Adil Najam
For nearly a week now Pakistan has watched, in stunned horror, yet another episode of vigilante justice. This one unfolding on our television screens in all its gory detail. The savage murder of two young brothers – Mughees and Muneeb – in Sialkot as people, including police, look on has rightly incensed our sensibilities.
The news itself is clearly horrific, horrible, and horrifying. But the newness in the news is that this time people, including the media and official authorities, are moved enough to unleash an outcry. That is new. And that is news.
What happened in Sialkot was ghastly in its detail, inhuman in its execution, and numbing in the reaction of those who stood by to just view (and film) it. But even if the magnitude was off all scale, the action itself – that is, vigilante justice – was not new: More than what happened in Sialkot, what is new is the larger national reaction to what happened at Sialkot.
The media has begun asking some important questions (even though parts of the media still seems mostly interested in the voyeuristic elements of violence in action). Government officials, starting with the Sialkot Administrator but later also the police chief and the provincial and national authorities, including the Supreme Court, have moved not just to condemn but to take action. More action and better implementation is required, but public outcry has clearly worked in this case to move the authorities into action.
All of this is exactly how functioning polities should deal with incidents of extremism and vigilantelism. But mostly importantly, all of this is news precisely because this is not how things like this have often been dealt with in the past. The opportunity in this truly horrible event is to turn this into a moment of true introspection about ourselves and the attitudes about violence of the many in society, rather than another voyeuristic titillation about the brutality of the few.
Supreme court or not, the jury is still out on whether we will be able to do so or not.
By now everyone knows the details and many have seen the gut-wrenching video of the savagery unfolding in front of their eyes. The video ghastly indeed; not just because of what is being done to the two young brothers but also what is not being done by all the people watching it. Like tamashbeen they watch the orgy of violence in front of them seemingly not moved; indeed sometimes they seem to be cheering on; flashes, cameras, mobile phones keep flashing on the screen as if these were spectators at a sporting event; and these are ordinary people: including the police, traders going about their regular business, ordinary citizens, and even children. The video sends a cold shiver up ones spine. As it should.
We will not put ourselves or you through the goriness of this spectacle again. But let us, instead, remember anotehr very similar brutality when we – and by ‘we’, I do not mean the government or authorities, I mean ‘we’: as in me and you – were not similarly incensed, even though we should have been. Indeed, when too many of ‘us’ seemed to be cheering on those taking the law into their own hands:
- Please revisit the May 2008 post at ATP titled “Vigilante Justice: Horrible, Horrifying, Horrendous.”
- The post is from Karachi: two guys commit a robbery, people from the neighborhood runs after them, catches them, and then sets them on fire (alert: the post has some horrible pictures of the robbers on fire; reader discretion advised).
- More importantly than the post, please read the comments. See how many readers even of this blog actually think what happened there was ‘OK’ and maybe even a good thing.
The point here is an unpopular one to make. But is an important one. You cannot create a society where you encourage and accept some forms of violence, and then act all surprised and outraged when that same violence gets out of hand. The Violence we condone will breed the violence we condemn.
Let me be clear. I have no sympathy for over-dramatic analyses which suggest that the murderers of Sialkot represent the entirety of Pakistan’s 175 million people. They do not. They are the exception and they are the extreme. Exceptions and extremes exist in every society.
But the people who are watching on as the murders happen cannot be exceptions and extremes. They are, indeed, the faces of everyday Pakistan. And that, I think, is what is sending the cold shiver down our spine. The validation of violence that we see in their faces, is a validation of violence we have seen too many times ourselves. No society must ever be judged by the extreme and the fanatic amongst it. But every society should be held responsible for how it deals with and reacts to those extreme and fanatic acts. It is entirely right, therefore, to be asking some very tough questions of ourselves and our own relationship to the violence around us.
It is indeed solace that there is outrage and widespread outrage. Maybe because it was on video the reaction was wall-to-wall and swift. Maybe, and one hopes this is true, people have also begun to speak up more against obvious injustices – as we saw, for example, in the recent Prem Chand case. But it is also true, and maybe even more true, that the voyeuristic element still dominates the discourse. Most true of all is the fact that those who were at the scene seemed not much outraged at all. The outrage of the rest of us, rightly placed as it may be, comes way too late to be of much use to Mughees and Muneeb.
