By: Sarmad Shahbaz
When the smoke is going to settle, the young boy will see disastrously smacked ruins around him. This damage, however, is self-created, most probably, by the young boy himself. Chanting to support this young boy, the slogans were hearable to all corners of the country. This creative yet introverted, sick yet active, and broken yet ready-to-thrive young boy is the kingmaker. All this was for nothing else than, considering young boy’s ascendency, taming one’s demons. The demons of political chauvinists and fascists are directly or indirectly related to each other. Take it politically incorrect if it makes you feel disgusted but the fact is that the young boy is being browbeaten, all for clearing the mess of others.
But all that has the laying brick of self-interest and narcissism, see the collapse from within. Hence, this young boy has been used today as a tool of oppression, coercion, and as a warrior against the opposite side of the same coin. This young boy is the youth bulge of this country that was supposedly uplifted a couple of years ago, just to fill one’s voter bank. Today, the young boy is again championed after not batting an eye for 3 years.
Every year, this country disowns the young people and then recircles them with unsustainable plans – handshaking for false promises and fake commitments. Gambit of these promises falls from mantras of uncountable jobs, undermining inflation, and bringing in entrepreneurship to diminishing the brain drain. Services, in this country for young people, are nothing but the dark clouds of exploitation and misappropriation. However, after advertising select-few young faces – that too by making various unsustainable and counterproductive youth inclusive programs – the youth bulge comes back to square one.
Charismatic leadership has inculcated show-off culture, religious bigotry, what aboutism, and pontification in the youth.
Directing the focus to the current political situation, the country is under threat by the misguided missile i.e., the wounded youth who see its charismatic leader as their savior. The irony is, this charisma has done nothing but inculcated show-off culture, religious bigotry, whataboutism, and pontification in this youth. Now, young Pakistan has turned into a Kamikaze fighter for the people who sit in their dear offices and order for coercion, attacks, and subjugation. It can go anywhere at anytime and Boom!
Adding to this, the last fig leaf of these charismatic demagogues flew away when this misguided missile landed directly at the door of Sindh House on Friday. Pakistani cry upon what happened in January 2021. The cry is being celebrated by a laugh and cheers for what happened a few days ago. There is no justification for the threatening act. From the executive cabinet normalizing the situation with immature and careless remarks to restricting the LEAs from taking necessary action against this missile, the state has become an oppressor in itself. It is disheartening to see the state affair where young engineers, doctors, lawyers, political savvy, entrepreneurs, and many others are marching to the power corridors destined to challenge the constitution.
Quoting Aristotle’s aphorism that ‘nature abhors the vacuum’, the nature, in this case, is the traditional one-versus-other politics and it abhors the correct political inclusion of young people that has been a lost constitutionally mandated right. Alongside, it is important to note that going against the constitution itself, no one but the young people are going to bear the brunt. Whether opposition goes for the no-confidence motion or the sitting government protests for its legitimacy [funny as it sounds], all the processes should be dealt with under the aegis of democratic agreement and social contract.
Young people, alienated from their political and social standing, have been falsely milked either by the blurgardens of political inclusion or personal benefits. Their political loyalties are only tested in the time when one party is in danger. Including this, rallying from Karachi to Islamabad or attacking the residencies of elected, the young people are pushed to the limits for the sake of self-gratification of party leaders. If you cannot do good then do bad well. At least substantiate the bet and make the deal crystal clear. However, the naivety and ignorance of political entities, at large, is at the edge where anarchy and chaos are going to translate from within to the outer world like a domino effect, especially for the youth.
It is time for young people of this country to rethink their political inclination. You and I are nothing but the pawn in this game of chess. However, pondering over this, the pawn stands in the front row to fortify the so-called dignitaries and is largest in number. Without being a puppet, the youth have to break the shackles of mental slavery of power and prejudice. As Marx famously wrote while standing firm against the status quo that ‘Workers of the World – Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chain’. Similarly, this piece begs the opportunity for the young people around this country to think intellectually, rationally, and without prejudices before taking a step. One step forward, two steps backward have been played with the young boy. To make it work, with due respect, the young boy must either stand eye-to-eye while cutting off the puppet strings or grasp the legs of the entity – all this with a focused, well-balanced, and productive approach.
The writer is a Pakistan-based political analyst and social critic with keen interests in Politics, Social Order and philosophy. He can be reached out at [email protected]
