Sindhyar Talpur March 24, 2008

Tags: Pakistan , politics

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Yet one can't seem to see the unmistaken hope that rises again as rights things are being done and right words are being uttered all around, have we become so pragmatically thick skinned that we keep pinching ourselves over this or does there lie a reason behind all this? And if so, what is it that has made the people who collectively looted us to come back and promise a 'grand' restoration?

Were these not the same people who we couldn't trust because they breached our trust? Why should we now believe them?
It is said that in order to realise one's actual position, one needs to hit rock bottom. If it was nothing else, what the last 8 years manifested were certainly few of the darkest years in our history and I say this with as much impartiality as I can.

There were the years when the then chief executive of the country took us to a war which was certainly waged against us and what's more he did it with no political negotiation but rather for tacit promise of his own survival. It was continued even when it was quickly realized that this was a huge mistake and it will blow over, and since we were practically at the lowest deck we shall be the ones most affected by it.

So came the years of bombs where poor, uncared and misguided youths made to leave their homes on a killing mission. Reason for this was nothing but bad economy, lawlessness, all which proudly makes us a third world country and due to these a feeling of disenchantment emerged in youths who began to hate everyone for everything. Mindless! Yes, but hardly a solution to attack homes and kill more people who just carried 'Taliban sympathy', unless plan was to diminish madness with more madness.

As is the way of occupations, local or foreign, this resentment only grows and it only added fuel to the fire and with time, chaos and death only augmented.

There are two poles, hell bent never to meet and everyone in between made to choose between what they have no empathy, but as time grows and depends on which side you are close to, the sympathy grows, but this was not the way to end this chaos but it surely was and is the best way to increase and proliferate it.

What then needed was governance which avoids the path to destruction and takes a fresh and intrepid approach to defuse the problems that exist, what we got was an incompetent bunch whose greatest achievement was mediocrity of completing its tenure on gun point and confusion at whose side the barrel pointed, them or us. Under this inauspicious puppet over puppet over puppet regime, things got neglected, avoided or allowed to deteriorate, to the extent that a breaking point was achieved.

One can't recall so many incidents that one government has had to go through, that the word 'chaos' became all too common. From achieving zenith of materialistic, moral and power corruption of the High ranking officers, Politicians and Bureaucrats, to destruction and invasions of great institutions, worse state brutality with extrajudicial killings and Media muffling at all costs. We had seen better days and how we yearned for them.

Then, some say out of this frustration, others say out of inspiration and some even say by sheer luck, people became vocal and took to streets claiming enough is enough.

How gloomy the people became that they decided that they will take things into their own hands and the people registered their anger as vocally as they could on ballot and nothing short of a revolution.

It surely does no justice to skim over the past like this in such hurry, but surely these eight years will be studied more minutely and remembered as the years when the people realized and snatched back their right to rule, where the word martial law become from feared to taboo and finally a repulsive insult. Where the guns have surrendered to the strength of the people and the politicians are beginning to realise that people are the source of actual power.

It is human history and Quran's Ayat, that only those aspire to change their destiny, can achieve that goal. So what we see here, believe it or not, is the constant pressure by the people to straighten up that has made once more the mighty to go silent and inevitably move in the shadows.

But what needs to be done exactly at this juncture is to take time, certainly take pride but also build on this triumph. People should realise it was they who have made themselves to an extend masters of their destiny but they need to relish this power and use it more often.

Democracy can prosper, if at lowest level it is allowed to function and with regular elections. People hold the ultimate check on the government and the parliament; they need to understand that they are the actual sovereigns.
If we can achieve this, if as collectively we realise our rights and exercise them, then certainly no one can wrong us and it can be said without any doubt that 160 Million sovereigns are not stupid and can make the best decisions, certainly better than one lonely man.