The mess we are in …… Zorain Nizamani
You might arrest or pick someone up because of their dissent. People might be silenced for having differing opinions on matters. Opinions that you may not agree with. Citizens might be silenced or kidnapped because their humor highlighting the state of affairs is a little too true.
You might laugh when someone stands up for their rights. That someone is advocating for something as idealistic as human rights. You might throw them in jail or have them tangled in a web of litigation so they don’t see the light of the day.
What’s the worse that can happen? You’ll throw them in jail, maybe force them out of the country or even send them to the gallows? What next? Soon, another rebel will be born and you’ll do all of this again. Then what? Another will be born. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s a perpetual, vicious cycle. With no end in sight.
Solution? No solution. Sometimes, you have to sit down and understand that dissent can only be suppressed to an extent. After a certain point, matters are bound to go beyond your control.
Change? No. Revolution? Absolutely. Oh how we could use one right now.
Bangladesh is an example that is being cited just about everywhere. Bangladesh is emblematic of change, of resistance and of the fact that people will only bear things up to a point. After that, citizens, rebels, traitors, call them what you want, will step out of their homes, risk losing their lives and fight for change.
What change you ask? Change where the state stops poking its nose into the lives of its citizens. Yes, we live in a free country and yes there are limits to freedoms which is understandable. But slowing down the internet and increasing digital surveillance?
We can all be VIPs if we have guns and guards and we can impose our will on lesser beings. But, for how long?
Change is inevitable. Oppressive regimes can only last for so long and the oppressors know that. They know that as long as the people don’t riot, nothing will change and they will continue to remain in power.
Power, like alcohol, is a drug. It gets you hooked. And why wouldn’t it? It would get anyone addicted.
Where will the change begin from? I believe educational institutions have a massive role to play in advocating for change in the country. Again, Bangladesh is an example. But our education institutions have always been deprived of basic necessities. Few public universities in the country possess the relevant infrastructure for students to educate themselves. What about private universities? Their students are too busy living in a bubble of their own where their fathers pay for everything they do.
Revolution isn’t treason. Resistance to oppressive regimes isn’t treason. Keeping your country hostage for your personal gains is treason. Not letting your people succeed and not giving them facilities to succeed is treason.
Along the way, we lost our goal. We lost our aim and we lost our ambition. We became slaves to the grind. We learned to keep our heads down and take what was thrown at us. And now we’re here.
Where you ask? In the middle of nowhere. Being ruled by people who’ve never had to struggle a single minute to earn their bread. Each one of them was born in privileged households with a diamond studded spoon in their mouth (silver spoons are for the poor). Had these people known how much it took to earn a fair living, they wouldn’t be slowing down the internet. Instead, they would be facilitating their people. Encouraging hard work, encouraging research-based development of policies.
But well, in the end, the question beckons: who will get us out of this mess?
No one. We as citizens will have to get up and step out.
Courtesy Express Tribune