27/07/2020
Pakistani Democracy and Voices of Dissent
Democracy is based on Abraham Lincoln's principle that "you can fool all the people some of the time and some people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time". If a government is corrupt and fails to improve people's lives, enough citizens will eventually realize this and replace the government.
But government's control of media undermines Lincoln's logic, because it prevents citizens from realizing the truth. Through its monopoly over the media, the ruling oligarchy can repeatedly blame all its failures on others, and divert attention to external threats - either real or imaginary.
When you live under such an oligarchy, there is always some crisis or other that takes priority over boring stuff such as healthcare and pollution. If the nation is facing external invasion or diabolical subversion, who has time to worry about overcrowded hospitals and polluted rivers? By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crisis, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely.
This is an excerpt from "21 lessons for the 21st century", where "Yuval Noah Harari" talks about Russian Government but it also fits perfectly with current style of governance by PTI in Pakistan. Government is trying to silence and control media through Government Ad spending, abduction of journalist, arresting media owners in decades old cases etc.
In addition to blaming previous governments, opposition, other political parties and mafias for the never-ending stream of crisis e.g. fuel shortage, wheat shortage, sugar crisis, PIA Pilots licensing debacle etc., PTI government with support of "ESTABLISHMENT" is also trying to silence voices of dissent from opposition, political parties, Judges by using NAB & other Accountability Departments through arrests even before officially charging the suspects.
