Being an avid follower of various Pakistani political blogging websites on the internet, I have come to the conclusion that Pakistani bloggers need a change in their thought process. It seems to me that it has become a necessity to assume the worst case scenario of a particular situation. Although generalizing is a habit that one should stay away from, especially in politics, it is rather unfortunate that those discussing Pakistani politics enjoy toying with the hearts and minds of the public. There is a difference in creating conspiracy theories and constructive criticism. Why do we always give credit to the conspiracy theorists? Why are we so fascinated when authors bring out stories, twisting and turning facts?
Countless writers have already stated that before we blame the West for our problems, we Pakistani’s must change our own dirty habits. But are we really willing to change? When the affluent land lord continues to steal water for his farmlands, how can we expect change? When a MP pockets development funds to build his dera, are we ready for change? When our opposition parties are only busy in demeaning the government, can we bring about change? When our writers and thinkers constantly wreak havoc by introducing extreme conspiracy theories, is change right for us? When our citizens are willing to take an innocent human life based on religion and alleged rumors, should we expect change?
Our sufferings have come about not because the United States left in a jiffy after the Soviets exited Afghanistan, but rather because of our own mentality and thought process. The drive within us to break the red light at night, to pocket money that is not ours, to cheat the system has led us to become spoilt children. Now is the time to stand up and break these poor habits. Now is the time to purify ourselves so that Pakistan can really live up to its meaning of ‘Land of the Pure’.
With the help of 24-hour news and the internet, it is not difficult for stories to get around; be they truth or lies. But our job as Pakistanis is to decipher the truth from all the stories floating around. We need to stop giving credit to news items that are harmful for our country. By constantly portraying India and the West as an eternal threat, lambasting politicians and government, creating false stories pertaining to the United States and other similar news items, we are only exhibiting our lack of poor thought process and judgments. By giving credit to false news items and conspiracies, we are only exposing our lack of nationalism to the rest of the world. It is time we put an end to the lies and give way to the truth. It is the least we can do for our country after all she has endured.
It should be every Pakistani’s agenda to call out all those journalists who are adamant in spreading stories that fuel conspiracy theories. I’m sure if such journalists have enough free time to figure out which Zionist group is coming to Pakistan or when Blackwater would be patrolling the streets in Islamabad, they would have ample time to investigate and uncover stories which could benefit the nation as a whole. They should use their journalistic skills to help the current situation in Pakistan rather than cough up bogus stories and toy with the hearts and minds of Pakistani citizens. We as a nation can not only do better: we deserve to do better!
An excellent article. I quite agree with the author.
I read your article but why is it that everyone in such article somehow bring the landlords in their discussion. Why not politicians, businessmen, bank defaulters and corrupt govt officials.
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