The VOTE

It’s the May of 2013, the election season. The political parties in Pakistan are campaigning for vote, and with the rise in number of rallies and public gatherings, terrorism and bombings are trying to disrupt the process and discourage the masses from partaking the polls, although the bias of the terrorists is quite obvious. The strange thing is there is no authentic leftist party, which is contesting the election. Still, as someone else put it, our exploding friends want to rig a ‘right vs. right’ election with their bomb variety.

Along with a lot happening on the political canvas, this is a time which gives everyone a chance and a reason to judge you based on one small question, “Who will you vote for?” You name a party which the questioner doesn’t like and there you go. He makes a sketch of your personality, mentality, background, education, how good a Muslim are you, and how you are or you aren’t using your mind to decide on your vote. Because apparently, everyone thinks that he thinks right from his mind; everyone has established that he, individually, knows the best interest of the country and has the broadest vision and most pragmatic approach; things which others clearly lack. That’s why anything other than his vote is wrong and the person choosing the other candidate or party is perhaps a short sighted inferior being. The craziest part is this ‘sketching’ happens right at spot, within seconds, as soon as the first alphabet of party’s name leaves your mouth.

But is it that simple to answer this question? Is everyone really sure of which party to vote for till the time the ballot paper is in front of them whereon you can stamp only one and you have to stamp it with all the positives and the negatives? Well, overzealous followers (Jialas and Janisars) are understandable, but for a neutral person who wants to vote, there is a lot of grey shade in the choice. As someone said it right, most people don’t vote for an individual/party, they rather do it against a certain individual/party. The problem here is, fine you vote against a certain party, still there is a list to choose from. Of course, it gets much tougher when all you have is right and right on the list. There is practically no left you’re left with. 

So, an idea is to let it flow with the rhetoric. Yet again, is corruption the biggest issue you want to vote against, or do you want to go for a bigger education budget? Is it ‘rights for minorities’ or is it ‘land reforms’? The unfortunate part is that the party which vouches for one issue overlooks the other, and even if it addresses it, you’re in no way sure that it will actually happen. The question which might help is ‘Which cause is closer to your heart?’ but the harder question is ‘Which cause can be neglected for another?’

This time around, the regressives are still regressive – their tickets being given to people with proven connection with banned outfits – and still corrupt, brandishing ‘Transparency International’ clean chits and according to estimates, ready to claim the largest number of seats; the progressives are not very progressive, and corrupt, and amidst this corruption (a charge that has been used throughout our political history to bring down democracies), something that’s rising is the not very progressive, but not corrupt (as far as the leader is concerned), chanting slogans of ‘Naya Pakistan’ – a slogan which sounds very inspirational, yet the visualization of this idea changes with everyone’s personal opinion. 

So, this ‘Naya Pakistan’, what is it? Is it the same Pakistan minus those ‘Corrupt Political Leaders’? Is it the same Pakistan with a younger generation – perhaps the ‘youth’ focus? Well, for those who challenge the idea and question ‘Why Naya Pakistan? Is there something wrong with our good old Pakistan which Quaid-e-Azam founded, and which our forefathers strove for?’ the answer is ‘Yes, Fundamentally’. Having said that, we are still unsure if the ‘Naya Pakistan’ is going to have different ideological dimensions than the Pakistan we live in now. We do not know if this Naya Pakistan is going to revisit the basics, reinvent the fundamentals and be founded on mature thought and tolerance. Unfortunately, the enthusiasts of Naya Pakistan, are quite intolerant as far as twitter and facebook trolls are concerned.

The fact that this ‘Naya Pakistan’ is mostly ‘grey’ than black or white does put the voter in trouble. But another question rises, ‘Is ‘mostly grey’ enough reason for not voting?’ It may be, but what are the other choices out there? Along with Naya Pakistan’s visionary’s track record having several question marks i.e. politically, there are yet big positives to be considered. From his track record, one can expect a little immaturity in decisions but when he says ‘I promise I won’t lie to the nation’, it does draw one to believe. It is true that he has, knowingly or unknowingly, narrowed down his campaign on anti-corruption, and yes, the achievables are quite unachievable, e.g. ending the corruption in 90 days, yet it is believed that he’d at least try. Fine he hasn’t proven to be very progressive in the past, yet there is some change that the urban youth is following him. Yes he doesn’t have a very impressive political resume’, nonetheless the current campaign must have changed minds and won hearts. And resume’ nonetheless is there and is quite impressive, it has a Cricket World Cup, a state-of-the-art Cancer facility and a fully functional University on it, and above all it’s not dirty.

As compared to a party which is just talk, another party which is still campaigning with its martyr’s portraits, yet others who try to sell themselves on the basis of religion and sell religion instead, ‘Naya Pakistan’ along with its grey areas, doesn’t seem to be a bad idea as with all pluses and minuses, its one thing, ‘Hope’. Let’s vote wisely.