Principled politics at stake
Head of PPP Media Cell
Chicken comes home to roost, generally with vengeance. This may be kept in mind by the political leadership of the parties those are welcoming the notorious electable into their parties’ fold. The same lot will probably turn against them as well when time is opportune to jump out of the ship leaving them in the middle of the political tempest to inflict the lamentable political fate. The defectors have the compulsive parochial alacrity of the worst kind and are known for open-ended petty politics. Each time they declare their unconditional allegiance to the new party and shamefully embrace it without an iota of pricking of the conscience.
Their double speak has no parallel as they have attained mastery over it during their ignominious political career. Their mindset is obviously skewed up beyond recognition that does not accept the narrative of enough is enough. They are blot in the face of country’s politics. They deserve to be treated as such by the political parties of all spectrums if the politics of the country is to be cleansed holistically. They may be denied the space to exploit the political parties emanating from their desperate quest to lure the political elements who present themselves as the ultimate candidate capable of winning the seat of the Parliament.
Responsibility squarely lies on the shoulders of political leadership of all hues to keep the humbuggery at bay considering principled politics is at stake. Their acceptance of such hypocrites clearly suggests their role in the culpability. The collective realisation cobbled with their firm determination not to lure such politicians will surely push them to meet the despicable fate that they deserve. Their jumping on the bandwagon when deemed convenient should be treated as a curse than an asset. They are curse in the true sense because their rapaciousness for money and power is limitless caring less of the nature of the means those have no relevance close to them. The jumping on the other side of the fence, off and on, clearly manifests the fecklessness of the political parties that are engaged in the reckless pursuit to come to power by hook or crook. This is bad and it will remain so till such time the political parties do not appreciate the absolute necessity of paradigm shift for the principled politics in the country. Those who are always available for selling their conscience will remain in demand till they are not resisted and exposed to their fate of political redundancy.
As the elections of 2018 are drawing near the frenzy of reaching out to the renegades of other parties will gather momentum to the dismay of those who have been longing for the principled politics in this country since its inception. The joining of leaders from KPK and Punjab in the other political party recently points to the unfortunate trend that may stab the principled politics at the back deeply hurting the political system and the statures of the politicians. These thick-skinned turncoats have developed immunity to the virus of shame and therefore their bad habits will refuse to die till they are not made to bite the dust. They will continue to play their game of deceit and opportunism while trampling upon the decent politics under their iron feet. Their kleptocracy may not settle short of having their pound of flesh.
Peoples’ Party is known for according the importance to its party rank and file despite the workers’ usual allegations of not looking after them during the stint of its rule. Such conduct of workers is not typical to the PPP as in other popular parties such manifestations of anger are common sights. However, the tone of PPP workers or middle order leaders is usually quite harsh that speaks volume of the importance that the party attaches to the divergent views. The people may recall as how former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani restored the esteem of then minister for information when the minister started weeping with tears rolling out from minister’s eyes when the Federal Cabinet meeting was in progress in Governor House, Karachi, with live coverage as the TV channels cameras were rolling. One can imagine the huge embarrassment the government had to face because of the lachrymose of the minister as her sobbing continued for some time. Notwithstanding this, the prime minister made her sit next to him in the press conference held at the mausoleum of the Founder of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to announce the decisions of the Cabinet meeting. The prime minister showered praises on the minister and no grain of punitive or disciplinary action was taken against the minister. Is any other party’s prime minister would disregard the embarrassment of that scale in the full glare of live media coverage? The answer is certainly very obvious.
The incumbent political leadership of the country may seriously take the stock of the politics of opportunism to seriously huddle together to find ways and means to discourage it because of its malicious pitfalls on the country’s politics, both in short run and in the long term with curdling impact embroiled in serious implications. The political parties those are welcoming these crooks now must not forget that they will turn around when they will see the wind is blowing the other direction. They may not be allowed to take the undue advantage of ups and downs the each political party is subjected to during its phases of history. Today’s opposition party may be the next ruling party. It is quite normal in democracy. What is hampering the pace of development of the political system is the misdemeanor of such habitual deserters who have no regard for the ideological commitment. These enemies of democracy must not only be resisted but also exposed to the core to their political redundancy.
The need of the hour is to formulate a code of conduct to puncture the wings of the foxy-faced bats flying around in the form of turncoats. The code of conduct may serve as an effective deterrence to scare them away empty handed in state of humiliation and indignities they deserve the most. The lackluster response to the perennial threat to the political system on the part of political leadership may not be an option any more. There is no doubt that without rectifying this challenge the development of the principled politics in the country will remain a pipe dream and so the correspondent political stability and the socio-economic development. Political stability and socio-economic development on sustainable basis can only be attained through successful functioning of the well-established democratic institutions.
The proposed code of conduct may not, however, deprive the deserving cases from the right of choice which is the essence of democracy entailing best democratic practices. Democratic ethos may not be allowed to be sacrificed at the altar of code of conduct. Instead, it should facilitate in protecting and promoting the democratic culture in the society without hurting the right of choice of the people. This issue may be debated and discussed in the Parliament threadbare. There is no doubt that the collective wisdom of the House may formulate such a code of conduct that may take care of the apprehensions those may crop up during the debate or in the future. However, the urgency of such code cannot be overemphasised.
Unfortunately, the successive dictators and their progeny promoted the culture of turncoats in our politics to perpetuate their illegitimate and unconstitutional rule. The formation of Convention League by General Ayub Khan, Pakistan Muslim Leagues of various alphabets by General Ziaul Haq and General Musharraf were all their political legacies those prevented the development of democratic institutions in the country. They did not permit the political system to pass through the evolution that was necessary for its continuous refinement leading to perfection. All the well-established democracies of today had to pass through the evolutionary process. In our case, the dictators disrupted the political process at the altar of their personal political ambitions. So, the nation had been lagging behind in this count facing multiple challenges attributed to military dictators. Now, these parties may play their role in favour of democratic politics to get rid of past baggage. They owe this to the nation.
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Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/208927-Principled-politics-at-stake