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source: http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html (go to opinions section)
Banana song
Masood Hasan
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and a well-known journalist
masood_news@hotmail.com
So as another year dies on us, where are we? That is a question we are used to, asking it almost every day throughout the year. Not for us the end of the year introspection, not for us the balancing of the scales, the calculations of where we went wrong or if we ever did the right thing, said the right thing, took the right stand or did none of these. Neither do we pause and reflect or reflect and pause, content to live out our lives by the hour or at the most by the day. This Pakistanis do almost as second nature because for the last fifty years and more, there is one thing they have learnt -- nothing is certain and nothing ever will be. There is only one rule and that is, there is no rule. QED.
It is dismal to end the year on a dirge because the last week of the outgoing year marks the birth anniversary of three men -- Jesus Christ, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Nawaz Sharif. Of Christ, he represents the downtrodden. And in this land of ours we know what treatment is meted out to the poor and the minorities. So the less said the better. For the other two, what can one say but the sandwiching of two Pakistani leaders with a common birthday represents the extent of the plight we are in. Maybe solar systems might just about do or far flung galaxies but for those of us, transfixed on the ground, not blessed with the vision of the heavens above, the answer to the riddle of our mournful existence lies in this otherwise irrelevant observation. Jinnah and Sharif and fifty years between them, is the story of where the dream that was Pakistan, sank. It sank faster than a very heavy cement block in a very deep ocean. As we pay lip service homage to Mr Jinnah and all the ideals he fought for, we are not at all ashamed that we have let each one die. It has been a superb collective effort and thousands of Pakistanis have worked tirelessly to wreck the dream. Instead of the great nation that Mr Jinnah died for, we have a confused and angry collection of deprived people who are at war with one another, pushing and shoving for more room on a slippery ladder with far too many snakes. But this is all second rate philosophy and the mournful noise is all too familiar.
So what should we do? Live it out by the day and wait for things to get better? Haven't we been doing that? Mr Jinnah wanted a welfare state. Well we do have a welfare state except that this is the welfare of a very few at the cost of everybody else. Whatever the country makes, and it is not much given our many other problems, the bulk has always gone to feed the establishment so that it can continue to feed on us. While we are more or less drained of any blood that we might have had at one time, the feeding has gone on without respite. Those who wear starched uniforms and defend the country have taken a heavy toll of their own people, to carry out their glorified mission. To feed, clothe and keep fit this huge and growing apparatus of war has been possible at a great price. The sacrifice of the faceless has been reflected in the growing prosperity of the warriors. The country's croaking infrastructure and slide towards desperate poverty and collapse of all the half eroded systems is a fitting obituary. When things are so imbalanced as they are here, how can dreams come true? What chance can there be for a moderately welfare state to come into existence in such dire circumstances? None. The cynics proclaim that we should thank our lucky stars we have whatever infrastructure we have. There are roads, there is electricity, there are airports, telephones work, post gets delivered and there are schools and hospitals. Half of these things might easily have gone missing had the establishment taken some more, so count your blessings. Mr Jinnah's dream is largely irrelevant now because half a dozen constitutions later, we are still not satisfied. New entrants who grabs the ludicrously unsteady power throne initiate a long series of changes that will keep them in power for a relatively reasonable time, build a protective exit scenario for them and a safety net that will hold the loot. Once these are secured, then the merciless plunder of a plundered country begins anew. While Mr Jinnah saw things in the light of rule of law, democratic principles and value systems such as honesty, decency and commitment, such arcane notions since he passed on, have bothered no one.
Financially stricken, we still bleat about our independent foreign policy, ignoring quite pointedly that you cannot have one without the other. Today, having become pawns in the great game, 'You are with us or you are not,' we have allowed the FBIs and CIAs to run riot over our country. It is utterly futile to protest about this because we are not in a position to take on any one. So if Dell computers photograph us and our data is stored again and again at every point of departure, our passports constantly under suspicion and some of our most eminent people treated like common thieves at airports abroad, this is the price you pay when your heart's not in the right place. No one has quite understood that when you are squatting on the street with a begging bowl in hand, you cannot at the same time tell the world to take a hike. Our new leadership -- the new faces that the General promised us are here. All they seem to have done so far is squabble, poach, denigrate and above everything else, jockey for power and position. In a desperate struggle to hang on and make a killing before the curtain is pulled down, right has very quickly become wrong, black white and might, once more, right. Those who were in jail yesterday are taking solemn oaths today. Those who owed billions to banks and financial institutions are now their masters. Such is the extent of the parody, that what was evil yesterday has been whitewashed and sanitised for public consumption today. It's all part of the deadly power game that has been the only national sport that we have excelled in. It has scarcely mattered whether we were left, right or left-right -- the hunting season has been there all the time. Mr Jamali is a big man, but it is unlikely that he can hold the disintegrating bulk for long. Under the circumstances, he has done the right thing, going up to the old man's mausoleum and paying solemn homage but then we were always so wonderfully gifted at enacting the rituals.
