Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq
Subjugation, physical or mental, creates disastrous results—crippling the subjugated to the extent they are neither dead nor alive. The agony of this state—perpetual despair and never-ending pain—is much worse than death. Death of an individual or annihilation of a nation is, in fact, deliverance—a relief from anguish and pain. But subjugation is unremitting punishment. History of subjugation and resistance presents vital lessons for humanity. Subjugation is the worst malady that inflicts long-term slave mentality in people. Resistance on the contrary kindles the hope of life—regaining of freedom being its prime goal.
The subjugators, after being defeated, struck back by creating a band of sycophants and cronies, who in the name of self-rule started exploiting their own masses. They continue serving their foreign masters and prove to be even worse rulers. This is the tragedy of most of the so-called independent states— Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called it Myth of Independence—in the post-colonial era. The subjugators are still ruling their ex-colonies— operating through their henchmen, local gumashtas (agents). Pakistan is a fit case study of this phenomenon. The country after independence in 1947 was soon subjugated, and many think that the death of Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the starting point.
Except Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—one school of thought even doubts it—every ruler was to take command from the men in uniform who were hired by their foreign masters. The men in uniform started controlling all the organs of State from the very beginning through their lackeys in politics and civil bureaucracy. The role of political elite in the post-independent “security state” of Pakistan has been shamelessly anti-people. Calling themselves “leaders”, they serve the army and their neo-colonialist masters with great zeal. It is a matter of record that a sitting speaker of the National Assembly told a British royalty in his chamber “my ancestors were humble servants of the Majesty and we still are your loyal servants” [see detailed work of Hassan N. Gardezi, Neocolonial Alliances and Crisis of Pakistan] .
In Pakistan, unlike other re-subjugated nations, everybody takes great pride being part of the “invitees’ list” of US and UK embassies in Islamabad. In other places, people will reject such invitations—but in this land of the Pure, even religious parties, claiming to be anti-USA and UK, feel annoyed if not invited by CIA-MI-run missions in Islamabad. Qazi Hussain or Munawar Hassan of Jamaat-i-Islamiare no exception. They tell US visitors: “Please deal withus alone. We alone have leverage to bring Taliban on terms withyou”. Perhaps, they do not know that US created these monsters and still have close liaison with them. The other day, a secret memo of US State Department, published in a leading New York paper, revealed that “no political figure in Pakistan has ever turned down an invitation of US Embassy in Pakistan to attend a private party where alcohol is served. In private they criticize us and in such parties ask for personal favours”.
Daily we watch the media showing meetings of “foreign masters” with our military leadership, president, prime minister, ministers, political leaders, bureaucrats and even with city nazim! Once even the great Chief Justice of Pakistan fell victim to this undesirable ritual. They treat us as a colony [fault is entirely ours and not theirs— beggars cannot be choosers] and we feel proud in taking their prescriptions for every ill, without realizing that most of the problems, are due to this subservience, which can be solved through public debates and political will and in much better ways. This “slavery syndrome” is one of the major reasons for our failure in becoming an independent polity and self-reliant economy.
Those who are commanding us, claiming to be champions of democracy and freedom (sic), have in fact created a chaotic world where might is right. The powerful that matter in the global politics want perpetuation of their control through hand-picked cronies and lackeys in different countries. They back only those who promote cronyism. Those who joined hands with the dictator were exonerated under the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007 [NRO]. This they called “political reconciliation”. Many viewed the NRO, promulgated in the late hours of 5thOctober 2007, just a few hours before the presidential elections (sic), a step towards further promoting and cementing the culture of loot and fraud in the country. They proved right as in the wake of February 18, 2008 elections, the beneficiaries of NRO started fooling the people again in the name of roti, kapra andmakan, while themselves holding wealth of billions of rupees out of the country and crushing the people under Petroleum Levy. They overnight became the defender of the military dictator. But as every crony does, as soon as they got relief from courts they started calling him a relic of the past. Its another thing that he rightly deserved that treatment; it was a perfect tit for tat.
Mian Nawaz Sharif, who earlier joined hands with new Washington-approved “power”, then criticized him for violating the terms of Meesaq-i-Jamhoriat, (Charter of Democracy), has now again started an era of “friendship” (sic) with the same man whom he called the most unreliable after meeting in Raiwind Palace on July 17, 2009. The PML(N) is no different from PPP. Leaders of both the parties hoodwink their sincere workers. Zardari and Nawaz are hungry of power and do not want to share their enormous wealth lying outside Pakistan with the masses. They have forged an anti-people alliance to protect their own vested interests. In Punjab when power was snatched by Zardari, the Sharifs cried like anything and created a lot of hue and cry. Overnight they became “revolutionaries” and started reciting the poems of Habib Jalib. Soon a deal was struck for elimination of all cases against the Sharifs and one by one the courts started obliging the rulers of the day again. This is unfortunate. Our judiciary always play in the hands of the mighty. Everybody knows the track-record of the Sharifs, whenever they capture state power, they also start flouting rule of law by showering unprecedented benefits to their cronies. After all, the Chaudhry brothers got all their loans written off when Nawaz Sharif was Prime Minister.
The main cause of our present day pathetic socio-political and economic situation is existence of slave mentality and the culture of cronyism. The rulers are keen to win the support of Washington rather than serving the people who elected them. Resultantly, we have inefficient, corrupt, repressive and criminal institutions, which do not give a damn for the welfare of the common people. Successive governments’ policies of self-aggrandizement have reduced Pakistan to a State-in-perpetual-conflict. The worsening economic and law and order situation testify to the fact that prosperity and stability cannot be achieved by toeing the policies of the aggressor—getting some bucks for killing own people.
Obviously, if the system is not to sink into greater and greater chaos, corrective actions must be taken before Pakistan finds itself in the unenviable status of a corrupt banana republic (some think we have already achieved this status!). And the starting point is the clear recognition of the role of the State. It should devote its energies to enforcing the laws which protect the public from cheats and racketeers rather than reinforcing the system which encourages them. We need a reliable justice system to clean up the mess. Justice system does not work in isolation. Its establishment requires a bold and clean leadership which restrains the ballooning state and proclaims this unpalatable truth, and sets standards for the rest of the citizenry. And, that is what we lack. Great poet Faiz reminded us aptly:
Nijat-e-deeda o dil ki gharri nahin aayi
Challe challo ke who manzil abhi nahin aayi
So, people of Pakistan, keep on marching as your final destination has yet not arrived. The day the people defeat foreign masters and their cronies, make the leaders accountable and gain full control over the country’s resources, it will be the dawn of the new era of independence in the true sense of the word.
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The writers, tax advisers, are visiting professors at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). They can be reached through their website www.huzaimaikram.com
Tags: corruption, democracy, justice system, Pakistan, slave-mentality, subjugation
