No! Pakistan doesn't need you in 2024
Pakistan
We are in a post-truth country where the PTI chairman is considered immune from law and Constitution
By Raja Arsalan Khan
Another year has come to an end but with the same message: You are a “pure” journalist, a “certified” analyst, a “quality” expert if you support the PTI directly or indirectly, openly or covertly thanks to the control the former party chairman has developed over narrative building – a product of employing the mainstream and social media.
Meanwhile, no other political party can’t afford this luxury. You are a “lifafa” receiving a sealed envelope monthly if you disagree with the PTI or support its rival’s opinion on one single issue.
So you are innocent even when you mastermind and execute the May 9 violence or are involved in matters like the cipher episode and Al-Qadir Trust case. Reason? We are told that the “protesters” were exercising their democratic right – an argument that has grained currency even in the eyes of many established democrats.
This current state of affairs is a natural outcome of the fear created, spread and sustained through unleashing social media team on the critics. Hence, most of us are joining the “political correctness” bandwagon.
Goebbels must be proud of the PTI which is repeating his tactics to a new level – just like any other far-right or fascist personality, be it Trump in the US, Modi’s BJP in India, Erdogan of Turkey or Putin of Russia.
THE THINGS TO DO
Effective propaganda has three basic ingredients or steps.
- SHORT AND SIMPLE
Majority of people lack detailed knowledge of complex economic, social and political issues. It is a universal phenomenon. They are busy in their daily life affairs and neither have time nor energy to engage in such exercises. But obviously they have problems and complaints, enabling the demagogues to cash their feelings.
And the first thing to do is introducing a mighty individual who is immune to all the corrupt influences and deliver everything to your doorstep readily while solving all the problems as if they had never existed. Please don’t forget that every other person is your enemy.
If you have succeeded in creating the required persona, then everything becomes easier.
The best thing about a simple and short message is that it is easy to remember and provides a swift solution to all the multifaceted challenges. Hence, jailing every thief, ending corruption within 90 days, constructing five million homes – so on and so forth.
Meanwhile, it helps to list the possible rivals as traitors, bad guys, corrupt. No challenger, no competition.
So go on with fake news and alternative facts to suppress the truth.
- REPEAT AND CANCEL
The purpose of repeating the short and simple slogan or message is to make people remember them, which creates an echo chamber. It is great strategy with multiple objectives.
Firstly, it helps you identify and point to the critics as enemies who are either the thieves or their associates.
Secondly, the rivals find themselves with a shrinking space for projecting their ideas or case. They are alienated and slowly pushed towards silence, if not already silenced.
Thirdly, it increases the peer pressure. Every individual is now obliged to repeat the same points, present the same arguments, ask the same questions. Even those who still have a different point of view are hesitant to voice their concerns fearing backlash. No one wants any trouble.
But the most important thing is that you have built a cult that is ready to support you if even you shoot someone to death on a street in daylight. The “change”, the “revolution” is coming.
- END OF THE HISTORY
A successful execution of the abovementioned steps means that the people are forced to believe the post-truth arguments. Everyone is docile, everyone is a good obedient citizen. There may be some resentful voices, but aren’t much of an issue.
However, there is a problem. You can’t execute the third and final phase without coming into power – the establishment of a “proletarian state” [with due apology to Lenin and Marx]. Obviously, it is a quasi-proletarian state with an all-powerful leader.
Meanwhile, you have already enjoyed the taste of power while using all sorts of force against your enemies when you were going through the first two steps. But more force is needed to impose and implement your ideals. The best option is the state with all-encompassing authority. So just grab the state.
Therefore, assuming the power by hook or crook and staying in power by hook or crook is the ultimate goal for a demagogue whose followers now start believing religiously that running the state affairs is the sole right of their leader.
THE QUAGMIRE
If you have gone through the above, you can easily feel the urgency on the part of PTI. It must be in power. Otherwise, it can’t survive. In fact, no one can snatch power from their beloved leader – the most honest person on the earth, who has “sacrificed” his life and rejected all the “temptations” for the sake of his people.
Knowing that too well what a state – the ultimate source of power – can do, the PTI must escape accountability because culpability means it will lose all the gains it has made since adopting the “short and simple formula”.
THE REFUGE
The best thing about democracy and democratic principles is that they are universal. So everyone can take shelter these, no matter what your actions you are. No one can deprive you of your legal and constitutional rights even when you murder someone in front of dozens of people.
Hence, the PTI is now the best thing ever happening to democracy and has opted for championing the democratic rights for all and sundry.
THE DEFENDERS
Not a surprise that there are people who want leniency and have a genuine desire to see the great democrat out on the streets – the very crowd who hate the likes of Trump. If the PTI chairman is right, then Trump – living thousands of miles away from your country – shouldn’t be your headache.
There is one simple question: Which democratic state in the world has ever forgiven the May 9 like actions? He should have held accountable much earlier for his activities on the Constitutional Avenue in 2014.
THE RESURRECTION
Like all heroes [comic books included], the great leader is over and above worldly affairs, including truth and justice. He is supreme and must be given a chance for a revival as his cult followers are here – small in numbers but vocal and violent enough to harm others, while giving an impression of majority.
As 2024 is about to unfold, one must understand that Pakistan needs democracy, not the rule by a cult. If Hitler and Mussolini didn’t get another chance, there is no point in giving the PTI founder a new life only to please the champagne democrats. No one is indispensable.
