, that have found a new voice over the last few years. The media, aided and ably assisted by the social media explosion, gave an extraordinary opportunity to the left to present its point of view. Nevertheless, the approach (irrespective of the validity of the argument) taken up till now has only showed that it stands at a not so different level to the right as far as the rigidity of its stance is concerned. It is equally non-accommodating of a divergent point of view as the right. The left is wasting an opportunity to press its ideas on the rest of society by adopting a one-dimensional line of reasoning and by being reluctant to focus on priority issues with the same zeal and vigour as on some of the pet issues that reinforce its ideology. When it chooses to discuss the death penalty, hijab, minority rights, Fawara Chowk-renaming, the PTI and its followers’ attitude, the army’s historical role day in and day out over corruption, nepotism, absence of governance and lack of basic facilities, it is watering a dead plant. It is bike shedding. The issues forming a major part of our left’s discourse are important in their own right and need addressing, but not at the cost of the more critical ones; our current state of affairs make this cost unacceptable.

The current fabric of our society, the literacy rate, the struggle to make ends meet, joblessness, insecurity about the next meal and the worries of the unsure future of the children do not create a conducive atmosphere for a rational debate on the death penalty, hijab, etc. The lack of focus on critical issues by the left is not helped at all by the lack of arguments in some of the discussions/articles in which its proponents appear more eager and intent to write just for the sake of writing and be labelled as liberal or be counted in a select group. The left also needs to be more flexible in allowing the silent majority that struggles to associate and align itself with either of the extremes on left and right a fair chance and the space it deserves. An immediate rejection, a la right, by the left of any stance or position not in accordance with its own way of thinking and ideology is not going to bear any fruit. Not everyone in favour of the death penalty or choosing and advocating hijab is a far right lunatic; advocating talks with the militants does not always equate with support or a soft corner for suicide bombings; and a disagreement with the secular state philosophy does not merit a rebuke and a mullah label.

There is a huge and wide playing field in between the two extremes that needs to be supported and advocated. Moderation and a centrist position is the one that will provide solutions to most of our problems. The left needs to give up its know-it-all attitude and the sense of infallibility and the right needs to be convinced of the importance of moderation as an important Islamic concept. A hasty rebuff by our left of any discussion using a religious argument ignores the very important fact that our society, whether we like it or not, is by and large conservative. Our liberals, in their quest to reject the far right, sway too much to the left and adopt an approach that is biased at best and hypocritical most likely. The arguments and the manner of projecting its views, the habit of painting everything not in conformity with its views with the same brush and a sense of superiority complex from our left is polarising society even more. The left is, maybe unknowingly, helping the very cause against which it is supposedly fighting, i.e. the continuous trend of our urban middle class towards the right (right or wrong is another argument). The support and favour accorded to the current ruling coalition purely on the basis of them being left-of-centre and turning a blind eye to the fact that they have given Pakistan one of its most corruption-riddled and badly-governed periods, even with our standards, further disillusions the moderates and plays into the hands of the right. There will always remain an extreme right that continues to reject and abhor anything that changes its hold on the state of things. But an honest, objective and unbiased effort to agree on a moderate point of view shall prevent the economically deprived, socially underprivileged and weak segments of society from falling prey to a myopic, ignorant and basically wrong far right. It shall also give breathing space to the centre-lying majority who find themselves squeezed from both sides.

The solution to our problems lies in a democratic, a truly people’s representative, non-corrupt and efficient government. A government that has the support of and works for the people is always the best deterrent to an extra-constitutional takeover — a government that invests in people’s welfare, in improving their living standards, and most importantly, in providing them education, thereby making them less susceptible to be dragged to either extreme, and is mature enough to understand the importance of minority rights, rationally argued hijab and niqab, understand the importance of population control, climate change, water and food scarcity, is the need of the hour. The fact that our left is more educated and privileged puts more onus on it to drag us out of this mess. It needs to be willing to give up its position of no compromise for a more balanced, centrist position that is not only more acceptable and achievable but also more logical. It needs to admit, even if it does not believe in the validity of a centrist approach, that our society needs to be pulled from right to centre before an effort can be launched for a left-leaning makeover. The key to achieve this lies in focusing on the true root causes — corruption and lack of governance — that have resulted in a continuous dragging of more and more people below the poverty line, is making more and more people insecure about their next meal and is providing fodder to the extreme right. The left, if it has not completely missed this point, has certainly got its priorities out of sorts and the new found energy and freedom it enjoys, with all its potential, seems misdirected.

The writer is a freelance contributor and can be reached at uumair.alvi@gmail.com, tweets at @UAlvee