Many learned treatises and dissertations, not to mention articles, have been written and are being written on every subject under the sky, attempting structural, sociological, political and historical analyses of contemporary issues. So many, indeed, that were I to do the same I would be repeating much that has already been said or will be said soon.
It has often been said that the root of our problems is illiteracy. I beg to differ. Our illiterate people toil from dawn to dusk for a pittance and then get short shrifted by the educated exploiting classes. My readers are not the illiterate people of Pakistan, but the educated ones. Many of them permanently live in the West or spend time there, but are in constant denial about our ills and the West’s achievements. Others are highly professional people who use the Internet to confuse and obfuscate, sometimes even to disseminate downright stupidity.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel, but merely be honest about our shortcomings, show more concern for the people of, say, Dera Ghazi Khan than of Gaza, and adopt the well-known principles of good governance and civic behaviour. But, to begin with, we must be ruthlessly frank in self-criticism.
My purpose is to provoke, to shame if possible, by stating the obvious without mincing words. It is not without reason that my column carries the logo “Thinking aloud”. I write as an observer, and purposely do not use my academic title of “Dr” with my name. If my writings are even remotely as succinct and thought-provoking as some of my readers think, then I have achieved my objective. I hope others will take off from where I sign off.