Muhammad Usman
HISTORY fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster”- Douglas MacArthur. Whatever is seen morally, all seem in unison to have set us on a roller coaster to disaster. It is the stark reality and ironically, we remain unmindful of impending implosion, overwhelmed with all-consuming greed, cutthroat impatience, enervating impoverishment and all-encompassing bereavement. This is no outpouring, out of an abstract phenomena, over exaggeration and desperation. This stems from hard facts. A mere glance around, would stand the testimony, fraught with extreme dangers. Amid coronavirus pandemic, we fleeced humanity a plenty with no shred of remorse and guilt.
The dying corona patients were charged to the punishing extent of Rs two million. Pandemic failed to persuade business community of corona drugs, petroleum, sugar and atta not to grind own axe at expense of lifesaving drugs and essential items for sustenance in dire times. Nothing could move them to change their tack of excessive profiteering. Only beasts could emulate what they did flagrantly. Collective inaction was conspicuous. A few months back, we had to witness/endure an unthinkable carnage at Punjab Institute of Cardiology, perpetrated by no other than but custodians of law; lawyers clad in black coats in broad day light under nose of notoriously known Punjab police. They ran amok and pillaged everything which came in their way merely for reasons of vanity. No crying heart patient/beseeching attendant could evoke an iota of mercy in their cruel heart. They ripped off oxygen masks and intravenous needles.
The outrage even outstripped enemy soldiers who spare not only civilian medical facilities but also of rival soldiers. The ugliest part was mitti pao collectively including Judiciary. We have outgrown gall, imprudence and apathy to a level where we feel no scruple to hand over a passenger airplane to those who joined the airline on fake degrees. This amounts to a dealership for death peddlers. On top of this, when this heinous act was exposed in backdrop of an air crash, a sizeable number of people including political leadership started criticizing government for acting untactful against national interests. Only myopic minds could think so irresponsibly, unethically and treacherously. They failed to comprehend that ultimate national interests lied in what government did. It was an absolutely condemnable act. Another forbidding example is of Nawaz Sharif who left the country on fake illness through falsehood, fraud and deceit and at first instance, threw away pack of pretensions. He knew that eventually, this holds no enduring public backlash. At large, people would forget rather condone courtesy a little bit of sophistry/venality by his media crooks. This has already happened when he left for Saroor Palace at Jeddah under humiliating terms and conditions.
The simple reason advanced was “Jaan hai to jahan hai”. Instead of judging him on a criteria of leader in an adversity, people made him PM third time. It speaks volume about dreadful state of immorality and judgment we are in. Arguably, these examples would suffice to vividly illustrate that cycle of our moral degeneration is total and complete. People know it and disapprove it but wittingly/unwittingly continue to indulge themselves freely without compunction. The rot is wide and deep and top to bottom. In words of a renowned religious scholar, Maulana Tariq Jamil, even a labourer has also become dishonest and corrupt. The reasons for all pervasive moral lapse have already been mentioned; greed, impatience, impoverishment and bereavement. Besides, there are two more notable reasons; leadership and absence of accountability. The root cause is leadership because fish rotes from head. Instead of being a role model, guide and teacher of the nation, they opted to be robbers and abject object of immorality, iniquity and indifference. Net result of moral morass is that as a whole, we have fallen prey to an unending rat race. People have lost the ability to discriminate between right and wrong. 4-5 media talk shows are enough to shepherd them around. For some petty gain, they tend to side with wrong doers or overlook a misdeed, causing much bigger collective harm. Our ruling elite has thrived on this bent of mind successively.
Once again, they have started seeing an opportunity because government of Imran Khan has not provided relief to people as they are addicted to in pursuit of revamping the economy genuinely. People are increasingly growing wary of it while forgetting that how long they could subsist on piffling/transient relief as used to be provided by ruling elite at prohibitive cost of their future and future of their children. The salvation lies in long-term revival of economy. Though economic conditions are cramped but probably as an inevitable, we have to wade through economic and other swamps, left by ruling elite after loot and plunder. Our condition is beyond the homeopathic handling. It requires surgery and so as would involve pain. Seeing saviours among them, once again by people is like asking wolfs to scratch their back. Here, matter is more of a moral character. No economic well will spring from moral sinkhole. First we need to be out of it because an equitable economic enterprise is an extension of a moral enterprise only. A true leader could rearm a nation morally. Imran Khan looks to be that but tends to falter too frequently.
— The writer, a retired Lt Col, is freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