On this blog we have had to write too often about how society is slipping into an increasing acceptance, even justification, of violence. Syed Abbas Raza recently wrote about the shrinking civility in society and we actually declared 2007 as a year of ‘angst and anger.’ Indeed, we struggle with the tantrums of anger in our comment pages every day. Too many people seem too angry, at too many things, too much of the time. Angry enough to attack each other’s integrity. It is not enough to say that we disagree with someone, it seems necessary to inflict pain on those we disagree with – if not physical violence, then the emotional violence of words purposefully constructed to hurt. That, of course, is a small matter. But at the base of this small matter is a big big problem. The problem of anger in society. And anger when mixed with a validation of violence and a disregard, disrespect and distrust of all institutions of state, becomes a really deadly cocktail.
Maybe as we angrily express outrage over what happened in Sialkot – as we rightly should – we should also take a moment to think about how we – and, again, by ‘we’, I do not mean the government or authorities, I mean ‘we’: as in me and you – have become such a violence prone society: violence in the name of religious difference, violence in the name of politics, violence in the name of ideology, and violence even in the name of justice!
A column in praise of extra judicial killing and encounter specialist
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/aug2010-daily/25-08-20 10/col4.htm
I guess, this is the difference between the Faiz – Faraz crowd and myself (the one who adheres to the Great Allama’s style and message of hope).
The Faiz – Faraz crown is depressing. Honestly, there seems to be too much influence of Faiz – Faraz at ATP.
They go helpless and hapless within minutes. And they offer no solutions, except, the “hum dakhay gay”; the classic answer of eternity. Totally useless unless you want to cry. (I know this, because I have done it.) They not only find the glass half empty, they also manage to see green grass on the other side of the lawn by looking though the empty portion of the glass!
Cry.
Crying.
Hands thrown up.
Hand wringing.
Enough, I say.
I, find problems with Pakistani system of governance but not the people of Pakistan. Sure, there are criminals running around. But that is part of the every deal, every where. There always were criminals, there always will be criminals. There will be criminals at the top, criminals in the middle and criminals at the bottom. Part of the game.
A good system of governance knows how to deal with it. Pakistan has a bad system of governance.
There is no crime committed in Pakistan that has not been committed elsewhere and vice versa. But that is neither an excuse nor an explanation of the crime. We are focused on Pakistan with a microscope and we are not only going after warts and all, but moles and mole hills too. We all agree that we need a clean up the mess. A fresh start. A new beginning.
Pakistanis need to change the system; not the people.
I am convinced that Pakistani people are good, decent, hard working and honest. They are stuck in a bad time warp, that loops back again and again on a bad story; bad page. But that does not change the natural nature of the people.
And my oft repeated truth, “No nation has a monopoly on goodness and no nation has an exclusive on badness.”
The “fitra” of Pakistani peoples is good.
The question is so what is the game changer?
And the only ones who can fix it, are the educated of Pakistan. And how do they do it? Well, they start by stop blaming every myth they have been sold. And every myth they have bought into.
No, it is not the uneducated who are the problem.
No, it is not the poverty that is the problem.
No, it is not the population planning that is the problem.
No, it is not the lack of resources that is the problem.
No, it is not the feudal system that is the problem.
No, it is not the ignorant mullah who is the problem.
No, it is not the religion that is the problem.
Yes, each is an issue but none is the sinker.
And the biggest myth of all, now in active circulation, “the voilence is condoned”.
Whoever came up with that idea?
When was violence ever condoned in Pakistan?
Yeah, those who committed the violence do condone it and will condone it often. But not the majority. And they certainly are not the majority.
And silence in a closed, air-tight and locked down society like Pakistan is not an act of condoning it Period
People who speak can disappear, get beaten up, parents put through ringers. You think West Pakistanis were condoning the “butcher of Dhaka”? Or Pakistanis condone the violence on Ahmedhis, Christians, Hindus? Or violence in Karachi? Or violence in Baluchinstan? Or the violence of vanni? Or the violence on women? Remember when Sultan Musharraf declared something to the effect that if you want to get famous, get raped? Did that work? Hell, he only got to stay (over stay, I say) because the Mr. Mandate tried to commit violence on him. Did the whole Pakistan not rally to Sultan Musharraf’s side? And, amazingly, when he himself forgot the lessons, did the people not rally to the Chief’s side? And I mean, the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Pakistanis, like any other peoples in the world will never support violence. Never did, never will.
It is not Pakistaniat!
And when I say “the majority has never supported it”, I do not a majority of 50.01%, rather 99.99%.
