To Be or Not To Be By Khurram Zeeshan

"To be or not be?" - The eternal question remains relevant, always. Only that it gains importance manifold at some critical junctures of history.
Yes, it is Panama leaks and its aftermath that I'm referring to.
'Defining moment' it has been called - indeed it is one! At this juncture we are faced with two choices. There is one road which leads to eternal servitude and to submission to the rule of injustice, blunder, loot and plunder. The other one, though unexplored and perhaps rough, may well have a beacon of hope.
My suspicion is that there will be every effort made to shove down the throats of this unfortunate nation the former course of inaction.
Dear countrymen don't be duped into inaction by your intelligentsia, intellectuals, academicians, media spin doctors, expert analysts, columnists, so called opinion leaders and the newest entrants to this privileged 'Club of Wise Sages', the battalion of ubiquitous anchors that you are damned and forced to allow inside your TV screens. This cavalry of Hamurabis and Kants and Einsteins will chew your brains, laugh at your simple ways. They will keep babbling about uselessness of public protest, futility of pursuing complex money trails, risks of instability that may follow and about the possible ensuing chaos. What they will never remind you about is your human, moral and national responsibility ie to stand up against injustice.
Take a moment and think.
First, show me the order where it exists and/or any semblance of stability in the lives of a common man? Insecurity, ridicule, loot, plunder, injustice and servitude of the most degrading kind stare these children of the lesser Gods every time they take a breath! Your self proclaimed guides will paint the canvas for you as if order and stability exists throughout the length and breadth of the country and its raining blessings upon blessings on the poor masses - and that street agitation will disrupt it and stop the flow of streams of milk and honey.
Why fear chaos when you so fondly seek order? Okay you are hell-bent in putting it that way! So, does order not emerge out of chaos? You like to keep sitting beneath a tilted cracked wall instead of dismantling it and erecting a proper newer one?
Second, sirs do not add to the confusion of an already confused nation. Complexities of obtaining and proving financial trails in the murky offshore world notwithstanding, the case of Sharif family remains a simple case of assets beyond means - the onus of which lies not upon the state but on the accused to prove and show: first, legitimate source/income justifying these assets; second, legitimate transactions flowing around. Then, it is a case of non-declaration of assets and of being dis-honest and lying in addition to massive corruption.
So, why should I not demand a probe, why should I not protest? Why should I not react and stay mum like a long-dead Pharoah mummy ? More intriguingly, why am I being bombarded with virtues of inaction?
The answer is simple: those trying to dupe you into inaction are all beneficiaries of the status-quo! It suits them this way. They will leave no stone unturned to tell you that forensic audit will take years and ultimately nothing will be/can be proved; they will take pains to elaborate by quoting history to prove futility of street agitation; they will raise fears of enemy taking advantage of any turmoil! Heck! Why fear an external enemy when the most dreaded of threats is from within and visibly so - are/have been sitting on top in power corridors, as the Head of the State, as Interior Minister, as Prime Minister and only God knows as to what else? This collusion of the corrupt status-quo is the biggest threat, no external threat can be bigger than this in its potential and magnitude. Just imagine why our neighbours love so dearly our elected elite, the two players of musical chairs. These leaders, degenerate souls that they are, maintain their assets abroad while they are maintained here as assets of the powers abroad.
They commit daylight robberies and get away with it, with complete impunity; scratching each others backs. Only to appear through ridiculous court jesters at state's (our) expense on media, hurling worst kinds of jests right into our faces, taunting us. They ridicule and laugh at our collective intelligence by pathetic buffooneries, rebukes and puns! Hell! And I'm told to keep quite? For God's sake! I have been wronged, ripped of honour and being jested at and I'm being taught not to agitate? Push me to the wall and then teach me the virtue of not reacting? Why? What modicum of self-esteem is left in a person who refuses to even raise a voice against such injustice? With what moral authority do I teach my children the virtue of standing up against injustice? How and why should I teach them scruples and good morals if I don't inspire them with my personal example? Above all, how do I face the mirror each morning I look at myself? I look at a man totally devoid of self-respect, a timid, pale dis-honoured soul begging for even more dis-honour and ridicule!
Thinking is good, over-thought and excessive thinking, however, isn't. It's been diagnosed as one main reason of most psychiatric illnesses. It lands you in a state of utter paralysis! What is right should be done, always be done, done with promptitude and done without aspersions of the outcome. After all "Allah ne Insan k hath men sirf niyyat aur koshish di hai, kamyabi wo deta hai".
Fear not, hesitate not! There will be attempts at deceiving you, there will be efforts to frighten you, there will be well orchestrated campaigns to convince you of the futility of protest! BUT this is your moment, seize it with both hands! If you choose not to, then you loose all right to crib about all ills that have befallen upon you because YOU are sick yourself. You are under the spell of that notorious 'pale cast of thought'! You deserve at your bums more slings and arrows, not of the outrageous fortune but of your own inaction and insensitivity. You, sir, are a part of the problem and not of the solution, a zombie!
There remains a whole after-life to slumber; get up, stand tall and be counted amongst the living.

The author of this article is an advocate by profession & is based in Kohat.

by webmaster@insaf.pk (tkiadmin)