Thursday, January 10, 2013

Will Pakistan follow the Tahrir Square discourse?

Pakistan is passing through a Nazuk Dour for more than 65 years. There is a chain of change in Middle East and Arab countries. Some people hope that Pakistan will follow the "Tahrir Square" discourse. I wish their hope may come true. But...

In my opinion situation is different in Pakistan. As a student of Sociology and a Pakistani, I observe that:

1. We are still not a nation. Some external threats or natural disasters unite us for the time being and when it passes, we return back to our own derh eint ki masjid.



2. Pakistanis do not have that spark in their hearts and mind that works as ignition for revolutions. I am talking about the poor, helpless masses not about a few percents who are educated (apna naam likh parh leny wala is not literate/educated at all, it is another topic that may take many pages). They (masses) have been kept busy very well in poverty, hunger and other everyday problems for such a long period that they have accepted it as their fate.

I remember my childhood days, government increased price of kerosene oil a few paisa. Their was so much protest on masses' level that government had to withdraw this increase. Now, everyday prices of petroleum products increase and people just accept it. Prices of very essentials (Ataa, Ghee, Cheeni, Chawal, Doodh) are touching sky, but what people do, they don't protest, they accept and decrease the use of unaffordable items. Earlier my mom used to cook atleast one Kg meat, now she cooks three quarters of a kilo. Yeh Monh or Masoor ki Dal is now a reality.

This is the behavior of masses. They see how all journalists and anchor persons on television are protesting against rulers' corruptions and presenting their problems. They observe that government does not listen to them, and they perceive if government does not listen to these people who have some power, it will not pay attention to their own voices, so this is their fate and they have to adjust themselves with this fate. This fatalism is very fatal for those who wish and hope for change.

3. Ek bhokay sakhs se aap hub-al-watani or qoumi Mufaad ki tawaqa nahi kar sakty. If I have children to feed them, do you expect I will go to "Tahrir Square" or to search some work to earn some for them. The rulers from the beginning know this fact, therefore, they keep the "nation" busy all the time.

4. whatever steam we have as a whole, we keep wasting it through ethnic and religious feuds. Rahi sahi kasar Zulfuqar Mirza or Bhai logon ky munazray poori kar dety hien, "when my party wins the debate, mery dill ky arman to poory ho jaty hein", phir kesi bhaap or kahan ki phab.

The good luck with Libya, Egypt and Yeman is that these nations are not divided on ethnic or religious bases. Most of these countries are homogeneous in terms of language. Language has more cohesive power than religion.

and I wish the same as they do, but I do not expect that ...