Ever thought of the mother of all evils in Pakistan no one talks about? That is the feudal system, a devastating legacy of the country's former British masters. It's a festering root, the stench of which has spread far and wide around the country.
Politicians in Pakistan talk endlessly about bringing "change" and "reforms." That's a ruse of course. How can a tree with a decaying root produce healthy fruits? There is only one solution to the problem. Cut off that tree along with its root and plant a new one. Implementing reforms with the feudal system intact is like treating advanced malignancy with vitamins and herbal medications instead of chemo. It just won't work.
One would ask, how can a problem of such enormity be resolved? The obvious remedy is a radical homegrown uprising requiring the participation of the urban as well as the rural population of the country.. the rural participation being still more important as it comprises of more than 70% of the country's population. Unfortunately they are the ones who are the most helpless of all.
Citizens of rural Pakistan are brutally enslaved. They are writhing in the pain of feudal tyranny. They do not have access to education. They are not permitted to send their children to school. Hence they have no intellectual insight. Generations have passed in sweat and toil as they continue to work on the lands of their feudal lords (lands for which the feudals pay no taxes). The darkness of lack of education and the ignorance it brings has made the rural population of Pakistan so apathetic that they can barely understand the horrific flaws of the very system that has enslaved them. On the contrary, many of them have grown to love the tyranny they are subjected to. Their conscience, courage and sense of perception have been crushed to such an extent that the vision of freedom exists no more in their minds. Intimidated by the rules and threats of their masters, their only goal is the support of serfdom. Their bodies are alive but their minds are dead!
The ignorance of rural Pakistan has considerably affected the minds of the urban population as well. Though many of them attend schools, colleges or universities, the quality of education only teaches them to survive, not to live. The common urban dwellers of Pakistan can be divided into three categories. First, those with the goal to finish their education, get a job, get married, raise a family and retire at age 60. Opportunities of involvement in corruption and black money are added plus, before or after retirement. The second category consists of those who slip out of the country for higher education abroad, never to return. And the third category are the infamous immigration seekers. Immigrating to the West with the standard pretext "for the sake of our children's future" is a status symbol in Pakistan and the commonest gimmick to flee from problems at home. Not that these folks really transform their lives into something better when they arrive abroad. With higher education being so costly in the West and the job market so competitive, their children's future remains just as murky. After finishing school, majority of them end up doing non-professional jobs for the rest of their lives. Some end up worse, as school dropouts, into drugs and debauchery. Yet, telling their folk back home that they are residing in Western towns and cities is an important part of their misguided fantasy they had been nurturing all their lives prior to immigration. Believe it or not, the worth of a marriage proposal in Pakistan jumps three-fold if the prospective groom or bride holds a dark blue passport instead of a dark green one.
There seems to be no light at the end of this long dark tunnel. Pakistan has waited long enough for her 'Abraham Lincoln' to come and emancipate her. But that much awaited reformer never arrived.
One cannot expect to pass a bill in the parliament for the abolition of feudalism as 90% of parliamentarians are themselves from feudal families.
The only way out might be a military coup. Not the kind we have seen in the past where the leaders of the coup and their entourage were interested in little else than grabbing political power, but a genuinely selfless uprising with aspirations of establishing a whole new system sprouting with the initiative and non-political ambitions of the junior members of the armed forces. It won't be a cakewalk. But for that matter no homegrown movement is ever smooth. The Iranian uprising that culminated in 1979 into the most successful revolution in history, began sowing its seeds as early as the start of the 1970s. In the process thousands of our Iranian sisters and brothers paid with their lives for achieving the sovereignty their comrades and descendents are enjoying at present.
A meaningful change does not come with flowers and candies. It comes with the blood of the martyr.
Politicians in Pakistan talk endlessly about bringing "change" and "reforms." That's a ruse of course. How can a tree with a decaying root produce healthy fruits? There is only one solution to the problem. Cut off that tree along with its root and plant a new one. Implementing reforms with the feudal system intact is like treating advanced malignancy with vitamins and herbal medications instead of chemo. It just won't work.
One would ask, how can a problem of such enormity be resolved? The obvious remedy is a radical homegrown uprising requiring the participation of the urban as well as the rural population of the country.. the rural participation being still more important as it comprises of more than 70% of the country's population. Unfortunately they are the ones who are the most helpless of all.
Citizens of rural Pakistan are brutally enslaved. They are writhing in the pain of feudal tyranny. They do not have access to education. They are not permitted to send their children to school. Hence they have no intellectual insight. Generations have passed in sweat and toil as they continue to work on the lands of their feudal lords (lands for which the feudals pay no taxes). The darkness of lack of education and the ignorance it brings has made the rural population of Pakistan so apathetic that they can barely understand the horrific flaws of the very system that has enslaved them. On the contrary, many of them have grown to love the tyranny they are subjected to. Their conscience, courage and sense of perception have been crushed to such an extent that the vision of freedom exists no more in their minds. Intimidated by the rules and threats of their masters, their only goal is the support of serfdom. Their bodies are alive but their minds are dead!
The ignorance of rural Pakistan has considerably affected the minds of the urban population as well. Though many of them attend schools, colleges or universities, the quality of education only teaches them to survive, not to live. The common urban dwellers of Pakistan can be divided into three categories. First, those with the goal to finish their education, get a job, get married, raise a family and retire at age 60. Opportunities of involvement in corruption and black money are added plus, before or after retirement. The second category consists of those who slip out of the country for higher education abroad, never to return. And the third category are the infamous immigration seekers. Immigrating to the West with the standard pretext "for the sake of our children's future" is a status symbol in Pakistan and the commonest gimmick to flee from problems at home. Not that these folks really transform their lives into something better when they arrive abroad. With higher education being so costly in the West and the job market so competitive, their children's future remains just as murky. After finishing school, majority of them end up doing non-professional jobs for the rest of their lives. Some end up worse, as school dropouts, into drugs and debauchery. Yet, telling their folk back home that they are residing in Western towns and cities is an important part of their misguided fantasy they had been nurturing all their lives prior to immigration. Believe it or not, the worth of a marriage proposal in Pakistan jumps three-fold if the prospective groom or bride holds a dark blue passport instead of a dark green one.
There seems to be no light at the end of this long dark tunnel. Pakistan has waited long enough for her 'Abraham Lincoln' to come and emancipate her. But that much awaited reformer never arrived.
One cannot expect to pass a bill in the parliament for the abolition of feudalism as 90% of parliamentarians are themselves from feudal families.
The only way out might be a military coup. Not the kind we have seen in the past where the leaders of the coup and their entourage were interested in little else than grabbing political power, but a genuinely selfless uprising with aspirations of establishing a whole new system sprouting with the initiative and non-political ambitions of the junior members of the armed forces. It won't be a cakewalk. But for that matter no homegrown movement is ever smooth. The Iranian uprising that culminated in 1979 into the most successful revolution in history, began sowing its seeds as early as the start of the 1970s. In the process thousands of our Iranian sisters and brothers paid with their lives for achieving the sovereignty their comrades and descendents are enjoying at present.
A meaningful change does not come with flowers and candies. It comes with the blood of the martyr.
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