Why Progressive Politics is Vital for Pakistan
The India subcontinent was subject to British Imperialist rule for over 200 years. Throughout this time period, numerous rebellions sprung up all over India in response to the historically unmatched exploitation and subjugation of the Indian people. These rebellions were quickly and effectively suppressed and the only politics allowed was that which supported British Rule. Any political movement which opposed British Rule was labelled and denounced as anti colonial state activity. Conspiracy cases were opened against the leading persons, these famously included the Meerut conspiracy case, Kanpur Conspiracy case and Hyderabad Conspiracy case. In Lahore Guru Sukhender and Bhagat Singh united and called for a political and economic revolution; they were both sentenced to death. All efforts were made to suppress peoples politics especially that of leftist anti imperialist parties.
Post independence Pakistan failed to form a constitution for 9 years and its first democratic elections were held almost 20 years after its formation. The constitution when finally completed was based on the Government of India Act 1935 and Independence of India act 1947 with little to no change. Within the first few years conspiracy cases were launched left and right curtailing freedom of speech and enfeebling democracy. Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sajjad Zaheer were arrested in 1951 as an alleged part of a conspiracy to overthrow the Liaquat administration and replace it with a left-wing government, A complete ban was imposed on most of the political bodies which included Democratic Women’s Association led by Tahira Mazhar Ali, the Democratic Students Federation and Pakistan Trade Union Federation led by Mirza Ibrahim.
Ayub Khan finally strangled democracy by imposing martial law and introducing legislation which banned all political parties and opened investigations against 1500 political workers and leaders.
From the get go propaganda was spread among the people that all political parties and in fact politics itself is dirty. The bureaucracy was made to seem like the only institution that could benefit you. People were asked to not politicize issues and to inculcate this in the population signs were hung in cafes and restaurants prohibiting political conversation. Struggles carried out against this in East and West Pakistan succeeded in ending Ayub Khans dictatorship, only to be replaced by a military regime led by Yahya Khan. Though his stint in power was short lived. Pakistan and now Bangladesh witnessed short periods of democracy marred with their own tragedies. In Pakistan this was dismantled in 1977. 11 years of dictatorship followed in which political parties were once again targeted and suppressed. In 1985 non-party elections were carried out. Extensive propaganda was carried out against left wing parties via television, radio and newspaper. Hence an entire culture which demonized politics and advised against it was popularized. This viewpoint served dictators and the civil military elite and who propagated it till it was internalized by the people. Anybody looking to get a problem resolved had to be in the good books of the bureaucracy, to be in their good books you had to be non partisan. A mass scale campaign was carried to depoliticize and in some cases militarize (Balochistan) university campuses, Jamiat was supported and given exclusive monopoly because it supported Zia and other more progressive parties like PSF and NSF were suppressed.
After this political organizing was made very complex and expensive so all politics remained committed to the current system and ruling class. Spaces were monopolized by money and official permissions. This ensured that only people with money could be political and other parties could never grow big enough to matter. This is why in Pakistan all politics (ruling and opposition) remains within a certain class, putting into effect a class dictatorship.
In an undemocratic society violence is used to suppress people but in a sham democracy it is made so expensive and exclusionary that only people with money or state support can participate. The extensive barriers put into place on entry, made democracy ineffective and redundant.
After prolonged state sponsored propaganda people have internalized the view that no issue can be resolved by politicizing it. The question now to be asked is are our issues not political? Is it really so bad to politicize them? And if they are not then exactly which issues are political? Who has the authority to decide that? Is politicizing issues the real problem or are other more sinister motives hiding behind this smoke screen?
Let us start with the issue of education. Is it not political? Are we to suppose that education is purely an academic issue and not a political one? The underlying cause behind this issue is that Pakistani political class is made of feudal’s and capitalists. They ensure a good international education for their own children but the lower classes are deprived. Pakistan’s literacy rate for 2019 was 58% for men and 35% for women yet these figures do not portray an accurate picture because the vast majority that constitutes this number has a substandard education and a degree which is not recognized anywhere in the world. The political elite is not willing to allocate resources on education because it knows that education is one of the primary prerequisites of an effective democracy. Sans education we are left with a public whom Plato critiques in his republic. The political elite resorts to demagoguery and the public is easily swayed by political theater and lofty speeches. Education also allows for social mobility and results in liquefying power elite blocs. It challenges existing class structures by questioning the divinity of the existing order. Hence to protect their political and economic monopoly the elite continue to either provide a substandard thoroughly propagandized education which furthers their own narrative and legitimize their rule, or worse, completely deprive the public of an education. The political elite of Pakistan or anywhere in the third world has absolutely no incentive to consider the reallocation of resources, when tampering with it could significantly alter the current societal order. Being uneducated is stigmatized and viewed as a sign of inferiority and then used to explain or justify existing social inequalities and the backwardness and stagnation of the lower classes. Additionally they are stereotyped and labelled with derogatory terms such as ‘jahil’, then using platonic logic entirely out of context deemed unfit to have a say in politics. All the while perpetuating the system that deprives the masses of a quality education and in turn any social, economic or political progress.
