Molehills & Mountains

APRIL 2002 - I suppose the best advice to give anyone these days, is no advice since people invariably will do exactly as they want to, but given our undisputed talent for making mountains where even molehills don’t exist, the latest government-journalists stand off has to be a hit from the theatre of the absurd. Now that the dust is settling down – and in Pakistan, the dust eventually pervades, one does wonder what was all the fuss about?

Inaccurate reporting is nothing new and newspapers are not religious edicts that are unquestionably true and cannot be challenged. Also, every government’s definition of ‘positive’ reporting versus ‘negative’ reporting has been the same. The former basically means say all the good things and don’t even think of mentioning the bad ones and the latter implies very clearly that your antecedents and your motives are tainted. Take a newspaper alcoholic like yours truly. Being a glutton for punishment, I devour about four newspapers along with a toast and a cup of tea – and I mean devour. On more obsessive days, one has even skimmed the tender notices but by and large, one reads while most newspaper readers, skim from one item to another, and quite often, miss things altogether. Most people read – or skim just about one newspaper and the President’s favourite Silent Majority – the English speaking variety, constitutes (bad word these days) not more than a 100,000 readers in a nation of 140 million. Not exactly a staggering percentage, is it? So if and when, there is a report that is not exactly in favour of the government, a disaster has not struck the country and neither is every man, woman and child out on the streets determined to burn everything down. Most people don’t even believe what all they read and who can blame them considering that the most banal things get published daily in the newspapers, so it is hard to understand what sent the Governor of the Punjab into a triple back somersault at Faisalabad in a stadium known for boring and dull test matches.

Human nature being what it is, perverse that is, those who get written about believe they have been struck with lightning. When a two inch news report mentions something unfavourable, the skies cave in. The propensity to believe that every single individual who matters in the realm is now feeding on this devilish piece of ‘disinformation’ is an infection that every government seems to carry in its genes. The truth is, most people miss the news. In the case of the ‘misreporting’ of the President’s Lahore rally that irked the Governor so much, it was a very large storm in a very small cup of tea. Having read it and ignored it – or as is the civilized form, denied it or clarified it, the matter should have tossed into the nearest dustbin and one rightly assumes that there is no shortage of dustbins in Pakistan. However what ensued created a larger storm than the initial report and that is the deep irony, lost unfortunately on those who wield power these days.

In another spring 16 years to the day almost, the princess Bhutto, not tainted and soiled then, rode into the same city of Lahore and sent Zia ul Haq’s strongly-entrenched government into a panic tailspin. As hundreds of thousands thronged the streets, packed like very tight sardines and the great crowds surged and swelled at Mochi Gate, plainclothes men (who are so obvious that they might as well wear Santa Claus outfits to escape attention), walkie-talkied to their nervous superiors and termed the turnout as a ‘big failure.’ One spook saw the sea of people milling at the meeting and calmly reported that in his estimate just a few thousand were present. The anxious chain of command conveyed the good news to Islamabad and everyone relaxed. PTV, which thank God remains unchanged to this day, never even reported it. As far as they were concerned, Ms Bhutto had not even arrived in Pakistan, so all was well with the world. Misreporting or no reporting didn’t alter the course of our history, unfortunate in this case and things happened as they were ordained to. Ms Bhutto made a royal mess of her chances and is now consigned like a derelict satellite to wobble across the world and deliver well-paying but boring lectures to selected audiences. Contrary to what the Governor thought, the thin attendance story was not read on the planet Mars and no cosmic upheaval is likely.

However, the Presidential campaign couldn’t have kicked off in worse style. Because all administrations have a heavy hand and because all goon squads carry stave-wielding ruffians eager to go the extra mile to gain attention and favour of their immediate superior who is likewise engaged in the same trade and so on up the slimy grease pole, the most benign of orders will get translated into violent knee jerk reactions at lower levels. The charge of the light brigade, armed not with conviction but lathis, on the 20 odd journalists leaving the Faisalabad stadium, was triggered off simply because orders were so issued. Unless of course the posse stationed outside the noisy stadium, bereft of walkie talkies or mobiles or spies, were on a super-telepathic path with their superiors inside and therefore ‘sensed’ their displeasure, spotted the straggly lot and applied the dictum, ‘spare the rod’ in a rather full sense. If you speak at a rally and chant ‘shame, shame’ and ask the people to avenge the insult, what peaceful reaction can follow? And what has it earned the government? The newspapers have been full of protests and denouncements for three days. Just about every body has condemned the high-handed action that put three newsmen into hospital with serious head injuries and others with less. The CPNE, HRCP, PUJ, LHCBA – you name them, have gone to town asking for an apology, some asking for his job. The President has eventually had to apologise three days into the fracas and this incident has simply sent the wrong message everywhere. The media’s warning antenna are now up, scanning the landscape for more evidence of the shape of things to come. The people, who genuinely believe that democracy or not – and what in heaven’s name is this sacred cow that we keep bathing in rose water, the President’s heart is in the right place and with him around, our miserable state of existence can move up a notch or two – are dismayed that this good soldier may turn into another tyrant driven by his own convictions and increasingly short on taking criticism from any quarters. That is not a good prognosis. Sadly, that’s the message that’s gone out.

The President’s think-tank – no, it is not a tank that can think, there being no such animal and the present government not the only one to have it – Mian Nawaz Sharif had one too except that it was not a tank but shaped more like a giant’s cooking pot where spicy harissas cooked all day and globules of the stuff were devoured by the party faithfuls – must understand that the people are not impressed by the number of people who crowd rallies – the numbers are meaningless. Mian and BB’s rallies were awesome, but they didn’t save them from extinction. In the end it is the delivery of the promises that make or break a leader. Others, more gifted than the President or his Punjab Governor, have had their chances and blown them. On many fronts, the President has delivered and after the referendum, he will still have the chance to do even better. There is no need to get diverted into what is just a dead end. The media will continue with its assessments. Just take it in your stride and as your American friends put it so nicely, ‘Chill Out.’