Our Elite are No Morons
Riffat Jahan
"Repentance with Allah is only for those who do evil in
ignorance, then turn (to Allah) soon, so these it is to whom Allah
turns (mercifully), and Allah is ever Knowing, Wise."
Surah An-Nisa (004.017), The Holy Quran
ONE
OF the fundamental legal norms that have evolved in most of the
(non-Muslim) Western world is: A person cannot be tried or adjudged
to punishment while such person is mentally incompetent. Furthermore,
a defendant is deemed mentally incompetent if, as a result of mental
disorder or developmental disability, the defendant s unable to
understand the nature of the criminal proceedings or to assist counsel
in the conduct of defence in a rational manner.
As
a result, it is a normal judicial procedure in many developed countries
that before convicting someone, the courts let the accused examined
by forensic psychiatrists, whenever they discern grounds to do so.
The logic behind this (in)sanity evaluation is to determine whether
or not the person in question was capable enough of visualising
the obvious consequences of his/her deeds.
Thus,
those, who are/were mentally or emotionally unable to foresee the
inevitable results of their actions, to appreciate the nature and
wrongfulness of their acts, are not held accountable without taking
their disability into account. Instead of plain imprisonment they
are provided with medical-care, treatment and psychotherapy (usually
at special correctional centres).
This
is because merely incarcerating morons for a certain period of time
serves no purpose. The state-sanctioned punishment and public prosecuting/punitive
mechanisms should primarily aim at reforming and rehabilitating
felons, not (only) avenging. Criminal justice system should be there
to reprimand those who intentionally lapse or deliberately exceed
legal limits, not for locking up mentally retarded people. By any
measure, assisting culprits to improve/recover yields far larger
dividends for the society than by plainly jailing them.
It
implies, not every culprit can automatically be accused of immorality
and/or condemned as a willful sinner. There are extenuating factors
for a wrongdoing if the perpetrator is plausibly inept to distinguish
between wrong and right, if it was beyond his/her intellectual capacity
to grasp that he/she was committing an offence, and/or the (better)
alternatives were clearly out of the question.
Hence,
it is fathomable (and to some extent forgivable), if a poor illiterate
man from a remote village falls short of fulfilling his social/legal
duties. Very possible, that failure is not due to any moral shortfall
or malicious intentions but simply because of his incapability to
identify his obligations.
In
the same way, it is comprehensible if while residing in Pakistan,
one doesn’t reflect over the agony of a worker who cannot
even manage two decent meals a day for his kith and kin despite
toiling in scorching heat for 10-12 long hours. Conceivable, if
for a lower middle class Pakistani, child labour is not an issue
and/or if the future (or rather the lack of it) of innumerable “chotas”
found everywhere in our society is not considered a problem by those
who are themselves just slightly better off.
Explicable
if not justifiable, that the plight of “maasis” working
in our homes, daughters of Islam either metaphorically “wedded
to the Quran” or not getting married because of dowry, newly
born kids dying like flies of easily curable diseases, don’t
qualify to be the foremost concerns of a common man who himself
is preoccupied with his own survival. Human rights issues, one comfortably
presumes, must be a Zionist conspiracy to undermine our national
sovereignty (if we ever had any).
Well,
not very difficult to appreciate all this as the lack of education
and the paucity of exposure to outside world, leave the overwhelming
majority of countrymen with nothing to compare with. Hence, many
despicable practices have almost become norms and so much part of
the routine that they are not even noticed anymore.
At the same time, quite justly, mitigating circumstances don’t
exist if the defendant is a fully sane, well-educated and wealthy
person, who is expected to behave more responsibly than an illiterate
or needy individual.
Anyhow,
leaving theology and legalities aside, a question arises: What defence,
compatriots living in Western countries and the self-styled upper
class in Pakistan have for their wanton code of conduct. Or, please,
allow me to generalize it bit further, how can we (of course including
myself), a comparatively affluent section of the society, justify
our legal and moral transgressions? What alibis do we have on our
disposal? To be honest, we have none. We neither have the luxury/excuse
of “not knowing” nor can we take refuge under “poverty”.
We can’t blame our indifference on not having enough information
either.
Similarly,
almost all of our power holders, both civilians and martial -- handsomely
rewarded, highly privileged -- have been to the West. In addition
to every source of information on their disposal at home, the vast
majority of these VIPs also have first hand empirical knowledge
of the social/administrative equality in the industrialized nations.
A minor illustration: They have no choice but to queue behind all
sorts of ordinary mortals at Western airports and
pass through (on occasion not-so-benign) grilling of immigration
staff, like anyone else.
Although
above the law within our unfortunate country, they are very well
aware of their powerlessness when they tread outside Pakistan. For
instance, would they ever dare to bully a “petty” police
constable in New York? Would they ever try to misbehave with an
attendant at a French departmental store?
