OVER the years, I have been critical of every politician in power. And ever since this newspaper went online, their supporters have disagreed with me to varying degrees.
But by and large, our email exchange has been civil, and more often than not, we have agreed to disagree. When I began this column in 1992, Nawaz Sharif was in power, and the wheel has turned full circle. In the intervening period, Benazir Bhutto, Musharraf and Asif Zardari have ruled, and they all had their fans and detractors.
But while some supporters have expressed themselves rather inelegantly, there has seldom been any outright abuse. On the few occasions there was, I merely deleted the messages and blocked the sender from my inbox. Who has time to waste on mindless abuse?
Fortunately, such occasions have been rare. Until the last few months, that is: now, whenever I have written a piece critical of Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, I get a stream of abusive emails from his supporters. Some of them begin aggressively, and descend to the gutter when I try and engage them in rational debate.
It is a truism that those with neither the wit nor the knowledge to argue effectively resort to abuse in an attempt to browbeat their interlocutors. And when they succeed in shouting down their opponents, they think they have won the argument. This encourages them to use this technique in future encounters.
Long gone are the days of subtle but sharp insults.
Thus far, supporters of the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q (not many of those, actually), Musharraf and even the MQM have been generally civilised in their correspondence with me. They are usually willing to engage in a discussion, and back up their arguments with points they think contradict whatever I might have written.
I have no problem with a robust exchange. Indeed, over the years, I have developed a rather thick skin. So given the generally civil tone over the last two decades, why are Imran Khan’s supporters so different from those who back other politicians?
Could it be because they are younger? But I have exchanged emails with hundreds of young people over the years, and have found them to be generally polite and positive. Or could it be that PTI supporters hear their leader shouting abuse at his political opponents every day from his bully pulpit, and think this is an entirely acceptable way to behave?
Another reason for the coarsening of public discourse is probably the rise of TV chat shows as a popular form of entertainment. Here, viewers are exposed for hours to a steady stream of ignorant views, loudly expressed. Discussions quickly degenerate into shouting matches. And regrettably, most of our popular hosts set the tone for this noisy and boorish spectacle.
No wonder some viewers at an impressionable age think it is all right to be rude and confrontational. When far older politicians as well as retired generals and diplomats angrily raise their voices to win a point, what kind of example are they setting for the young?
When I was critical of Imran Khan’s refusal to compromise and engage in the give-and-take of politics in a recent column, many of his supporters accused me of urging a dialogue with corrupt politicians. They voiced such indignation that it appeared that Pakistan has a monopoly on corruption.
And yet the world is full of societies where venality flourishes: we only have to look across our borders at what goes on in all our neighbouring countries. Even in more mature democracies, corruption is not unknown.
By making it a central part of his agenda, Imran Khan has brainwashed his young supporters into thinking that as soon as he’s in power, he will eradicate corruption. Once this miracle occurs, rivers of milk and honey — and possibly even fine single malt — will flow across the land.
But although his party has been in power for over a year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, money still changes hands to get the bureaucracy to perform its duty. An old friend in Peshawar confirmed to me that he had been asked for a lakh by the local patwari for a document he needed.
Just as there has been a steady escalation in the sophistication of the arms available and used in Pakistan, so too has there been a rise in the stridency and offensiveness of the language deployed. Long gone are the days of subtle but sharp insults delivered in chaste Lucknavi Urdu; welcome to the era of curses recalling female members of the family.
Other writers who have dared express negative views about Imran Khan have had similar experiences with PTI trolls who think they can change minds through choice epithets. And if not, at least shut the critics up. They don’t understand how poorly this reflects on their leader and their party.
But perhaps the leader doesn’t care.
Let me close with a request to PTI supporters not to bother sending me their usual hate-mail.
Published in Dawn, November 22th , 2014