Violent crime itself is a political problem it has been shown that wherever there are effective welfare states in place street crime is very low. Taking Canada as an example which has more per-capita weapons than the United States but still has a significantly lower street crime and gun violence rate. Canada has voted in leftist Social Democratic parties meanwhile historically right wing parties have dominated in the US. The top 5 countries with the most police brutality and violent crime include Syria, Brazil and the United States while the top 5 with the least include countries with strong welfare states in place.
Health is another issue depoliticized to cover up the missallocation of resources by the ruling capitalist class. The elite can always go abroad for health care or to one of the few extortionate private health centers but the rest of the population has to do with unhygienic and unsanitary conditions. This renders invalid, the argument put forward by the capitalist class that there are forms of stupidity that we can not engage in because the market would punish it, what is left out in that argument is that that market eliminates only one form of stupidity and that is inefficient production, the market does not eradicate the stupidity of the misallocation of resources at the macro economic level. Which leads us to the underlying cause of all of the aforementioned problems which is Power imbalance which results in all resources being used by and for a small minority. In a society or world where all resources are owned by a small 1% production will inevitably be geared to cater to their needs and not the needs of the 99%. If your entire market is about 20% of society then your production is geared only for that 20%.
In Pakistan we have seen that people are always out on the streets weather it is doctors, farmers or students all of them stage protests and marches yet no problem ever gets solved because protesting groups refuse to politicize and connect with political parties who would actually put forward the policies to reform the system which has created those problems.
Pakistani citizenry often takes pride in being non-partisan and cringes when asked to state their political views. This mindset is also prevalent among academia. But how can we be nonpartisan in such a partisan society? When the entire political and economic system is set up in such a way that it benefits one class at the cost of excluding all other classes. Is political correctness and non-partisanship not the biggest political crime of our time? Is our postmodernist label avoiding attitude doing more harm than good?
Radical left politics is heavily stigmatized and due to the excessive barriers to entry almost never makes it the forefront. The public having been systematically depoliticized over the course of a century now views all politics as dirty and stereotypes the small parties through its experience of the mainstream parties, meanwhile the political cultures of mainstream right wing parties and left wing parties are vastly different. While right wing parties tend to view their leader as a messiah ‘amir ul momineen’ questioning or doubting who is equated to committing sacrilege. In the left the leader is answerable to the public and is held to a higher standard then the rest. But these parties are always dismissed with a sneer without realizing the harm we are doing to our political future. Let us now take a look at some of the underlying causes which have resulted in the dismal state of affairs we now find ourselves in.
Donor agencies are not legally allowed to donate to political parties and the latter do not appeal to the public for funds anymore (this trend died down in the 90s) this leaves only the feudals and big capitalists to sponsor events and campaigns. Hence all politics eventually becomes the politics of rich people. Revolution can not occur without the support of the people being revolted against. This feeds into the bigger issue of structural corruption one of a vicious cycle of political favors. All electables are either themselves landed aristocrats or big capitalists or rely on their support. Political economy of political parties does not let politics become progressive. Relying on the support of wealthy elites and local influentials, politics itself succumbs to the patronage structures embedded in feudalism.This seemingly benign and harmless practice corrodes the very core/soul of a true democracy. This is not to say that we need a sanitized imported model of progressive politics to work for democracy in our country. Nor is the contention to rule out the possibility of people’s politics given the presence of archaic feudal structures. Rather, a point is being made to provide for certain constitutional oversight that should ensure the participation of common people in politics without the prerequisite of being wealthy.
Pakistan is not ready for alternative politics and it has been systematically ensured that it isnt anytime in the near future. People are not cognizant of how powerful they can be if they unite and link with progressive parties to bring about the reform required to fix current problems instead they keep looking to the same people and system for change which in the first place caused their problems. It can not be expected from a class which benefits from the current exploitative system to make any changes to it. They offer false promises and band aids instead of long term solutions to their economic, social and political problems.
Drawing on our discussion above, it is not surprising, that whether it is military dictatorship or democratic set up, a ruling government or opposition alliance, political leadership is recruited from the same strata of the society. Personnel leading the cabinet may be different but those forming that cabinet are the ones for whom switching loyalties is just a pragmatic response to civil-military imbalance.
