SICK of cross-border cheap shots? Nauseated by referendum rigmarole? Tired hearing third-rate politicos rave and rant? Fretful of foreigners systematically ditch Pakistan citing terrorism as the cause? Angry about present junta’s self-congratulatory back-patting? In sum, frustrated with the hand Fate has dealt?
Lighten up. You are not alone. Dr Wayne Dyer — ‘father of motivation’ and one of the most widely known and respected people in the field of self-empowerment — is disgusted, too, with American politicians and their sanctimonious chatter.
“You are not our leaders,” fumes the soft-spoken Dyer, “no one that I know goes to sleep at night saying, ‘my leaders are in Washington DC’!” The American people, he says, are not sheep who need to be led, “we are perfectly capable of leading ourselves; in fact we do it every day.”
Call it a miracle half-a-century of survival by Pakistanis who, too, have managed in the absence of one — yes not even one — democratic leader worth a name? Except for a claque of piplias who doted on Bhutto dynasty, and impostor Leaguers who cheered the Sharifs in rent-a-crowd rallies, would any Pakistani in his or her right mind concede that BB & MNS were indeed legitimate leaders? Yes, both got elected twice, and don’t we all know how? Don’t we all know when booted out, how the whole nation raised its hands in thanksgiving for deliverance from evil?
Why then do writers like M.J. Akbar lecture to us on the merits of a democratic government? The editor-in-chief of New Delhi-based Asian Age, Akbar, while laboriously limning Pakistani politics in his article Both cause and effect (Dawn, May 23) authoritatively concludes: “If the (Musharraf) government in Pakistan does not represent the people, then what precisely does it represent? Think about it.”
Think about what?
Akbar betrays a typical Indian psyche when he quotes Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland wring his hands: “No one plays this aid game better than Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, whose uneven help in the way on terrorism has been purchased at excessive monetary and moral cost to the United States. Washington’s unconditional generosity now seems to encourage the Pakistanis to toy with the United States even on the subject of terrorism ... How do you say chutzpah in Urdu?”
In truth, Indians have no stomach for Musharraf’s audacity to dance with Bush. Besides, what’s wrong with him wresting a billion from Bush for his country? Let Indian PM Vajpayee show us his ‘chutzpah’... but first he must shed his dhoti and brush up his ballroom dance steps ... who knows Bush may take a shine to his lisp if not his lithe and open up his wallet.
Rhythms of life; swirl of changes is what Pakistan is all about and not its leaders. The first rays of the sun sees the farmer out in his fields; the women square with the challenges of the day; the youth out in search of work; and the children headed to schools (if they be lucky enough). In cities, the crazy traffic roars to life to start another day ... the cycle of living viciously straddling decades of corrupt democratic governments and military regimes has made the country go belly up. What else do the Indians want? Our blood?
Wayne Dyer snubs politicians’ claim to leading the country. “No politician was responsible for leading us (America) in the struggle for civil rights. Rosa Parks (a poor black woman who refused to sit at the back of the bus designated for blacks) was a leader. Those who marched and ignored the racist laws passed by lawmakers were the leaders of civil rights.”
Who were the leaders of the Renaissance? asks Dyer, “the office holders? the politicians? No! the leaders were those who brought a new consciousness through their writing, art, music, and through challenging the entrenched ideologies of the office holders.”
Is there a ‘leader’ in Pakistan who has ever challenged the entrenched ideology of his predecessor? No. Each arriving windbag has made Everest-high promises to put things right, but ended up biting the dust. Musharraf posed as the last messiah, sadly his promises sound schmaltzy.
Has any politician ever created mass jobs? No! They only create sifarshi jobs for their kith, kin and cronies. The rest of hoi polloi, according to Dyer, depend on their ingenuity, gumption and desire to create and produce livelihoods for themselves. Right General Musharraf, Ms Bhutto and Mian sahib?
“You print money. You regulate. You pass laws. But we produce jobs. We create wealth by working and producing, not by sitting in committees and talking of our self-importance,” says Wayne Dyer, who has seen life first-hand — growing up in foster homes with a jail-bird as a father who never knew him as he was too involved abusing alcohol and five wives.
Remembering reading an election slogan in USA Today — ‘We are for the people, they are for the powerful — gave Dyer disconcerting moments: “Inherent in such a phrase is the idea that the people are not powerful, only those who are well off are empowered.” He says such rhetoric gives people to believe they are “powerless to advance, to create their own greatness, to attract abundance and health into their lives, to transcend the ordinary levels of disempowerment.”
A staunch supporter of the silent majority suffering in silence, whether in US or Pakistan, Wayne Dyer directs his wisdom towards them. “You are powerful, you are connected to the divine and with God you can accomplish anything you make up your mind to do.” He quotes the painter Michelangelo: ‘The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.’
Pakistanis accept schizoid leaders — men and women who have abused their trust — too often. And in return the ‘leaders’ vote themselves benefits that ordinary people are denied. “Be ever mindful of your role,” Dyer tells the leaders, “you are their servants.”
Can a single son/daughter of the soil stand up and call their leaders ‘servants’? Can we, upon Wayne Dyer’s advice, tell Musharraf and his merry men, “you (servants) don’t get to make demands. We, the people do. You don’t own funds you receive for protecting, regulating and delegating. The people do. Pakistan is our country?
“If you want to speak to us, do it from your heart, without a Teleprompter or a spin doctor (Gen Rashid Qureshi/Nisar Memon) at your side. We don’t need to be coddled or lied to. We can smell insincerity or cow-dung a mile away.”
While we wait to pick up the courage for such bravado, Wayne Dyer’s ten secrets of success, can certainly be tailored as an antidote:
* Have a mind that’s open to everything and attached to nothing.
* Don’t die with your music still in you.
* You can’t give away what you don’t have.
* Embrace silence.
* Give up your personal history.
* You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.
* There are no justified resentments.
* Treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to be.
* Treasure your divinity.
* Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you.
A personal first-aid kit for the poison our leaders emit?
SICK of cross-border cheap shots? Nauseated by referendum rigmarole? Tired hearing third-rate politicos rave and rant? Fretful of foreigners systematically ditch Pakistan citing terrorism as the cause? Angry about present junta’s self-congratulatory back-patting? In sum, frustrated with the hand Fate has dealt?
