Governance becomes a nightmare in a media-driven world
Saeed MiNhas
Latest victims of this doom and gloom theory include our newly elected
government of PML-N while Peoples Party has just learned that lesson
after a humiliating outing in the recently-held general elections. Ever
since this mini screen has brought a feisty dictator down and put a new
life in the compromised judiciary, its role in setting the agenda for
any political or dictatorial regimes is becoming a permanent headache
for the entire ruling elite. As one senior and instrumental
parliamentarian from the recent PPP government put it “things are
changing so rapidly here because of TV. People are taking their
comedians more seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
First we saw Gen. Musharraf challenged by the yelling anchors in 2007 for not taking any action against the imposing mullahs of Lal Mosque. When media pushed a commando into action, within 24 hours the same anchors were yelling at the use of brute force by then then corp commander of Rawalpindi Tariq Majeed. Hardly weeks went by when the same media showed chief justice of Pakistan presenting his progress report to Gen Musharraf in his presidential palace while discussing the role of complacent judiciary in validating the 1999 military coup and subsequent endorsements. Then the same experts even senior analysts were seen criticizing the general for sending a reference against the chief justice for his removal on charges of misuse of power. The commando failed to comprehend the scale of TV’s impact and continued showing his fist which eventually made him sit for hours in front of the same anchors whom he used to call names and do the damage control. But result is there for everyone to see.
Peoples Party, riding on the lessons learned from jails and political criminology adopted a unique way of blocking out the media by resorting to boycott the agenda setting anchors and media house. It eventually completed five years despite the fact that major anchors of a media house were seen jumping on their mini screens to predict the ouster of Zardari government at any given time. But the tight lipped policy only helped PPP to put a question mark on the credibility of all such anchors. But as they say that who cares about credibility when in President Zardari’s own words political actors sitting on screens become holier than the policy makers. Zardari-gimmick worked only to the extent that the party completed its tenure but the common buzz word heard in every goth, village or remotest part of the country was that even if a cow is stolen, the blame would fall on President Zardari or his government.
Now comes the Nawaz government which has got more than even it had wished throughout the election campaign of 2013. The federal finance minister was heard joking about the social media’s outburst against him for not raising salaries of the federal government employees just a say after presenting the budget in the House. “Only few thousand people cannot tell me that what I should do for a country of 180 million,” he told the scalp-hungry media men in his post budget briefing. It hardly took two days for him to realize that even these few thousand coupled with the anchors he used to love just a few weeks back, made him announce a ten per cent raise for the employees. Ziarat and Quetta is just another example where we can see the switching of the roles of opposition and treasury benches. Chaudhry Nisar, known for making lengthy speeches on every single issue for castigating the government, was seen occupying the same seat from where few weeks back Rehman Malik used to assure the nation that “I have got everything under control.”
Debate on the budget was all but seemed an effort in vain because finance minister Ishaq Dar was hardly listening to the few suggestions hurled at him in between lots of criticism on almost everything under the sun. Hardly anything was new in today’s proceedings, except the faces receiving the pouncing from other side of the House wore a green goblin’s looks while a few months back those yelling at the top of their voices now were sitting on the treasury benches with red rolled sleeves. As for the budgetary deficit is concerned, one of Leaguer sitting with a bureaucrat of the finance ministry just summed up our day by quoting famous remarks of American President Ronald Regan: “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
First we saw Gen. Musharraf challenged by the yelling anchors in 2007 for not taking any action against the imposing mullahs of Lal Mosque. When media pushed a commando into action, within 24 hours the same anchors were yelling at the use of brute force by then then corp commander of Rawalpindi Tariq Majeed. Hardly weeks went by when the same media showed chief justice of Pakistan presenting his progress report to Gen Musharraf in his presidential palace while discussing the role of complacent judiciary in validating the 1999 military coup and subsequent endorsements. Then the same experts even senior analysts were seen criticizing the general for sending a reference against the chief justice for his removal on charges of misuse of power. The commando failed to comprehend the scale of TV’s impact and continued showing his fist which eventually made him sit for hours in front of the same anchors whom he used to call names and do the damage control. But result is there for everyone to see.
Peoples Party, riding on the lessons learned from jails and political criminology adopted a unique way of blocking out the media by resorting to boycott the agenda setting anchors and media house. It eventually completed five years despite the fact that major anchors of a media house were seen jumping on their mini screens to predict the ouster of Zardari government at any given time. But the tight lipped policy only helped PPP to put a question mark on the credibility of all such anchors. But as they say that who cares about credibility when in President Zardari’s own words political actors sitting on screens become holier than the policy makers. Zardari-gimmick worked only to the extent that the party completed its tenure but the common buzz word heard in every goth, village or remotest part of the country was that even if a cow is stolen, the blame would fall on President Zardari or his government.
Now comes the Nawaz government which has got more than even it had wished throughout the election campaign of 2013. The federal finance minister was heard joking about the social media’s outburst against him for not raising salaries of the federal government employees just a say after presenting the budget in the House. “Only few thousand people cannot tell me that what I should do for a country of 180 million,” he told the scalp-hungry media men in his post budget briefing. It hardly took two days for him to realize that even these few thousand coupled with the anchors he used to love just a few weeks back, made him announce a ten per cent raise for the employees. Ziarat and Quetta is just another example where we can see the switching of the roles of opposition and treasury benches. Chaudhry Nisar, known for making lengthy speeches on every single issue for castigating the government, was seen occupying the same seat from where few weeks back Rehman Malik used to assure the nation that “I have got everything under control.”
Debate on the budget was all but seemed an effort in vain because finance minister Ishaq Dar was hardly listening to the few suggestions hurled at him in between lots of criticism on almost everything under the sun. Hardly anything was new in today’s proceedings, except the faces receiving the pouncing from other side of the House wore a green goblin’s looks while a few months back those yelling at the top of their voices now were sitting on the treasury benches with red rolled sleeves. As for the budgetary deficit is concerned, one of Leaguer sitting with a bureaucrat of the finance ministry just summed up our day by quoting famous remarks of American President Ronald Regan: “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
Media and politicians are two sides of a coing my dear it does not matter who wins or loose its all about who takes which side
ReplyDeleteMedia, speially TV has become such a nuisance that all these wisemen who gather for their sermons around dinner time have become a real pain in the neck for ordinary people like me. we have stopped watching TV shows and prefer to see soaps at least we dont get tension
ReplyDeletedont forget that tv has exposed all these elements whom u r calling are runing this country accept good and bad of tv at least we are not living with one way traffic of ptv
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