Pakistan: Election 2008, was it a revolution?

18th February 2008, they day when Pakistanis voted for 8th time; some voted for whoever gave them more money, some favored their castes and voted, some were too scared to vote for anyone else but the “influential” candidate. Some were “hari” or “mazary” so they didn’t have much choice to vote for anyone except for their “feudal master”, some voted for whomever their family head told them to vote for and some couldn’t even vote as they found their vote casted before they went to polling station. Some, I believe, did vote for Democracy and to elect a new Prime Minister of Pakistan. However, around 60% of registered voters preferred to sit at home and not to vote for anything.

These are realities of Election 2008 that everyone knows yet our so-called leaders, analysts, TV-hosts and commentators called the election results a “revolution”. Why? Just that pro-Musharaf party did not win the elections hence results are a “revolution”? Does revolution only mean change of faces?

How we can bring a revolution when we ourselves are corrupt. When we don’t stop at the red traffic signal, when we are caught driving without license and offer “chai-pani” (bribe) to a constable before he gives us ticket, when we feel no hesitation in parking our cars right-under the “no parking” signs; we are being corrupt. When we bribe to get a legal driving license illegally, we are being corrupt. We are being corrupt when we pay someone just to bypass a queue and get our work done. Everyone around us is corrupt in his own capacity and in his own way; everyone from very poor to very rich, from a taxi driver to Mercedes owner, from vegetable seller to a landlord, from a worker to a factory owner, from a student to a principal, from a lower division clerk to a manager, from a daily wages labor to a full-time permanent govt. employee. We all, whenever and wherever we get a chance, deceive others, take advantage of others, benefit ourselves dishonestly and are corrupt in our own way. We are so in habit of these small (are they really small?) corruptions of ours that it has become a second nature of us; we don’t even consider it as corruption.

Our actions don’t speak what we preach about. We teach our kids to not lie but when a friend calls, we ask our kids to tell him that I am not home. We curse about India all day and then in the evening we watch Indian movie with whole family. And when our kids start talking like “taporis”, when they say “Fir” instead of “Phir” and “Khhoon” instead of “Khoon”; we blame India for infiltrating into our culture. We talk about helping poor but then we don’t pay our servants salaries on time. We criticize our govt. for poor public services but then we don’t bother paying any tax. We call ourselves Pakistani and celebrate Independence Day but, in rallies on 14th August, we hold flag of our Political Party and not of Pakistan. We disapprove our system for being corrupt and then we suborn the same system where it benefits us. We talk about equality and then we don’t like our kids to study in same schools where poor people’s kids study.

We are so much intolerant that we don’t have any place for having difference of opinion. If someone has same opinion as we do, he is patriotic like us or else he is disloyal to the country; no matter how factual and true his opinion is. We only believe in what we think; others either must agree to us or should get a label of “American agent”, “Non-Muslim”, “Unpatriotic”, “Dictator’s Ally” or “Not a true Muslim”. (And, funny, yet we want “Democracy”. Doesn’t it seem like Dictatorship?). More of our intolerance is that we don’t do this only to other nations or countries as Pakistanis; we do this as individuals, as small groups – groups that we are divided into for speaking different languages, having different casts & sects, for our geographical backgrounds, for our political affiliation. Every group (or individual) is our rival if it doesn’t agree to what we believe; there is no question about us agreeing to anyone who doesn’t belong to our group even if he is right. When we disagree with someone we just go out to the street and burn the buses, cars, public property, we block roads, we forcibly shut down the markets; this is our way of “peaceful” protest.

We do all this and then justify ourselves by putting blame on our system, rulers, leaders and anything but ourselves. We all are corrupt, hypocrite and intolerant and I do not believe that corrupt, hypocrite and intolerant people can bring revolution in any society, no matter how they voted and who they voted for.

Revolution is not the name of replacing corrupt rulers with other corrupt rulers. Revolution is the name of a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving. And we cannot bring Revolution unless we change our behaviors, unless we change the way we think at individual level.

Though its been 60 years we have been doing this as Pakistani but its still not too late to think about self-accountability and forget about the “accountability for revenge”, its not too late to change our behaviours, its not too late to become a Nation and put our small groups/political parties behind, its not too late to become realisitic and less emotional. No one ever helped us and will never help us unless we start helping ourselves; so far we have just blamed others for our own mistakes but now is the time to learn from our mistakes.

Tags: Pakistan, Politics