Adrift

In a matter of days, Moktada Al-Sadr, a hitherto little-known young Iraqi Shia cleric, has become a household name around the world. What’s the secret to his quick rise to prominence? He is following the well-traveled path of death and destruction. I must make myself very clear here; like other neutral observers all over the world, I, too, support the goal espoused by Al-Sadr: an end to the US occupation of Iraq. Difference being I am with those who want this to come about peacefully not through violence. Al-Sadr doesn’t believe in diplomacy. He wants to use force--and there are people readily available to sacrifice their lives for his cause.

Why are many Iraqis supporting Al-Sadr? That question is not hard to answer. Al-Sadr has a popular support because he is promising Iraqis a quick solution. Who cares if the promised guerdon is at the end of a path that is sprinkled with blood!

The question I have for Al-Sadr, how will the departure of American troops suddenly transform Iraq into a peaceful prosperous land? What form of government does he favor--and how does he recommend bringing that government into existence? Right now his followers are not interested in those details; they are just saying "Labbaik" to him. They want to kill and are willing to be killed.

The path of violence seems to be the easiest path to follow. And that path is sensationally colorful--mutilated and charred bodies being important milestones. Only if countries could grow stronger and prosperous on murder and mayhem!

And this impatience, leaning towards violence, to see a turnaround is ubiquitous in situations where people are desperate for a change. I have a good friend who used to be a popular student leader in his college days. T now works for a large corporation and has two children that are growing up very fast. The other day I was talking to him on the phone when our conversation drifted from cricket to politics. "Line up all the mullas and the corrupt politicians and just shoot them," he presented his cure for all evils that beset Pakistan. I thought he was being facetious in his anxiety. He wasn’t. He was dead serious. Mass killings were his solution to the problems of our country.

It wasn’t the first time I had heard the firing squad solution from a fellow Pakistani. And my belief is that our radicalism in this aspect stems from a disillusionment coupled with a complete void in the department of leadership. We want safe and clean neighborhoods; we want to be part of a fair system where no one is above the law; and we want to be democratically governed so that we can be involved in all the decisions made about us. But how should we reach that goal? We don’t know. Every now and then a new leader comes up and makes us believe that throwing stones, burning property, and killing people will take us to our utopia. We know it does not.

There will be a day when we will find a leader who unlike others won’t vow to change things unless this leader has the whole country under his/her control. That leader would start implementing their program from one small neighborhood--showing us how one locality can be made safe, clean, organized, civil, and democratic. That leader would build their reputation of good governance from small things.

I will be the first person to work with that leader, for them to take over the whole country.