As the law of nature suggests, and is also a commonly perceived notion among the masses: “Sunrises are refreshing, while sunsets are depressing”
The aforementioned perception, perhaps, very much reflects from Pakistan’s political mirror upon being peeked into. Political forces, while in opposition, enjoy publics support while resorting to fierce criticism on the government. The graph, then, is relatively on a high-rise trajectory, and perhaps, reaches the pinnacle of public support as the opposition makes it to the government. It is, ironically, from there that that a downward trend in popularity, and public’s support chips in, and becomes the order of any government’s day; ultimately either taking it back to the opposition benches, or putting it out of business for good.
Our nation, apparently, is more sold out to the idea of criticism, and sweet to the ear claims by the opposition, which is of course the easier part, as it requires least backing of sane argumentation, as compared to the truthful bitterness with all rational grounds that the government tries to communicate. It is, indeed, interesting to see the change in body language, and plans of action of a party as it journeys from opposition to the government, and vice versa, alongside the drastic change in perception that public once held, and at present holds of it.
The grass seemingly lush green from the opposition benches suddenly transforms into a pathway of thorns when it makes it to the government. The opposition making it to the government starts its day with a bright sunshine of public support, and often goes home in the evening with a depressing sunset of the same.
To cut it short, on boarding, and taking off is the easy part of the flight, it’s the landing that is the hard part; always.
Throughout our political course of history, the word “landings” have ironically been accompanied by the word “crash”. Everyone making it to the power corridors, be it a democratic government, or a dictatorial regime, all have ended up in the very similar manner. The public voted them out, and none made it through to forming the proceeding government.
The question that perhaps need to be addressed here is that is it a standard that just applies to all party/ies in the government? Or do they do something terribly wrong to face such a harsh public verdict.
A fair analysis would suggest a possible proportion of both the ingredients responsible for the outcome.
On one hand, it is an undeniable fact that the public opinion tends to deviate from the government in favour of opposition on account of boredom, a too critical public analysis of the government, both combined with the latter’s lack of commitment to its electoral promises. The public opinion, in any part of the World, is bound to shift unless there are out of the box efforts by governments to retain the popularity they enjoyed before taking charge of affairs. That can, perhaps, only be achieved by not only delivering on the electoral promises, and taking mere initiatives, but also concluding the initiatives undertaken meaningfully. The government (particularly in our part of the World), on the other hand, has generally failed / tends to fail in transforming its so-called revolutionary initiatives into fruitful deliverance of benefits to the common man.
With the second democratic transition giving birth to third consecutive democratic term of governance, although formed by a third different political party, the present government has taken charge of the affairs of the country with publics overwhelming support, and hopes over deliverance on promises, and prevalence of good governance; despite the horrendous challenges
Whereas the first reason has been talked of a million times, the second usually gets brushed under the carpet. Although, it equally adds to the grievance(s) of the already suffering public, and keeps the political forces from forming consecutive government(s).
With the second democratic transition giving birth to third consecutive democratic term of governance, although formed by a third different political party, the present government has taken charge of the affairs of the country with publics overwhelming support, and hopes over deliverance on promises, and prevalence of good governance; despite the horrendous challenges. While the first two, PPP and PML (N) failed to gain publics vote of confidence for a consecutive second term, the PTI seems confident of making it to the next stage. For that, time will tell, and public will be the judge.
In its third month of governance, however, the PTI government has been engaged in initiatives that are, somewhat, an aberration to the past trends of governance, and have gained public acknowledgement. Initiatives like austerity drive towards lavish spending, appraising the performance of federal, and provincial ministers, binding all ministers to abstain from travelling (local & foreign both) to attend the National Assembly (NA) sessions, competent diplomatic appointments, and very recently, the launch of Pakistan Citizens Portal aimed at improving the governance structure by giving the public direct access to lodge their complaints with the PM office.
Having taken charge of affairs for only two months, as of now, the PTI government seems to be proactively engaged in governance-improvement driven initiatives which deserve due applaud. However, what is important to note here is that launching initiatives is rather easy, and the past government(s) too were not short of initiatives undertaken during their tenure. What matters, and will matter the most is being consistent in maturing these initiatives so that they transform into meaningful benefits for the masses.
Similarly, the Saudi economic package for Pakistan, expected to be followed by those from China, and UAE, are neither new nor are an achievement of the present government, as perhaps, every government in the past, upon taking charge of affairs, has received such packages to bail out the ever ailing economy. What would differentiate PTI from the past governments, however, is the use these packages are put to. That is where the voter(s) interest lies.
It is imperative for the Naya Pakistan driven government to abolish the rotten trends of past governance by not only focusing on gathering the means to the end, but on the end itself too. Failing to end well, PTI’s fate will not be any different from that of the previous government(s).
The public, rest assured, will rate any government on the end gains, rather than mere means. After all, as they say, “All is well that ends well”.
The writer is an Islamabad based freelance opinion writer and columnist for Pakistan Today
Published in Daily Times, November 2nd 2018.