Yessiree bob. The majority is muzzled into silence. Bullied into it. Did you ever hear (and watch his body language) any of ursurpers talk? “I will take care of him!” (And that is not a threat, it is a promise; ask Akbar Bhugti, oops, you will have to wait for this one.) Did you ever get an FIR registered? A case heard before a judge on a timely disposition track?
Ask any party “owner” in Pakistan and he will without coxing indulge in wailings on how he was mistreated and was denied justice. (Now, is that not ironic that the same party “owners” who will self-flagellate for justice denied are actively working to deny justice to others by not expanding the judiciary? Why you ask? Well, a simple reason my dear Watson, they know they will lose more through judiciary than their “changa-manga” incarcerations!)
The problem my dear friends is simple, lack of equity and justice.
This is because the educated want to hog the resources. Do not want to share the wealth. Want the resources diverted to the urban areas, the three jinns on the top of the food chain. Three goats and if not three goats, then three goat heads.
What we need is the educated to see the light of the day and start to ask, what can I give up so that my brother can have it just as well?
Justice. Equity.
We need to expand the judiciary so that people do not resort to taking law into their hands. Like in Sailkot. They should know, that whatever is their grievance, it will be heard, it will be addressed. Fairness will prevail.
And sir, it not vigilante justice. It was vigilante law-breaking-violence. There is no concept of justice in a crime. I was going to let this go, but then I saw it repeated in the post and elsewhere. Please do remove the word justice from your vocab when you use the word “vigilante”.
But the people who are watching on as the murders happen cannot be exceptions and extremes. They are, indeed, the faces of everyday Pakistan. Sir, I disagree and reject this.
Now, there are out of controlled events. A sale at a store, out of stock shops, sudden evacuation from an area with limited options. This is why shoppers will crash a door, even maul persons down in trying to get that “one” bargain item. Remember, mothers kicked each other over Barbie dolls? Barbie dolls! It is a problem and the law enforcement authorities work hard to control it.
Now there is a mob action, egged on by a few and ordinary good folks get all riled up in hysteria. This happens all the time. People might march up to a location and start chanting slogans of hate and vitriol. And there is no solution to this. This is lawlessness. Lawful authorities move in and restore order.
But then there are law-breaking events. These are willfully led by or sanctioned by authorities who either approve it directly by leading it or indirectly by their silent presence. Perhaps the most gross examples of these in recent memory is Rawanda and Gujrat, in India.
What happened in Sialkot is an event of third type. (And it should never happen again, anywhere.)
And they all have one thread in common. People think that by following ordinary course of action, they will not get relief. And when combined with authority presence (religious or civil) it is a shame. Shameful conduct.
This needs to be addressed. This needs to be changed. This needs to talked about.
The Sailkot people, wrongly got caught up in the wrong picture. And with police presence, the mob mentality took over. Reason left the scene. Nothing or nobody justifies their lack of humanity. And that is how mob is defined. It does not have humanity. Sailkot mob was violent. It committed violence against humanity.
What needs to be fixed (and fixed soon) is the Police. The Administration. The Judiciary. The system. It is a system wide failure. The system needs fix’in. The people will be conform automatically.
When there is perceived justice, justice will prevail. Good in people will emerge.
And to that effect, that the laws be good and goodly adjudicated. Now that is Godly! “Adl” should have meaning. “Huq” should have weight. “Sabar” should bear fruit.
Pakistanis are perfectly capable of delivering it. They been there; done that!
The spirit of 1947!
The august spirit of 1947!
The august spirit of selflessness of 1947!
The august spirit of selflessness and shared sacrifice of 1947!
The message of Jinnah and the Great Allama.
I have the audacity of hope, with fierce urgency of now.
The picture that is emerging from the inquiry is that these two boys, from a very respectable local family, were victims of mistaken or false identification by a youth at the mob scene. They were on their way to play cricket after eating sehri. They saw this mob on the way and slowed down to see what is going on. The last error they ever made. Tragedy upon tragedy.
I curse both Taliban and Jamaat Islami for their brutality and for contributing massively to what our society is now.
So are you admitting that your own brutality,radicalism and inhumane attitude which you exhibited in your comments,is the result of Post Afghan War elements ?Why did not you recover yourself then? Shouldn’t you and your partners,JI and Talibans(which you are accusing atm) be admitted in some rehabilitation center?
As humans we have a responsibility.
If I stand still, without doing anything and exempla gratiae
2 persons are beating someone …..if I don`t do anything
….I have some responsibility for what happened.
At least I can say ….something
…..or …….. do …….. something .
As humans we have responsibility at individual level.
We are social beings.
And nobody should be “Primus inter Pares”.