Victims of the bogeyman

[Maroof Hussain Chishty]

Victims of the bogeyman

Raana Shah
Thursday, January 19, 2012



So the inevitable brick wall, our government train was heading towards at breakneck speed, has finally been reached. Now all that has to be ascertained is the extent of the damage. It is the damage to the system that is worrying many Pakistanis rather than damage to this particular governance team. Precedents are being set due to intransigence on the part of some that will be difficult for future set-ups in this country and the mistrust between institutions that the events of the past few months have seen being created have the chance of becoming set in stone. We are being shown the victims of ‘judicial adventurism’ and ‘military bloody mindedness’. But do these victims truly exist?

Victims by definition are those that suffer injurious actions or deceptions by other individuals or agencies, and human psychology being what it is rightly makes most people empathise with and support victims over their aggressors. But what happens when the victim is actually the aggressor, and the projection of victimisation is a clear-cut plan to garner public support and escape the consequences for past actions?

Playing the victim is usually done for a whole host of reasons but in our context let’s concentrate on the two main advantages that aggressors get from playing the victim, namely garnering sympathy from society and escaping punishment for aggressions committed against society.

In Pakistan many politicians and political parties with some justification, have claimed to be the victims of various other politicians, political parties, security agencies, the armed forces and the justice system. It is perhaps a reflection of the power held by non-democratic forces in the country that has led to various abuses of power and aggressions against democratic forces. But today’s claims of victimisation ring hollow for many reasons. That the political party currently claiming victim status has been victimised in the past by other political forces and the establishment is a fact. That as a result of past history and tragic events they have also been given enormous and unprecedented leeway during their current stint in government is also a given.

In no other era and with no other democratic government has so much patience been displayed by other organs of state and society itself in the face of farcical, dishonest governance and standoffs with the internal and external security forces, the judiciary, the media and indeed with any organisation or individual charged with providing a check on rampant misuse of power.

Many of the above allegations against the government have not only been highlighted for years now by a vibrant media but through award winning investigative journalism have been substantively and exhaustively proven time and again with authenticated documentation, bank account details, witness statements, etc – yet not a thing has changed.

The courts of the land in their turn, have repeatedly given judgments against the misuse of government power, against the executives flouting rules, regulations and the constitution of the country in a vain attempt to correct open wrongs, but judgments have to be executed in order to be effective and they have not been. So inaction and obstinacy have pushed events to the brink of disaster. And the danger as I have earlier stated, is not in the fall or accountability of a particular set of leaders, but rather is in the disturbing precedents that the court is being pushed into setting.

Self-protection is leading this government onto a path that is deeply damaging both to the clear delineation of powers between organs of state and to future democratic governments that will have to operate keeping in mind the somewhat heavy-handed oversight of the courts. The Court stands today as the only bulwark against the federation’s abuse of power, as self-correction is not a possibility for this ruling alliance. But what happens if future democratic set-ups have and choose to utilise the principle of self-correction in the interests of the people? Will today’s precedents handcuff these governments? Many people in the opposition, civil society and the media have decried the federation’s claims of victimhood precisely because they can see the long-term damage that this full-bore leap is doing to the system.

So why in the face of overwhelming disbelief is the PPP playing victim? In many ways this performance is to remove the perception of responsibility for the state of the economy, for the condition of state organisations, for the excesses and stupidities of ministers and party leaders and dissipate the outrage that has galvanised many citizens. Not only is this an attempt to escape moral judgment it is also an attempt to escape the legal consequences of their actions as all accusations and judgments can be deflected by the shield of victimhood and bias. That the perception of responsibility for their actions and inactions over the last four years is quite possible also catastrophic for re-election purposes is another facet to this new claim.

But a stumbling block for the party lies in the fact that this latest stint in government occurred at a time of great sympathy for them and as the last few years have shown, there really was no break or check on their behaviour, methodologies or choices as they ran the country’s affairs. So how to put on the mantle of victim and who was to be villain of the piece? Thus the powwow happened and suddenly we were inundated with bizarre and inexplicable statements issued by the prime minister and his top ministers regarding ‘a state within a state’, regarding the conduct and actions of the top military and security chiefs, regarding the alleged prejudices and biases of superior court judges, regarding the strong fight they were single-handedly fighting to protect the rights of the citizens of Pakistan.

Most of us couldn’t understand the sudden fusillade of aggressive, semi-hysterical and daily escalating statements we were suddenly hearing until the penny dropped and certain court decisions started being read out.

So the government in its quest for victimhood created a chimerathe government in its quest for victimhood created a chimera – a bogeyman made of smoke and mirrors that it can be seen as fighting againsta bogeyman made of smoke and mirrors that it can be seen as fighting against. Because no victim can exist in politics without an appropriate aggressor and in our case, our government has chosen to drag both the other organs of state into its mess. Once properly stamped with the label of victim, our leaders can then look forward to the support, empathy and sympathy – a natural consequence of the human distaste for injustice in any form. The victimhood event, in this case the Superior Court judgment regarding the NRO and the subsequent decision to pursue contempt charges against the PM, is to be projected with much hue and cry as a watershed event, and the garnered sympathy will mask our leaders when they quietly shuck the responsibility of four years worth of corruption and mismanagement from their shoulders.

Re-election is a tough gig when voters are setting themselves on fire in despair at their lack of a viable future in front of parliament, when children are being sold by parents desperate to feed their remaining family members, when electricity and gas are tantalising mirages, when corruption is legend and treason’s siren call is getting louder. What does one do except get the spin doctors in to change the dialogue and create new perceptions. Thus the bogeyman of smoke and mirrors is born and our leaders charge towards him with swords held aloft, ready to fight the good fight for the citizens of Pakistan.