Oh, the baggage that we carry. Heavy as heavy can be and entirely cumbersome. But many of us believe this load which we have been piling on our backs and which has turned us into a frowning, lumbering lot, is a symbol of some kind of greatness. The truth is, it has nearly broken our backs and yet we’d rather ignore its straining impact on us and lumber on; and that too, in slow, monotonous circles. A circle which keeps getting smaller with each droning round.

Last Monday when a black actor won an Oscar, social media in Pakistan came alive celebrating the win because the actor, Mahershala Ali, was not only black, he was also supposedly Muslim. However, just half an hour later when it became known that he was an Ahmadi, dozens of Twitter handles which were glorifying his win, quickly went on a deleting spree, including a lady who is a former Pakistan ambassador to the US.

One also noticed that the same delete brigade had previously exhibited great rage and concern over Trump’s Muslim travel ban and, recently, some had also bemoaned the alleged racial profiling of Pakhtuns in Punjab.

Occupying the space abandoned by developed democracies requires us to change our mindsets

One gentleman tweeted, ‘Congrats to first Muslim-American to win Oscar. Great achievement!’ He then deleted the tweet as soon as someone responded that the actor was Ahmadi. He replied: ‘Thank you brother for clarificashun (sic). It’s shielded me from major fault.’

Just as he deleted his congratulatory tweet, I checked his timeline. It was packed with tweets raging against the West for stereotyping Muslims and being ‘racist’ towards them. And as if this wasn’t ironic enough, two days before his ‘major fault,’ the gentleman had tweeted: ‘West doing complete racial action against Muslims.’ No ‘major fault’ in this tweet, of course.

Anyway, no matter how ironic and even unintentionally satirical all this is, it is certainly not surprising. In fact, it is actually entirely normal as far as we are concerned. Things such as racism and xenophobia are condemnable for one set of folk, but justifiable against another set. This dichotomy is never contested. It just is and is expected to be understood because otherwise: ‘major fault.’

Ever since the 1970s, the state and various governments of Pakistan enthusiastically unfolded a project of social engineering based on a very narrow idea of faith, politics and nationalism. It was an exhibition of myopia which was expected to lead us towards some glorious utopia. Not surprisingly, it has led us into becoming an anarchic dystopia in which everyone is in fear of committing one major fault or the other; and where intellectual and spiritual growth has become increasingly cramped, even stalled.

Many terrible ruptures latter, and because of a possibility of this dystopia finally changing course through some generous Chinese investment, the state has finally begun to notice the myopia that was imposed upon the land and its people.

However, as reassuring as this may sound and seem, the state and government have also realised that what was once imposed from above by the state, has now become the a project of those below: the people.

This is at least one reason why many aspects of the National Action Plan (NAP) have become rather problematic to implement. To begin with, these could require certain amendments in the Constitution; a constitution which, some critics believe, actually enshrines certain not-very-progressive notions of pluralism. Critics say that it has become a document to shield the very mindset which now needs to be altered.

In a world where (because of various reasons) some of the more established democracies are moving towards exactly the kind of regressive and populist myopia and ideological complications which we began to embrace decades ago, Pakistan can claim to have seen that and done that.

Our experience in this context should actually help us predict what will become of the nations that have decided to take the disastrous path which we did many years ago. This should work to our advantage because, interestingly, we just might be entering a stage of evolution which may help us become the newfangled versions of what these nations once were. Thus, we need to begin filling the spaces which are bound to be created by the new-found introversion and withdrawal of nations which were once bastions of democracy, free trade and pluralism.

It won’t be an overstatement to suggest that institutions such as the Pakistan military, and the current government and even some opposition parties have become conscious of this somewhat unusual scenario and opportunity.

But the state and government must push hard to implement the constitutional and, consequently, judicial and educational reforms required to transform the convoluted mindset within the society that was engineered from the 1970s onward. It is this engrained mindset which is keeping us from fully realising our new-found opportunity and potential to progress.

The time to make the best of this opportunity is now. We must make haste to occupy the space that has been left unattended by those who have just recently become hostage to the deceiving allure of paranoid populist madness.

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 5th, 2017