Daily Times

Populism is an errant political approach in which either conventional or a newly-debuted politician (populist) is brought to the political theatre by invisible forces through shortcuts. He presents himself as a messiah to resolve a country’s complex, long-standing and multi-faceted problems by giving simple solutions. Arousing chauvinistic nationalism; glorifying religious extremism; relying on authoritarianism and dictation; cultivating obnoxious hatred and polarization; exploiting a country’s Achilles’ heels, and keeping the disillusioned citizenry, especially youth. in a mirage of hollow promises and abstractive fantasies, are some of the all-time distinctive aspects. Moreover, the toxic and mighty wave of populism not only drowns the naïve but also more professional ones in its deep pit of blocked-headed obeisance.

History bears the fact that while populist leaders achieve their narrowed and short-lived political fortunes in a matter of months, their downfall journey has no capacity altogether to take a hiatus for a moment.

Populists always resort to taking hold of the mainstream platforms to astoundingly propagate and disseminate their venomous discourses manifold across the citizenry, with a magnifying success in constructing the ideology of the people, being caught in the vicious trap of mythical slogans.

In a constitutionally—mandated federal dispensation, a populist tries to forcefully impose homogeneity, only for his soon-diminishing political victories

With the abrupt onset of social media’s revolution in the past decade, populists have successfully staked the chess; occupying the launching pad of a political circus. Unlike traditional politicians stuck in the internal feuds for a game of thrones and at the receiving end of scathing criticism from the people, the populists have sound far-sightedness as they change themselves with time, wearing a range of brands. Today, social media platforms are flooded with populists’ hand-made youth, who have been utterly disregarded by the traditional mainstream political parties, which are grappling with many issues, including but not limited to that of leadership or the absence of a cogent and potent agenda. The estranged and dejected youth, being perturbed by the toxic unemployment, and their deteriorating trust in a country’s extractive political and economic institutions, finds it an opportunity to rush to the baseless camp of a populist, who has presented himself as a demigod for addressing their perennial troubles.

In a constitutionally-mandated federal dispensation, standing on the pillars of inclusivity and diversity, populist tries–to his core–to forcefully impose homogeneity, only for his soon-diminishing political victories. Besides, he leaves no stone unturned in changing and restructuring the highly crucial and effective elements of a polity, especially schools’ curriculums. Injecting heavily religious and nationalistic content in the so-called revolutionary curriculum, he does not bother to give space to science, arts, entrepreneur skills, and gender-related content to gain the requisite intellectual pursuits, indispensable for an academically barren and economically despondent country. When will the youth awake from a deep slumber and realise they were being duped by a populist? Their country requires long-term and consensus-based policies, not religion, as the latter has been played time and again as a political card by those who play the national power games. The youth must concede that their problem is not religion, but the worst economy and governance mess of their country.

Have you heard a demagogue populist ever talk about democracy, civilian supremacy, rule of law, freedom of speech and media, parliamentary governance, and ethnicity that has been pushed to the wall by a state, in a public gathering or rally? He always puts a finger in a wound by enlarging it. He divides the whole community and ingrains distrust in it. According to him, corruption, lack of transparency in public institutions, economic meltdown, unemployed youth, and other problems of a country are due to the negligence of the previous regimes. The interesting point is that he will never try a bit in his capacity to fend up the issues that he frequently mentions. Rather, he will further mystify those issues by blatantly indulging in abusing, blaming, mud-slinging, and finger-pointing.

Coming from general to specific, the home country is in the tight grip of populist politics. Dragging the already-politicised establishment and using foul and contemptuous language against political opponents and heads of the prestigious public institutions are acrimonious to the country’s political stability, which is essential for economic recovery. Folks, the situation is bleak as populism is roaring with its majestic and charismatic outlook. A consensual Grand National Dialogue and Charter of Economy are a must for the current crises. Not this seemingly neverending blame game that the populists love to partake in.

The writer is a student based in Mardan.