Col (r) Ikram Ullah Khan
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”.
After a long time or to be more precise, after three decades, I happened to read the immortal creation of Charles Dickens: “A Tale of Two Cities”, and the above-quoted lines are the opening lines of this novel suggesting the extreme contradictions of time and heralding an impending revolution. I picked up these lines, with the very first line making the title of my write-up because these lines make relevance to the current situation we are facing.
This historical novel dramatizes the social conflicts, political end economic crises and injustices that led to the French Revolution. The novel suggests that anywhere oppression, injustices and social conflicts run wild, the oppressed and the mistreated will react violently. To better understand the quote, one needs to examine the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century.
Charles Dickens wrote this magnum opus in 1859 when French and American societies had already witnessed revolution and undergone a complete metamorphosis after having experienced a long despotic rule and colonial suppression respectively that culminated in the abolition of French monarchy and British colonial rule in America.
This apparently impossible tour de force was made possible by the great leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte of France and George Washington of America who took their nations out of an abyss of despair and showed them the path of hope, peace and prosperity. Today, the United States of America is the sole super power of the world and France makes one of the greatest economies of the world. The reason is that both the countries through centuries have been led by great leaders who were sincere to the bone and always kept the national interest supreme.
Today, when we compare the circumstances prevailing in France and America around 225 years ago with the circumstances that currently exist in third world countries in general and Pakistan in particular, we find a striking similarity. People of the subcontinent underwent the same ordeal during the British colonial rule and before Pakistan came into being under the visionary and genuine leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that marked the end of British colonial rule from the subcontinent.
This was made possible because the man leading the nation was genuine and sincere and had a clear mission to accomplish; and the whole nation stood by him as they had an unflinching faith in his leadership. Despite the fact that their leader couldn’t speak their language and addressed them in English, thus making it hard for them to understand, they followed him as they saw in him a truthful and trustworthy leader and a saviour. Herein lies a great lesson for today’s leadership to learn.
We had the best of time during the early decades of our independence as peace, security, prosperity and above all, sense of ownership prevailed; but 77 years down the road from independence, we are having the worst of times as we are breathing in an environment characterized by social conflict, poverty, economic injustice, political polarization, and to top it all, the menace of terrorism that has eaten into the vitals of the country, and we are living under the constant fear of insecurity.
Today, we have forgotten Quaid-i-Azam’s motto, “Unity, Faith, Discipline”, instead, we have fallen apart into a disunited, disjointed and indiscipline nation.
Financially, we are experiencing the worst of times with our leaders visiting friendly countries and requesting them to come to our rescue. They are running from pillar to post to bring foreign investment but no one is willing to do that in a big way. Our economic polices are dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and our financial survival is dependent on its bailout package.
In order to secure loan, we have to obey IMF’s harsh bidding and accept its tough conditionalities. The demand by IMF to ‘do more’ has to be met willy-nilly as we don’t have the spine to say ‘no more’. The story doesn’t end here. Once we meet the conditionalities set by IMF, it keeps moving the goalposts, and this goes on ad infinitum, thereby making it even harder for the economic managers to secure the intended loan.
Internally, we are plagued by political polarization, intolerance, terrorism, intimidation and blackmailing by foreign-funded centrifugal forces like BLA, BLF and PTM. Moreover, we are living in a paranoid society that has made us fearful and suspicious of each other.
When we see these happenings through the prism of French and American Revolutions and draw a comparison, we find more or less the same factors at play in many third world countries including Pakistan.
