Astrology, at best, is a pseudoscience. How can giant lumps of rock decide your future? Often an argument offered to rationalise this art is that if the moon can have an impact on oceans and water is an integral part of our composition, planets and stars are bound to have an impact on us. They surely do and this impacting element is called the gravitational force. To say that this force can somehow decide our destiny doesn’t seem anything more than a joke.
Yet everything in our world seems to go by the planetary configurations. Do we not celebrate the dying of a year and birth of another based on earth’s revolution around the sun? It is an odd feeling and we mortals a curious breed. Don’t we celebrate the demise of a year full of opportunities with great gusto, after all? And then we are simplistic enough to hope that the next year will bring good tidings even though we didn’t learn even a little bit from the previous one.
Do you need an example of the lost opportunities? During the year 2009, we could have strengthened democracy by implementing the Charter of Democracy. Similarly, we could have proven that Pervez Musharraf’s allegations against the free media and the judiciary were wrong. But could we? I think not.
Basically, we are a fickle minded, emotion-driven nation. We have acquired power but have failed to learn the mechanics of responsibility. While freedom of action entails the knowledge of consequences, are we ever fussed about the impact? Responsibility is for lesser beings; we, if gifted with even a shadow of power, are above the law, and quite often a law unto ourselves. And when the consequences stump us, they are bound to be the product of a foreign conspiracy. If something goes fine we take the credit, if something goes wrong, India or Blackwater/Xe must be behind it.
But to this humble soul the aftermath of the blast in the Ashura procession in Karachi is something of a giveaway. When the angry mobs were gutting shops and other property, did anybody realise this was their own country’s property and their own people were the owners of those shops? Nobody cares. And that is the exact problem with us all. When emotional, we start cutting the very tree on which we sit. Why should the fundamentalist forces and the terrorists be any different then? This is what they are doing. Attacking you and me for no crime of our own. I wish some national leader could rise above the petty considerations and introduce an iota of emotional intelligence in the system. But will anyone do that? I seriously doubt it.

Of course the outgoing year had some positive overtones too. The consensus over the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, successes (albeit relative) in Swat, the reinstatement of the deposed judges and introduction of the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package were all big achievements. But somehow we tend to ignore them all. If the terrorists are trying to weaken the very moorings of our federation, there are forces that are dedicating their best abilities to bringing the federating units together. I wish while unearthing the instances of bad governance, we could also laud the positive developments.
But someone will have to take some steps in the right direction. My biggest disappointment in the year 2009 was the media’s performance. Why? Because I have always advocated absolute freedom for the media. My argument has always been that unlike other services media is a private business and courtesy Musharraf era’s reforms there are uncountable channels and hence the only mode of censorship should be viewers’ discretion. But things keep shaking my faith in this Prometheus every day. For instance, a few days ago the prime minister (PM) met television anchors and other senior journalists. The talk was open and the PM answered everyone to the best of his capacities. However, one complaint that I voiced during the interaction and I am sure nobody cared two hoots about it was that the entire gathering was obsessed with the issues relating to the NRO, reprimands for the sitting cabinet and, wistfully, the chances of discord between the army, the government and the judiciary. It was amazing, really, that everyone, with the exception of some thoughtful senior journalists sitting close by, seemed to have forgotten the war on terror. My shock was compounded by the simple fact that on that very day the terrorists had struck again in Peshawar. When, after the reminder by yours truly, the issue came under discussion, it took the shape of a debate on conspiracy theories rather than solid facts. I do not have words to express my frustration dear readers, but somehow it seems that we simply do not want to accept that those who desire to kill us and make no bones about it are our enemy.
For long I have believed that those who express sympathy for the Taliban might be doing so out of ignorance. But not any longer sir! I have been left with no option but to believe that there is active involvement of what we mavericks often call the establishment in the spread of the conspiracy theories and the apologies for the terrorists. And that gives me a start just to imagine that amidst our very own establishment there still are elements who have sympathies for those who want to slaughter us all.
Another sad example comes from the blast in Karachi. You must be aware that during that explosion one dear journalist colleague lost his son and a niece. In this morose climate I spotted an anchor of the same channel discussing the clash of institutions and its benefit to the terrorists. To my great annoyance, the line up was dominated by some of the most vocal apologists for the Taliban. Can I ask why our media groups want to give solace to the terrorists, especially when their own workers are suffering due to terror crimes?
It is part of the tradition, dear readers, to end a column with a note of hope and optimism. I wish I could be one of those who tell you that the next year would be better than the dying year, but alas I cannot. Right now I do not foresee any hope because I am not convinced that we have learnt anything from the past. And since we have not, at least I cannot blame everything on the innocent twinkling stars.
Tailpiece: Mr Khalid Khawaja wrote last week to complain that I had erroneously called him a Taliban apologist and a person who confesses to be the pilot of Osama bin Laden. He states he never was Osama’s pilot, as he never qualified to be a pilot. While I have not seen anything to convince me about the former, I cannot prove him wrong in the latter even though the internet and rightwing talk shows are full of this introduction. My bad.

The column first appeared in Daily Times dated December 31, 2009. Click here to visit the original.

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