Violence is the Highest Form of Vulgarity

ONE does not have words to express one's sorrow at Mr. Ghulam Haider  Wyne 's murder. This is not the time to sit in judgment on him as a politician or an administrator, but as a gentleman. He was head and shoulders above most people who go about masquerading as "politicians".

          There is nothing new about election time violence in our country, but Mr. Wyne is the most important campaign casualty. People have been killed, but they have mostly been unknown political workers. Why was Mr. Wyne murdered? Well, sitting here so far away from Mian Channu , what can I say?

          But there was a sort of inevitability about it all. The way the campaign was building up, something had to give. Top leaders can't go on getting more and more vicious, more and more vitriolic without inciting people to violence.

          Zulfikar Ali Bhutto  vulgarised politics. Now, vulgarity leads to viciousness, which is a higher form of vulgarity, and viciousness leads to violence, which is the highest form of vulgarity.

          Here's a campaign in which the main contenders are two very young people who often get carried away by the vast crowds they are drawing wherever they go. And when the crowds cheer, they say things they don't probably mean. Here's a prime example of oratorical idiocy:

          Speaking in Gujrat  the other day, Benazir Bhutto  said: awam ko motorway nahin, roti chahiey- the people want bread, not the motorway. Can there be a more blatant exhibition of ignorance? This is not even ignorance. This is illiteracy. Anyone who says that the people want bread, not the motorway knows nothing about economics; because, dash it, the motorway means bread. But obviously Mrs. Bhutto  cares two hoot about economic truth. I wonder what she would have said had the motorway been her father's brainchild.

          Then she chides the Sharif brothers: If they want to go to Geneva , she is willing to buy them the air passage. The two are too poor to pay their taxes. As if she does so herself. But, you see, landlords don't have to pay taxes. They have the divine right to do pretty much as they please. Since they are committed to the service of the people, they must have their jagirs because you cannot realise what is the pain of privation unless you are stinking rich your self.

          A word about hypocrisy now. The dopatta is a sign of modesty but on Mrs. Bhutto 's pretty but empty little head it is a hypocritical concession to the orthodoxy. Nawaz Sharif  is a remand of Martial Law  and Martial Law is a very bad thing because it threw out papa. But martial law is very, very very good when it brings Papa into power. It is all a matter of nineteen years, from 1958 to 1977.

          The kettle calling the pot black? I tell you what, since we are all remnants of the baboon. Let's tear off our clothes and go back to the jungle and stop speaking languages and electing parliaments and begin living like the primates we still are.

          Mian Nawaz Sharif  has been no less vicious than his main rival which is a pity; because I thought he was the better of the two contenders for power, even if marginally. The battle of the ads between the two, and between the two and Qazi  Husain Ahmad , the spoiler, is embarrassing in the extreme. Before I go further, I want to put newspaper owners and owner-editors just this question: Dear sirs, do I have to pay five Rupees a day to read this sort of bilge?

          I have a morning paper in front of me. Three-quarters of its front page is full of ads. The other quarter includes the paper's masthead, two pictures and 44 headlines and sub-headlines. There are 77 lines of text. There's newspaper for you, a complete newspaper.

          And the campaign ads? One shows Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  swearing in Mr. Asif Ali Zardari  as Federal Minister while Mrs. Bhutto  looks on gleefully. Mr. Zardari is still shackled. The insinuation is that a man facing criminal charges has been inducted in the Cabinet. The legend says: "You had seen this scene before. Would you like to see it again?" And the appeal? "Vote for decency, vote for Nawaz Sharif ." This is the Muslim  League effort.

          The PPP  ad shows Mrs. Bhutto  acknowledging public greetings; beneath are two newspaper clippings, one in Urdu  and the other in English , quoting Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  as saying that Mr. Nawaz Sharif  had threatened to kill him because he has refused to give up the country's nuclear programme. "They (the Nawaz Sharif government ) sacrificed national interest for the sake of power but we shall lay down our lives to protect Pakistan 's atomic rights." Benazir Bhutto .

          Funny thing, the PPP  using Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  as marketable material. There's an interesting saying about this in Urdu  but I'll keep it out of print because I think all of you know it and because I don't want to annoy the Baba who, I think, is still a very powerful man. But I will say this much: Necessity is the mother of hypocrisy and the man who invented hypocrisy must have been an extremely needy person.

          The one for Qazi  Husain Ahmad  and inserted by Maulana Nek Mohkammad  ex-Amir Jamaat-i-Islami , Township, Lahore , and two others, asks the PIF president : "Is it correct that when Prime Minister  Nawaz Sharif  sought your advice on the implementation of the Islamic  order, you asked him for Rs. 100 million so that you could serve Islam ?" The Qazi is further asked whether he was given the money or not, whether he demanded another Rs. 200 million or not and, whether on being asked to account for the first hundred million, he joined the opposition or not.

          There was immediate retaliation from Hafiz Salman Butt  the next day, also in a front-page ad. He dared the Mian to come to the Masjid-i-Shuhada  on Friday, together with the evidence he had of having given Rs. 100 million to Qazi  Husain Ahmad . "Does the charge against Qazi Husain Ahmad stick or have you yourself plundered billions of rupees? Mian Nawaz Sharif  was asked.

          Such, in short, is the level of our political debate; we are not bothered about the real issues. So the politicians are not bothered about them, either. We like slogans. So they have put us on a slogan-rich diet and poor Ghulam Haider  Wyne  has had to pay the price for it all. So let us be as vulgar and as vicious and as violent as we can be in the "highest national interest."

          One more thing and I am done for the week. Addressing a public meeting in Bhalwal  the other day, Mrs. Bhutto  said: "I permit the people to take notes (currency notes) from Nawaz Sharif ; but vote for Benazir." Is this not an open invitation to corruption? So much for you, Mrs. Clean!

Friday, October 1, 1993