2002 is dead of various ailments and 2003 is going to need a miracle to putter into life. As for the rank and file, the General's favourite faceless, nameless majority which has been silent for so long, well be prepared to accept that they are so silent because they are all dead. Long live the republic and long live the bananas
source: http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html (go to opinions section)
Banana song
Masood Hasan
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and a well-known journalist
masood_news@hotmail.com
So as another year dies on us, where are we? That is a question we are used to, asking it almost every day throughout the year. Not for us the end of the year introspection, not for us the balancing of the scales, the calculations of where we went wrong or if we ever did the right thing, said the right thing, took the right stand or did none of these. Neither do we pause and reflect or reflect and pause, content to live out our lives by the hour or at the most by the day. This Pakistanis do almost as second nature because for the last fifty years and more, there is one thing they have learnt -- nothing is certain and nothing ever will be. There is only one rule and that is, there is no rule. QED.
It is dismal to end the year on a dirge because the last week of the outgoing year marks the birth anniversary of three men -- Jesus Christ, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Nawaz Sharif. Of Christ, he represents the downtrodden. And in this land of ours we know what treatment is meted out to the poor and the minorities. So the less said the better. For the other two, what can one say but the sandwiching of two Pakistani leaders with a common birthday represents the extent of the plight we are in. Maybe solar systems might just about do or far flung galaxies but for those of us, transfixed on the ground, not blessed with the vision of the heavens above, the answer to the riddle of our mournful existence lies in this otherwise irrelevant observation. Jinnah and Sharif and fifty years between them, is the story of where the dream that was Pakistan, sank. It sank faster than a very heavy cement block in a very deep ocean. As we pay lip service homage to Mr Jinnah and all the ideals he fought for, we are not at all ashamed that we have let each one die. It has been a superb collective effort and thousands of Pakistanis have worked tirelessly to wreck the dream. Instead of the great nation that Mr Jinnah died for, we have a confused and angry collection of deprived people who are at war with one another, pushing and shoving for more room on a slippery ladder with far too many snakes. But this is all second rate philosophy and the mournful noise is all too familiar.
So what should we do? Live it out by the day and wait for things to get better? Haven't we been doing that? Mr Jinnah wanted a welfare state. Well we do have a welfare state except that this is the welfare of a very few at the cost of everybody else. Whatever the country makes, and it is not much given our many other problems, the bulk has always gone to feed the establishment so that it can continue to feed on us. While we are more or less drained of any blood that we might have had at one time, the feeding has gone on without respite. Those who wear starched uniforms and defend the country have taken a heavy toll of their own people, to carry out their glorified mission. To feed, clothe and keep fit this huge and growing apparatus of war has been possible at a great price. The sacrifice of the faceless has been reflected in the growing prosperity of the warriors. The country's croaking infrastructure and slide towards desperate poverty and collapse of all the half eroded systems is a fitting obituary. When things are so imbalanced as they are here, how can dreams come true? What chance can there be for a moderately welfare state to come into existence in such dire circumstances? None. The cynics proclaim that we should thank our lucky stars we have whatever infrastructure we have. There are roads, there is electricity, there are airports, telephones work, post gets delivered and there are schools and hospitals. Half of these things might easily have gone missing had the establishment taken some more, so count your blessings. Mr Jinnah's dream is largely irrelevant now because half a dozen constitutions later, we are still not satisfied. New entrants who grabs the ludicrously unsteady power throne initiate a long series of changes that will keep them in power for a relatively reasonable time, build a protective exit scenario for them and a safety net that will hold the loot. Once these are secured, then the merciless plunder of a plundered country begins anew. While Mr Jinnah saw things in the light of rule of law, democratic principles and value systems such as honesty, decency and commitment, such arcane notions since he passed on, have bothered no one.
Financially stricken, we still bleat about our independent foreign policy, ignoring quite pointedly that you cannot have one without the other. Today, having become pawns in the great game, 'You are with us or you are not,' we have allowed the FBIs and CIAs to run riot over our country. It is utterly futile to protest about this because we are not in a position to take on any one. So if Dell computers photograph us and our data is stored again and again at every point of departure, our passports constantly under suspicion and some of our most eminent people treated like common thieves at airports abroad, this is the price you pay when your heart's not in the right place. No one has quite understood that when you are squatting on the street with a begging bowl in hand, you cannot at the same time tell the world to take a hike. Our new leadership -- the new faces that the General promised us are here. All they seem to have done so far is squabble, poach, denigrate and above everything else, jockey for power and position. In a desperate struggle to hang on and make a killing before the curtain is pulled down, right has very quickly become wrong, black white and might, once more, right. Those who were in jail yesterday are taking solemn oaths today. Those who owed billions to banks and financial institutions are now their masters. Such is the extent of the parody, that what was evil yesterday has been whitewashed and sanitised for public consumption today. It's all part of the deadly power game that has been the only national sport that we have excelled in. It has scarcely mattered whether we were left, right or left-right -- the hunting season has been there all the time. Mr Jamali is a big man, but it is unlikely that he can hold the disintegrating bulk for long. Under the circumstances, he has done the right thing, going up to the old man's mausoleum and paying solemn homage but then we were always so wonderfully gifted at enacting the rituals.
2002 is dead of various ailments and 2003 is going to need a miracle to putter into life. As for the rank and file, the General's favourite faceless, nameless majority which has been silent for so long, well be prepared to accept that they are so silent because they are all dead. Long live the republic and long live the bananas