Politics in Post Truth era.
By Haroon Ali ( Writer is Phd in Political Science from University of London)
Scapegoating is one of the most commonly used technique in politics to divert the attention from real issue and attract one’s vote bank. It is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. The word scapegoating is now replaced with ‘post truth’. Post-truth politics is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual reports are ignored. Post-truth differs from traditional contesting and falsifying of facts by relegating facts and expert opinions to be of secondary importance relative to appeal to emotion.
Pakistan has been a fertile land for political alliances leading towards a movement, primarily to uproot the sitting government. Last forty years of Pakistani politics have been revolving around power sharing between two families, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Maryam and Bilawal are flag bearers of same dynastic politics. These two families not only shared power but amassed the country’s wealth and promoted culture of corruption.
Modi government have mastered the politics of post truth both at global and domestic fronts. They have played havoc in Kashmir and supported terrorist organisations in Afghanistan to fuel terrorism in the region and particularly in Pakistan. But astonishingly, India was successful in tagging Pakistan as promoter of terrorism instead of victim. It was a best use of post-truth technique to malign Pakistan. Facts and figures presented by Pakistan to UN in 2020, in a Dosier, make it clear to the world that who was promoting terrorism..
At domestic front, Modi’s politics in India before 2019 elections was mostly focused on emotional appeal. In its election campaign, Modi propagated to project Pakistan, a threat to Indian security. Media was over whelmed in its support to Modi’s election campaign to win for him the Hindu extremist vote. Modi took emotions of masses so high that he ultimately had to meet public demand through false flag operations, which exposed the fragility of his political wisdom. Modi won the elections but forgot to mellow down the expectations of the masses who were expecting elimination of Pakistan by Powerful India. Shooting down of an Indian plane at the hands of Pakistani Air Force, corrected the perspective from post truth to reality.
Trump tried to flame American’s sentiments through a slogan ‘America First’. The proposition was not matching with the role US has been playing as a sole super power since end of cold war. American had been unilaterally leading the world since fall of USSR. It was unnatural to delink itself from alliances like NATO, Middle East, Paris Accord and JCPOA. America had to pay the price for this emotional decision. It lost many tested allies in the process to create a vacuum in world politics. The void was amicably filled by China. An abrupt announcement to build wall on Mexico border and stringent rules for immigrant were a severe blow to stability within the USA.
Brexit was also a product of fear of orthodox community to protect their land from immigrants. Fear of immigrants overpowered all realities and economic disaster which has left UK in crisis for last many years.
In Pakistan, Maulana Fazal ur Rehman and Maryam Nawaz are leading a frustrating movement only to please themselves. Defining trait of Maryam Nawaz’s struggle is post-truth politics. She continues to campaign and repeat her propaganda points, despite the fact that masses, experts in the field have questioned and provided proofs that contradicts her emotional arguments. Since 1989 till 2018, his family has been ruling the Pakistan alongside PPP. For four decades, Sharif family has been part of every ill and problem faced by Pakistan today. Deception is becoming more prevalent in the current media-driven world. Lies are no more inexcusable and are viewed as something acceptable in certain situations, which supposedly led to the beginning of the post-truth era. Nawaz Sharif corrupted Judiciary, Bureaucracy, media, trade unions, corporations, authorities and cartels to keep his power during his rule. Maryam Nawaz is frustratingly trying to put those ill doings of his father behind and again deceive the public through emotional slogans.
Politics is a cruel game in which players only keep their objectives supreme and sacrifice anything coming in their way. Shahbaz Sharif, the most trusted brother has never been allowed by his elder brother to cross red line which leads towards premiership. Power can’t be achieved through kindness, love and truth, rather through bigotry, lies, compromises, and scapegoating. Politics Crushes everything which come in its way. There is no ‘us’, it is ‘me’. Maryam Nawaz first Political vendetta was Dawn leaks, which she supervised to play with emotions of masses. Since then she has always tried to malign the institutions.
Social media adds another dimension, as user networks can become echo chambers possibly emphasized by the filter bubble where one political viewpoint dominates and scrutiny of claims fails, allowing a parallel media ecosystem of websites, publishers, and news channels to develop, which can repeat post-truth claims without rebuttal. Usually, masses in the political jalsas are charged and emotional, they raise slogans just for nothing. Maryam is exploiting the political exuberance of the masses in the gathering. She even does not enjoy the support of any senior leader from his party. In reality, she is trying to divert the attention of masses from four decades of corrupt rule of her family. Sharif family has amassed Trillion dollars as revealed by Panama Leaks. They have ruled this country for forty years and are now playing post-truth technique and challenging every thing which they have constructed themselves. They are architects of ehtesab bureau, which was created for political arm twisting. All cases against Benazir and Zardi were made by Saif ur Rehman, head of Ehtisab Bureau. Zardari remained in Jail, for 7 years and Benazir had to leave country due to a threat by Nawaz Sharif.
Maryam has also harmed society in a big way through her social media teams which do nothing other than abusing and defaming persons, families and political parties. If Maryam has to do main stream politics, she will have to abandon these childish tactics to malign and black mail others for political gains. Time is ripe for her to change the course for good because Pakistan is going through turbulent times and need a course correction rather than digging more ditches.
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