Unity is the secret to political struggle whether it is fought at local, national or international level. Struggles for decolonisation up untill the mid 20th century bear the truth of this secret. People united and freed themselves from Imperial occupation. It has now been 70 years since we got freedom from British colonialism but the inspiration for that freedom still needs to be actualized. Patriots like Faiz started off with verses like
‘Roushan kahin bahaar k imkaan huey tou hein
Gulshan meein chaak kuch gareban huey tou hein
Ab bhi khizan ka raaj hai lekin kahin kahin
Goshe rah e chaman men ghazal khwan huey tou hein’
But was then driven to write,
‘Ye daagh daagh ujala ye shab guzida sehar
Wo intezar tha jis ka ye wo sehar tou nahi
Ye woh sehar tou nahi jiski aarzu le kar
Chalay thay yaar k mil jaai gay kahin na kahi’
The third world has gained political freedom from colonial rule but how does it gain independence from economic imperialism? How do we go about dismantling the economic, political and class systems that the British developed during their 200 year long imperialist rule to keep the people of the subcontinent enslaved.
Pakistan’s economy still depends upon its labor force and raw material. This earns some foreign exchange which is spent on oil and arms, when unable to provide enough raw material to earn the required foreign exchange Pakistan is forced to take out loans. Those loans have a lot of coercive power. Pakistan then has to turn to IMF and the World Bank for help who are the modern day instruments of new world imperialism, they impose conditions such as removing subsidies and fixing the financial deficit, which causes inflation which leads to panic among people. They then misdirect their anger and blame the symptoms like ‘vote ko izzat do’ and corruption instead of getting to the root cause of the disease. The root cause of our problem remains structural until and unless that is addressed changing the person at the top will make little difference.
The 200 year old neo-colonial structure ensures that Pakistan’s economy remains subservient to the west. Since Pakistan is not financially independent despite being politically free it can not make politically independent decisions. Neck deep in debt Pakistan is now not allowed the autonomy its founders dreamed of. The west colonized the third world so they could exploit it economically now despite giving political freedom it has us enslaved economically. To financially emancipate itself Pakistan needs to change the entire structure of its political economy and to do that it is imperative that it get rid of the present ruling class which has been lording over Pakistan since it came into being. Looking to them for change is futile for they will never change the setup of which they are the primary beneficiaries.
Pakistan’s problem is its lack of political consciousness which drastically thwarts its ability to resolve any other issue. Pakistan and the third worlds incumbent historical obligation is to pull themselves out of the neo colonial system and replace the archaic structures with modern pro people structures. It needs to emancipate itself financially as well as ideologically from existing divisions. For this we need to struggle politically and to politically struggle we need progressive political parties which have structural change on their agenda. Pakistan needs to establish a progressive welfare state and provide basic security and liberty for all its citizens. A state which does not reserve its rights and liberties for a selected few, which protects the minorities and empowers its women. Where art, culture and science flourish, where each individual can actualize his or her full potential. A state that is for the people not one resting on obsolete ideologies which it must justify at the cost of the welfare and security of its people. The emphasis needs to be shifted from uniformity to unity. Here I will quote Kavita Khory,
Pakistan’s problem is its lack of political consciousness which drastically thwarts its ability to resolve any other issue. Pakistan and the third worlds incumbent historical obligation is to pull themselves out of the neo colonial system and replace the archaic structures with modern pro people structures. It needs to emancipate itself financially as well as ideologically from existing divisions. For this we need to struggle politically and to politically struggle we need progressive political parties which have structural change on their agenda. Pakistan needs to establish a progressive welfare state and provide basic security and liberty for all its citizens. A state which does not reserve its rights and liberties for a selected few, which protects the minorities and empowers its women. Where art, culture and science flourish, where each individual can actualize his or her full potential. A state that is for the people not one resting on obsolete ideologies which it must justify at the cost of the welfare and security of its people. The emphasis needs to be shifted from uniformity to unity. Here I will quote Kavita Khory,
‘Progressive change for social justice and economic equality requires a unifying vision that is genuinely inclusive and transcends the deadly identity politics that have plagued Pakistan for more than a generation.’
As long as the people refuse to become political and reject all alternative politics they will have no choice but to turn to the same tried and tested people for help who have put into place the legislation and systems which have brought about such desolation. To realize the Quaids vision in spirit and to become a true democracy Pakistan requires pro people politics which gives voice to the voiceless and reduces the power imbalance.The only coercive apparatus at the disposal of the progressive left is ‘reason’. It is the duty of citizens to educate each other and become politically aware. Till they do nothing will change and Pakistan will keep sinking further and further into the quicksand of its own creation.
‘Progressive change for social justice and economic equality requires a unifying vision that is genuinely inclusive and transcends the deadly identity politics that have plagued Pakistan for more than a generation.’
As long as the people refuse to become political and reject all alternative politics they will have no choice but to turn to the same tried and tested people for help who have put into place the legislation and systems which have brought about such desolation. To realize the Quaids vision in spirit and to become a true democracy Pakistan requires pro people politics which gives voice to the voiceless and reduces the power imbalance.The only coercive apparatus at the disposal of the progressive left is ‘reason’. It is the duty of citizens to educate each other and become politically aware. Till they do nothing will change and Pakistan will keep sinking further and further into the quicksand of its own creation.
