The civilian governments are on the run and the basis seems to be a lack of morality. When a body has an attack, the physician diagnoses and prescribes. The moral imperative is rather different. For one, it does not have a body that can be examined and diagnosed as to the kind of disease prevalent. For another there cannot be an easy answer as to the kind of prescription that can be given.
The disease in the body politic is one of a mental kind and there are no easy answers. It requires the making of men all over again. And pray how are you going to remake the moral man if he happens to be from a divergent culture[s] that exists in Pakistan? The route to break an attitude and value means that these show up in the collective personality of the society in different ways. Treating these moral causes requires will and generalities are no more than throwing eye medicine from a third storey building and hoping that the cure would take place. No amount of anti-corruption action would help till the nation comes to grips with this moral rearmament. Does greed, avarice, intrigue and hate play a part in the blocking of moral rearmament? What and how mafias are created and how is the will of the bureaucracy subjected to pressure that it bends to follow the directions set by the power-hungry greedy powerful politician? More than that how is the electronic media setting the tone for society in general? Are those that are wilfully stating information that is not correct culpable of any intent? Is a shouting match on the electronic media an indication that reason is prevailing?
Of the leaders it may be said that anyone of those, irrespective of the color of the politician, who accepts standards less than the absolute is incapable of curing the elements that make the individual culture as well as the collective one. Amongst others the two elements that these kinds of personality possess are selfishness and bitterness. This kind of personality can cure neither exploitation nor division. Is it not so obvious on the Pakistan scene? And yet on the 18th December 2011, Vaclav Havel the former President of the Czech Republic passed away unsung in Pakistan. The value of this man was that he led his country out of communist rule without a single bullet being fired and then charged his country through his own moral fibre. His book 'Living in Truth' not with truth is a significant contribution to the creation of moral fibre and so is his book 'Letters to Olga' [his wife] written on pieces of paper from the Jail. His third book besides numerous one act plays was 'The Power of the Powerless'. Read them if one's moral courage is missing and requires refurbishing. He got the Russians jailors to say about him 'he will kill you with his kindnesses'. Such was the power of decency in this man. Pakistani politicians of whatever ilk will learn a lot from him and we must stop the meandering and multiple talks that we see everyday on the electronic media.
Pakistani politicians unanswered moral and ideological needs present are visible in three fields. These are greed, asset building, sex and security of the unborn child which reinforces the asset and greed building tendencies. That the Pakistani politician is lacking in collective character is what is being exploited and rightly so by Imran Khan. The vast majority of the people are living in silence for they do not know what and how to protest against the ongoing pilferages. The majority are not knowledgeable as to the alternatives that are available to them. The alternatives determinism is the job of the government. This passiveness will also come to an end. This silence will break with the social conditions that have been made so terrible for the ordinary consumer. Securities driven are those that drive themselves wherever they are through fear. Is there no fear? What is the nature of crime. I dare any one to go to the villages in Punjab after dark and see what fate awaits them. Sindh is already in the dark ages. Balochistan has been rent asunder by the policies and in NWA and SWA, the death toll, thanks to the Nato forces, is untenable and unacceptable.
External forces can be met with. In the development of the will, the internal will and forces assume greater significance. Internal will means that we are fair to our own citizen and that we are basing our work on the creation of and development of character and proper unselfishness. So how will we go from a man to the 200 millions that we have on our hands at the moment. The moral rearmament minister will have to be someone with a track record that is based on eminence rather than on prominence. The eminence factor has never been understood in Pakistan and we do believe that it is prominence as signified by designations that we should be in awe off. That is not how things move for everyone in prominence is a passing show and is limited in time while the eminent person lives on even after his death. So what can a preacher person do? Well he has to start with himself. One cannot be a preacher and be a poacher at the same time.
Will the creation of a minister for Moral Rearmament [MRA] do and what will be his functions. It is a clear belief in psycho-sociological studies that the awareness of an issue is also the cure of that disease. In this case the mental disease that hits the people is to be cured by selfless example. The PPP has that kind of people and these people have been largely ignored by the party line. Instead supercilious idiots have been placed in positions of authority. What does the MRA mean for those in it? It means that the persons have to be working on their intangible and not on their tangible assets. The ordinary person plays a large part in this and it is not limited to the elites in power. This is a race against time? This is a race against all the forces that will try and destabilize the country.
Will that be enough? Is governance then possible with such intangibles? Since everything else has been tried, why not try this. Can we find such a man that has an overriding exemption from all the temptations of life? Or is this all wishful thinking? It may come as a surprise that the power of prayers is worthy of note if the deal has to go some way. Why not make it easier for everyone to understand the way of life that the Holy Quran has for all of us. The Revealed book is a teacher of great merit for the humanity at large not only for the preacher.
Somehow we have lost our way? Regain it and try the teachings of the great. You will find that all of them lived somber lives and there was no way that they had a gilded age. Imran is leading a great charge. All credit to him. The honesty of purpose that has been inculcated in all of us will do wonders if we only ponder occasionally as to what was the most fulfilling thing in our lives and we will soon enough have an answer. Favouritism is not the lubricant that we thought that was. The political system has to get off that high horse. I know of ministers that have pilfered resources and wasted a lot of them and they are now taking a holier than thou stance. Desmond Tutu was once asked to narrate his worst moment and he without a second's hesitance said 'Ha ha my worst moments are when I try to justify'. The interviewing American women journalist was aghast. The pastor lives in peace and articulated the Truth Commission for Apartheid South Africa. The sins of the white population were washed by the confessions of their guilt. No prosecution was necessary.
Try and remake this society. It is possible. That means that one has to live in truth, Vaclav Havel style. Take care there are many pitfalls. For one does not live with love and fresh air. It is a difficult theme but one with which Pakistan has to work. Why not let it pass. Why justify and make one wrong into two. What are the institutional arrangements required; patience not all at once. Modern organisational structures can be fully utilised sensibly. Make haste slowly. Fear is not part of the strategy. In socio-psychological terms there may be reinforcement of the moral intangibles from time to time. It is cheap and inexpensive. Craving for temptation and the line of least temptation will have to be done away with. Ready to make work the difficult way!! What to do is just as important as what not to do? Next will be the economic impact of these moral interventions.