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| The road you take, may define, your fate, but you may have to chose one, first. |
Before I start, I must state that I am not superior or inferior, to any fellow citizen of this country.
Venturing into the rural Pakistan, is a great opportunity for the investors of knowledge.
As children, we did not grasp that our parents were the biggest investors in our education, but the education, was our own to own!
We are a nation that is leaderless, and filled with people pleasers. People want money, that’s the only shared goal, some more, some less, each to their own imagination. There are lies everywhere, a sad state of affairs. Why any of these goals important and the middle class has burden itself with them, it needs a commission to investigate.
WE WANT TO GAIN, WHAT WE CAN SHOW-OFF!
The fallacy of merit, is useless. The trajectory of success is simply relative to what you define, and held on perseverance and consistency. We have stopped reading and started watching reels.
This country need inclusivity for the powerful and the powerless. A note-reading Vice Chancellor and a different dialect Pashtun, both need space, from the mass expectations. When we talk of intellectuality among the urban classes, we forget the intellectual default of our ‘lesser mortals’ in rural Pakistan.
Yet, if you can sell your coke to them over lassi, you can spend on marketing intellect to them, too. We need this domestic conversation.
I am privileged with British education but I cannot talk nonsense of a single education system, in hands of the current status quo. We cannot put a curtain on the cancer of brain drain in Pakistan. It is an outcome of a problem, not a blessing-in-disguise-solution, as it is deemed and redeemed in power circles. The indifferent government running regulations is only acting out as welfare state for the rich at this point.
The insecurities of the middle class has borne the culture of negative vibes and jealousy. The individuals are not empowered but act as mere reflections of others’ opinions. The newer generations are burdened by unreal expectations, with no space. There is a rise in tendency to have political opinion which is usually a popular opinion with different wordings but let’s be fair, this piece too is part in parcel to this.
Truth is that people at the top don’t want our opinion, they want to remain unchallenged. For God’s sake the important agreements of our country in reference to development are not public. It’s not a secret that the recent policies in the country are made by foreign donors/loan lenders and consultants. The nation is a tool to sustainable lifestyles of, for, the couple of million people.
When Alice asked the Cheshire cat, ‘which road should I take?’, and Alice didn’t know where she is going, the cat replied, ‘Then it does not matter which road you take!’
Democracy with elections, is important. But what we need in this journey of Pakistan, is to find a direction.
To start with, we have to take to the alternative, the grass roots. From Karachi to Khyber, the major data sets and information, along with the truth & reconciliation of a 75+ years state’s past, should be shared with these ‘lesser mortals’, generate an organic opinion and discourse in these town hall and fields. Irrespective of their capacity to listen or add in the prospective national domestic debate. No matter what the outcome is, priority is to share the responsibilities and change roles. Most of all, record each opinion and discourse, and make it public, in true sense.
Parliament has not channelized its resources. Take the academics, judges, lawyers, healthcare professionals, business persons, bureaucrats, civil society and intellectuals, to them, to channelize their thought process till outcome and let it be known.
No tehsil should be left out on a whim. Social media, is not the tool for this. It’s rather like waiting for the grass to grow, No opinion or discourse should supersede another.
Then let the elections follow. Repeat if needed. It’s a prescription.
This would be a start of the new beginning, to find our direction, as a nation.
