If there’s one thing that we Pakistanis have become adept at, it is protesting against the government. Read the newspapers or switch on the plethora of private TV news channels and all you see are reports of protests happening all over the country on one pretext or another.
Now I don’t have anything against protests, at least not until they start pelting cars and people with stones. What I do have an issue with is protesting about things that we could change ourselves if we just took some time out of our oh-so-busy lives to actually do something.
Let me proffer an example.
A few days ago, a news channel ran a report about villagers from Khambhra village in Sukkur protesting against the government after a child fell into a sewage manhole and died. According to locals who were being interviewed, another child had fallen into the same manhole a few months ago and died.
One sturdy looking individual said, “The government should do something about open manholes because they are so dangerous for our children who play in the streets.”
So, you’re saying that the manhole is so dangerous that many other of your children could fall and die? You are also saying that the government should do something about the manhole because it’s their responsibility? Agreed it is their responsibility but when a government has become so “incompetent” and “indifferent to our woes”, as he suggested then why don’t we do something about it ourselves?
How much would it cost to get that manhole a cover? Let’s see now. There are several options. You could go to one of the shops that sell manhole covers made of cement and buy one for this dangerous child-devouring sewage. It would cost around Rs1000-2000.
On the other hand, you could hire a local mistri or mason to make it for you. That would also cost roughly the same amount.
Now, you’re saying you spent all day out in the street protesting and waiting for the government to come and put a lid on the killer manhole but you won’t collect Rs50 from each of the 50 or so houses in the area to get it yourself and save your children? As I see it, that makes a lot of sense.
I can present dozens of examples because that’s just how incompetent we, the citizens, have become. We are lazy, inefficient robots without an opinion or a will of our own. Why would someone else want to help us when we are not even willing to move a muscle for our own welfare?
Starting right at the bottom of the food chain, each and every person is so busy making money that we have forgotten the basic meaning of being human. Ah, yes, being human, the phrase which is so often used to excuse our weaknesses of character and outrageous actions. But that is not all being human entails, is it?
For those higher up on the chain, protesting is carried over from the streets to the interwebs. We tweet, Facebook and blog our outrage.
Then, all of us go back to our normal lives like nothing happened. The man in the street goes back to beating up his wife and overcharging customers; his wife goes back to screaming at the kids while the ones on their computers go back to browsing websites showcasing tech, lifestyle or whatever else rocks their boat. Me? I’ll just go look for the next issue to be virtually outraged about.
We wail about corruption and dishonesty while we bribe the meter reader to turn back the electricity meter on our houses.
We scream bloody murder when someone robs our house while we go on robbing countless women of the right to walk the streets unassailed.
The grocer sells counterfeit foodstuff; the greengrocer attaches a hidden weight to the bottom of the weighing scales; the baker sells you bran bread which is actually white bread with brown dye in it; the butcher sells you meat from dead animals; the taxi driver charges you for petrol while he bribes a CNG station’s attendant to sell him gas on the sly.
They do all this while lamenting the indifference of the government and the corruption of its representatives. It would be quite funny if it wasn’t so downright hypocritical.
But we are the little people of the country, you say. No-one listens to us or does anything for our problems. You declare your dishonesty is a result of the corruption rife in the system and you are only doing whatever you can to feed your children.
As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right. Dishonesty countered by dishonesty does not excuse your lack of will to make a change. Why don’t we do something about our problems instead of waiting for someone to come and solve them for us?
We, the little people of Pakistan, are the most corrupt cog in the machinery of this country.
Yes, I’m aware there are good people. There’s Mr. Edhi who has dedicated his whole life to serving other people. There’s the anonymous guy who donates large amounts of money to different hospitals to treat the poor. I know there’s still good left in this country and I am thankful for it.
But what about us? Is it only the responsibility of those few to do something about things? Why can’t we stand up and say, “This is it. I’ve had enough and I’m going to do something about it”? When are we going to stop blaming the government for everything and look within ourselves?
“Charity begins at home” states the clichéd proverb. So does reform.
The writer works as a social media strategist and writer. Currently she is a business consultant for IBFS Inc.
