Deja vu

“In vain, in vain - the all-composing hour resistless falls; the Muse obeys the power” – Dunciad. The Dunciad, Alexander Pope’s epic poem, depicts the literary culture of 18th-century London.

The central character, Dullness, is depicted by hack writers and poets who are lauded and promoted by vain patrons and money-minded publishers. These traits are satirically shown to be in London’s political class too where rule has morphed into misrule. Merit and legitimacy has taken a back seat to the opposite being grotesquely rewarded and patronized.

The poem also portrays a scathing parody of Virgil’s games in the Aeneid. These are performed before the goddess of Dullness in her relentless London power bid. One event has contestants diving into the Fleet Ditch, London’s largest open sewer. The winner is the one who dives deepest and flings the most filth. The tickling contest has contestants tickle and flatter potential investors. No wonder, the winner is the most spineless at the craft.

Democracy is a self-regulating system to run a social order. Here, it could well be Dullness that has kept us hostage to its pitfalls and manipulative whims. Instead of pursuing people-centric agendas, our ruling dispensations have used public offices to evade judicial oversight and to pummel the Constitution for personal gains. Hobbes lamented that men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny. The self-centered agendas of our power elite have compromised the destiny of Pakistan.

All our power stakeholders tout democracy as the constitutional and morally legitimate mode of governance. Starkly akin to a Shakespearean tragedy, our democracy has morphed into anything but one where the welfare of the citizens matters in any way whatsoever. This is because of what, for decades, can be termed as constitutional or state capture.

Holding the state and the people ransom to the private desires of particular interest groups, this capture entails a series of parasitic takeovers. In the first instance, it provides influence and operating ease to cronies in exchange for loyalty.

Having entrenched themselves, this captor group appoints loyalists to key positions. This is followed by defanging oversight and accountability institutions. The judiciary is a target too, as the appointment of judges and their conduct is politicized. The media is forced into submission. Dissent is smothered, investigative and objective journalism is muzzled whereas assent is rewarded by doling out advertisements and other benefits.

Corruption plays hide and seek with state law and regulations. State capture has the captors in authority to make or mar those very laws and regulations. Its entrenchment as an institutionalized malady can spell doom for even the most prosperous of nations.

Institutional frameworks are the bedrock of democracy. State capture entails a shadow government. The constitutional and democratic government is merely political theatre to keep the masses amused and engaged. This smoke and mirror illusion is inherently dangerous as the shadow state’s existence depends on manipulating the rule of law and institutions. The so-called constitutional state is the means to this implosive end.

Duncan Watts, a sociologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, asserts in ‘Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer’ that there is a difference between being uncertain about the future and the future itself being uncertain. The former primarily means a lack of knowledge or information whereas the latter implies that the information is unknowable. Our future has remained perpetually unknowable.

State capture manifests itself in the ubiquitous and consistent regression of each facet of our collective lives and the ever-increasing wealth and personal gains of the captors. Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) saw Pakistan decline 11 places in the global ranking and suffer the biggest regression in the Asian region. It was also downgraded from a hybrid regime to an authoritarian one.

Pakistan’s present score on the democracy and rule of law index is worse than 2006, when the late Pervez Musharraf, a military ruler, was overtly calling the shots. The EIU also pointed out that elections in Pakistan, with opposition forces subject to state repression, would not bring regime change or more democracy.

Pakistan has also seen an alarming spike in terrorist attacks including the latest one at Mir Ali that saw the martyrdom of seven sons of the soil. The year 2023 saw Pakistan facing 490 terrorist attacks resulting in 689 deaths, the highest globally. This alarming spike becomes all the more dangerous when compounded with our economic woes, political instability, apathy to climate change, and governing dispensations whose moral legitimacy is consistently in the crosshairs.

The rehabilitation of a nation after state capture is as complex as it is cumbersome. Once institutions lose their independence, they have to be re-established from scratch. This resurgence is what state captors continuously undermine because their hallowed status and unaccountability stem from compromised institutions.

Which democratic government would dole out its most important ministerial offices to non-political independents? It reminds one of Caligula, the Roman Emperor. He adored Incitatus, one of his horses. It was fed oats mixed with gold flakes, had a bejeweled collar, a marble stall, an ivory manger and a grand house.

Legend has it that Caligula had the steed appointed to the Senate. Aloys Winterling, Chair for Ancient History at Humboldt-University Berlin writes in ‘Caligula: A Biography’ that Incitatus’s appointment as consul was designed to convey who was really in charge. Deja vu!

The writer is a freelance

contributor. He can be reached at: miradnanaziz@gmail.com