Contrived outrage

The manner in which Pakistan's military and political elite manipulate the emotions of Pakistanis may differ, but the news cycle in the Islamic Republic is about only one thing. It is about sustaining the manipulation of the emotions and identities of Pakistanis. The latest version of the topi drama, is the various volumes and tones being used to protest the sentencing of daughter of the nation, the izzat-e-awaam, rani-e-Pakistan, gulistan-e-Islam, the venerable Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
The secular and progressive PPP, from the prime minister to the interior minister and a range of enlightened moderates in between, sounds like a jilted jirga - something many of the rank-and-file PPP-wallahs have extensive experience with. The secular and progressive MQM claims it would have broken off diplomatic relations with the US -- prompting a very nervous lame-duck Ambassador Ann Paterson, who was conned into the faux theology of Pakistan's "secular and progressive" political parties -- to dash to Nine Zero for damage control. The PML-N, still confused about its identity beyond the fact that the House of Sharif is in charge, waffles. The Jamaat-e-Islami, whose only lifeline to the newspaper are these kinds of meaningless stories, once again, is given a chance to burn a few tires and sing (out of tune) a few, graceless songs about American evil.
These dramatics are almost entirely contrived. Nothing of the outrage about Aafia Siddiqui's sentence can be described as much more than political posturing. Of course, as Fasi Zaka quite rightly posits in a recent piece about the "Aafia Mafia", this does not in any way release from liability, the prosecutors of America's war in Afghanistan (and, let's start to acknowledge the real theatre now, of this war, in Pakistan). The kind of extravagant luxuries taken by the Americans with their own law and with international realities for the duration of the Aafia Siddiqui case has been scandalous. America didn't need to go this route to make its citizens safer. That it did so, speaks to the enduring stupidity that the post 9/11, George W Bush era injected into foreign policy and national-security thinking in the US.
The key question that Pakistanis need to ask however is whether a national debate that has lasted not for weeks, or months, but now YEARS, about what the government should do to bring back Aafia, makes any sense. If you are an adult, with any kind of an education, a functioning mind and some measure of the fear of God in you, can there possibly be any answer but the obvious no? Of all the things Pakistan needs to be doing right now, of all the things we should be talking about to hold this government to account for its actions, should we really spend this much time and effort discussing the rights of, a possibly innocent and possibly not, individual person?
The only possible explanation for getting this worked up about Aafia Siddiqui is if we've consumed our lessons about Bin Qasim with such effervescent zeal, that we can't possibly fathom not all trying to be mini-Bin Qasims ourselves. For once, it seems our skewed reading of South Asian history does have serious consequences.
Why do we allow our national discourse to be dominated by an individual's 86-year jail sentence when we've hosted another kind of 63-year sentence for a population that now possibly exceeds 180 million?
Increasingly, it is clear that we are not necessarily obsessed with Aafia Siddiqui, or cricket scandals, or public lynchings -- but rather that we are obsessed with sustaining irrationality and emotion in our national discourse. The national appetite for gossip and rumour is not a reflection of the actual dynamics between the country's key institutions. Rather, it illustrates how badly choked an organic cultural genesis in this country has been, and continues to be today. Politics, public policy and governance are serious things. They determine how safely you can sleep at night, how comfortably your children can play on the street, how important the health of your pregnant wife, your newborn child, or your middle-aged husband are. Politics is why the tap water is either drinkable, or might kill you. It is the difference between a madressa where you can send your child, or one on the news after the latest bombing. Politics is the difference between a cricket team that regularly wins and loses, and one that is constantly the butt of jokes, and the topic of controversy.
Instead of treating politics, and the public policy that our politics produces, with any degree of seriousness, our largely irrational and emotional national mode of conversation has produced a narrative in which politics is our sports, our entertainment and our leisure all wrapped in one. Politics is Pakistan's Major League Baseball, Pakistan's Bollywood, and Pakistan's stamp-collecting, chess-playing, and new language-learning.
Our interaction with politics, with public policy and with governance thus has been reduced to taking in the latest dramatic performance on the nightly talk shows. If Aafia is not getting sentenced, then some clown is getting caught with a fake degree. We're titillated by inanity and buffoonery, and we love it. Worse, we think watching these shows is somehow a proxy for political engagement. Will Firdous Ashiq Awan unleash a tirade this evening? Did Wasi Zafar slap anybody today? Is the chief justice going to find the petty thief that stole an old lady's purse today? Will the suo moto on that be at the Supreme Court, or will our investigative sleuths do the leg-work on this one? On and on it goes.
The average Pakistani today, is wearing a big neon sign that says: Titillate me, please. You can't read the footnote, but I can bet it says, "Because I am gullible and easily entertained."
Our national obsession with being titillated by the shenanigans of our politicians does not come for free. While we bask in the inglorious gamma rays of corrupt politicians, generals, judges and bureaucrats, whatever governance exists, though it was never equitable or egalitarian, is coming apart at the seams. This country's institutions are begging for dramatic reform -- while we watch grown men shout inanities at each other.
National life in Pakistan is governed by four inter-woven institutions. Together they are more important to Pakistanis and to Pakistan -- individually and collectively -- than any of the drama on the nightly talk shows. Pakistanis need to start paying attention to these four institutions: the civil service, local governments, public financial management, and the federal government. They will make all the difference between a bright future for this country, or no future at all. Fixing them will ensure that all daughters of Pakistan are treated like we would treat our own, instead of the faux love this country heaps upon just one.
If you don't understand the links between effectively protecting Aafia Siddiqui's rights as a Pakistani citizen, and the omnibus of reforms required to fix the civil service, produce effective local governments, ensure good public financial management and, a lean federal government -- then you're watching too much TV. Turn it off.

The writer advises governments, donors and NGOs on public policy.