Pakistan`s angry political culture
BY M A L E E H A L O D H I 2021-01-04
The political culture of a country always evolves. But not necessarily in a positive direction. As elsewhere in the world, politics in Pakistan has long had unseemly dimensions. Political leaders have often acted from a zero-sum view of political competition and were far from respectful of their opponents. However, the political culture in the country today is a departure from the past in many respects. Even if some features were present earlier, they were not as dominant as they are now. Today both the language used by political leaders and their conduct have fostered an environment that is permeated by such extreme positions and incendiary rhetoric as to render any meaningful political conversation impossible. Rarely has the public discourse sunk to the low level that it has now. True that past political behaviour also exhibited some of these traits.
But it is their pronounced nature and the angry environment that politicians are playing off and reinforcing as well as using multiple media platforms for aggressive messaging that distinguishes the present. Four overlapping aspects of the `new` political culture stand out: the language of politics has taken on a form and tone that is excessively harsh; the accent by politicians is on demonizing opponents rather than articulating their own positions; the political middle ground is being steadily eliminated; and the ethic of war has been injected into politics by an attitude that sees opponents as enemies to be eliminated rather than competed with.
The impact of the confluence of these factors has been to create a toxic political environment that is sharply polarized and dominated by invective, not argument. Insults are routinely hurled by government and opposition figures against each other. Polemics by both sides have assumed an intensely personal nature, involving character attacks. Extreme partisanship has also made the political center-ground disappear with little effort directed at bridging differences.