Editorial: The sound of silence

The wigs have spoken; the waistcoats have shouted back; the pens have published and aired it all — after successfully resisting the temptation to be balanced and uninvolved. Yet the sound of silence is stronger than all the noise around us.

The wigs have their chambers; the waistcoats have their public meetings; the pens have their papers (and now also their screens). Where is this sound of silence coming from — one that dominates every ruling, drowns every slogan and undermines all news and views? And yet is mute.

The wigs cite legal tomes; the waistcoats recite popular poetry; the pens regurgitate cliché after cliché plucked from the discredited writings of pens from the past. The sound of silence does not seek authority from elsewhere. Its power emanates from within.

The wigs summon; the waistcoats moan and protest; the pens bleed ink into meaningless words and phrases (just like this rambling piece of penmanship). The sound of silence watches all this, laughs inwardly and lets them do whatever they are wont to do. Nothing matters much as long as the sound of silence is louder than the court summons, political slogans and white noise of the media.

Every time the wigs sit down, careers get made and unmade; every time the waistcoats take to the stage, history gets written, or at least repeated; every time the pens take to paper, righteous anger crawls on the page in half-formed phrases and ill-formed sentences. The sound of silence takes a look at all this from its perch high above and lets it be.

The wigs are happy that they can send the waistcoats home; the waistcoats are confident that they can make a comeback; the pens rush to appease the former and please the latter, not fully sure who can benefit them more. The sound of silence (secretly) wishes everyone knew better.

The wigs dismiss — from office, from party posts, from anything that people can be dismissed from. The waistcoats declaim — from office, from party posts, from anything that resembles an office and a party post but is not (after all, they have to comply with the orders of the wigs, even the ones they don’t like or respect). The pens discuss legality, morality and anything they deem legal and moral (often to the negation of what the wigs ordain and sometimes in its endorsement). The silence keeps its sound to itself, lest anyone finds out who drives the wigs to dismiss, prompts the waistcoats to declaim and moves the pens to discuss.

The wigs will one day retire; the waistcoats will either win or lose; the pens, hopefully, will soon tire of penning news and views that nobody reads (that, alas, is also the fate of this miserable piece of writing). The sound of silence stays — forever, unchallenged, reigning supreme.

In the hullabaloo over the Supreme Court’s decision to bar Nawaz Sharif from heading a party that is named after him (an O for the absurdity of it all!), any mention of Pakistan’s biggest institutional imbalance has receded into the background. The military’s role in civilian spheres is discussed only in hushed and conspirational tones and never publicly and honestly. The judiciary, the politicians and the media are fighting a war of attrition that will leave each of them weaker. It will make the military even more ascendant in every walk of life.

Subjects such as economy, national security and foreign affairs, meanwhile, are all adrift. Oil prices are soaring, necessitating a well-thought-out economic policy rather than just raising the tab for consumers. The menace of terrorism keeps rearing its violent head and trouble on the eastern and western borders has become routine. And yet we do not know if someone somewhere is tackling these issues.

From rising unemployment to anger and alienation increasing among the marginalised Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Mohajirs, Seraikis and the Baloch to international worries about Pakistan’s role in financing terrorism — who is addressing this, if at all? Those who are really in charge of running all this are shy of subjecting themselves to a public scrutiny without which nothing ever gets checked and corrected.

This is untenable. The business of the state is, after all, too serious to be left alone to the sound of silence.

This was originally published in Herald's April 2018 issue. To read more, subscribe to the Herald in print.