25 January 2014

State or Political El Dorado



By T H SHAH
Mythology is a fanciful scheme carved to render the meanings to the phenomena around us. It is mostly concerned with those things remain outside the ambit of mental understanding. Ideas about the creation of universe and man, place of god and goddess in it, relation of man to such gods and goddess is the product of mythology. The revelation is mental ultima Thule and divine reward is conditioned with blind, unseen faith. But surprisingly some mythologies have taken the form incarnate within the political scenario. When analysed the unimaginable luxurious life style of the ruling aristocrats in Pakistan, then the state looks transforming into the real El Dorado which have been assumed to exist in legendary fables. El Dorado is a mythical place in the story considered to be the mine of tremendous gold and wealth. For those distressed peoples destined to lead hapless life in the last two decades of social and political milieu, the wish for having such life style will always remain El Dorado.
The ruling elite of Pakistan has set the minimum wage of Rupees 9000 ($84) per month for an ordinary person.  The person with such wage will not only have to pay daily groceries, utility bills and educating his children at time when the price of one kg tomatoes is exceeding three dollars. As per statistics, more than 45 % of the population lives below the poverty line whereas 80 % of population lives in rural area which is deprived even from the very basic life facilities. The peoples, instead of becoming an organised social political group, are like factions showing affinity to particular religious sectarian as well as political parties who has sown the seed of internecine hostility on the basis of provincial and linguistic differences. If the religious demagogues have divided the peoples into sects on the basis of theological differences, the political cliques have not been lagged behind in fragmenting the peoples by branding them the name of Punjabis, Sindhis, Pakhtuns and Balochis restricting the name “Pakistani” to the papers of passport only. By allocating the meagre and modicum sum of financial budget for education, the ruling class has greatly strangulated the political consciousness from cropping up; resultantly; the Haris (Financial slaves of feudal lords) are unable to change their lives and their subsistence counts upon the dictates of their feudal lords. This can be seen from the discovery of the personal prisons and torture cells by the electronic media which have been built by the tyrannical rulers who continue singing sweet songs of democracy, rule of law and justice on the floor of the parliament.
Another effective tool of the denizens of this political El Dorado is to keep the rein of power within the family members. The cursory glance on the political history of Pakistan shows the continuous presence of kith and ken not only on the floor of the parliament but their retention on the fabric of political parties as well. Even the military and civil bureaucracy is not immune from this fester; the dark side of which is that when the military toppled down the civil political set-up, it compromised with those representatives ousted by the military entirely bypassing the peoples at the grassroots levels thus developed the symbiotic nexus between two parasites living on the blood of the poor. Whatever is the nature of the crisis in the country, institutional break-up, price-hike or declining economy, these magnates always remain unaffected.
Irony is the whole structure of the three pillars of the state i.e. legislature, executive and judiciary is built on such constitutional and administrative pattern which is conducive to protecting the interests of these magnates. The legislation is directed towards strengthening the particular designations, personalities and their acquittal from the crimes and corruption. In this El Dorado, the peoples of Pakistan have seen the supreme court of the country vesting the powers in the hands of the military general along with giving him the right to amend the constitution which couldn’t be amended without two-third majority in the parliament. It’s not the new phenomenon in Pakistani politics; it has actually provided the legal protection to the acts of autocratic rulers which can be seen in the case of Chaudhari Tameez-u-Deen, General Zia-ul-Haq and the protection of General Musharraf’s fabricated LFO. Whatever the nature of the constitution might have been under any political set-up, the peoples at grassroots level never reap the reward.
In Pakistan, politics is a game played for trade and trade is a profession for political control. The criterion of good politics is that how much money the government invests to better the public services and welfare, while in business the main motive is always the pursuit of profit. This is what going on under the regimen of the incumbent political elite who can truly be called the political dodder on the state.

(Writer is associated with Press For Peace (PFP) and can be access at:   shah@pressforpeace.org.uk )



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