They
have knowledge that an emergency call to rescue services has same
priority regardless it comes from a clerk’s home or from the
prime minister residence -- only gravity of the problem matters.
They must have heard (if not seen), ministers taking public transport
to office.
A terrible
fact is that despite all this, still most of them have assiduously
failed to learn or bring back anything positive from there. Really
mind-boggling that having watched all this, how can they sleep at
night amid dreadful miseries and heartrending injustices in Pakistan,
without doing anything about it?
After
having experienced the bounties of free societies, one must be incredibly
insensitive to pretend blind and mute. To maltreat a poor or consider
someone inferior after witnessing human dignity in civilised countries
really requires an extraordinary lack of remorse. That’s why,
apathy of this group is not only indefensible by any standard, it
is akin to gravest depravity.
Rightly
said, ignorance is sometimes a bliss. Awareness and unprejudiced
knowledge can lead to exasperation and restlessness. By traveling
around and beholding social justice in other societies, one can
get the perspective, which he/she lacked earlier. It can become
almost unbearably painful to be aware of the sordid state of affairs,
to watch the millions being mercilessly crushed in the “land
of pure”. To be indifferent and/or remain silent after this
would
definitely be tantamount to impiety.
As
Arundhati Roy puts it, “The trouble is that once you see it,
you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying
nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out."
Anyhow,
this piece of writing is just a modest endeavour to highlight the
proportionality between sanity, knowledge, authority and social
responsibilities, to elaborate a straightforward principle that
the more blessed you are the more
accountable Allah Almighty will hold you. The sole (and very humble)
aim is to impart some reflections, to share few observations with
worthy readers and hopefully incite some self-introspection.
To
be rich or for that matter harbour aspirations to gain financial
viability is neither a sin nor at all an issue here. Quest of economic
and social promotion has always been an instrumental factor in human
dynamism and should not be curtailed. Insatiable greed, disregard
for merit, fast blurring difference between “halal”
and “haram” -- the emerging features of our society
-- are, nevertheless, immensely destructive for any social set-up
and must be urgently checked.
By
the way, is it really that hard to realize that the safety of Bilawal
House is just an illusion if people are enduring grinding poverty
few yards away? What does it require to figure out that to build
Raiwind Palace by pilfering public money is reprehensible, regardless
of court rulings? A rather simple fact that acquiring seven plots
in seven cities “by the book” (through official schemes
at throwaway prices) while over one-third of population is living
in abject poverty is a plunder, whatever the “rules”
may say.
As,
only while riding (official) limousines you have guts to curse the
discipline of people clinging to a wagon, not when you are there
yourself. I guess a major side effect of leading comfortable lives
in secluded garrisons and posh localities is that you can easily
forget that the majority of the fellow citizens doesn’t have
access to even clean drinking water.
What
else, if not a sheer tragedy that today law-breaking garners more
respect than law-abiding in Pakistan, known drug barons have become
celebrities, cold-blooded doctors fleecing poor patients are honourable
members of the society, tax-evaders stand for (and got elected to)
the parliament. Social rejection is the most effective mode to counter
corruption. When wealth amassed by iniquitous means wouldn’t
result in respect or status, (illegally accumulated) riches lose
its attraction, corruption renders redundant. The problem is that
to own assets far beyond known sources of income has ceased to generate
hostile social reaction. We must gather courage to disapprove such
obnoxious practices and treat the corrupt as pariah. In jettisoning
egoism, apathy and cowardly passivity, lies the key to our survival.
While
keep on demanding/striving for the improvements at the macro plane,
we should whole-heartedly begin with the tasks easily within our
reach, at micro level. Very small steps like talking politely to
subordinates, treating everyone alike – with respect, bit
humility, respecting traffic rules etc can together go long way
to make Pakistan a better place to live in. There is no use of waiting
for some miracles to happen, let start from ourselves, this
moment onwards, from our immediate vicinity to start with, to do
whatever we can, to improve the society. No problem, just a step
at a time, but we must try to leap forward.
A two-pronged
strategy: Struggle against injustices on one hand and concurrent
self-improvement on the other is the best recipe to solve our predicaments.
Given our emotionalism (a positive trait, if utilized constructively),
vast pool of human resources, grand cultural and family ideals,
enormous natural treasures Pakistan offers tremendous opportunities
and has every potential to become a state to reckon with, provided
we wake up to the realities and our
individual/collective duties.
"Yet
surely your Lord, with respect to those who do an evil in ignorance,
then turn after that and make amends, most surely your Lord after
that is Forgiving, Merciful." Surah An-Nahl (016.119)
The
writer holds a Masters degree in history and is currently residing
in Sweden. She occasionally comments on current affairs.
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