When Will the Real Change Come?

Will Imran be able to transform into reality his agenda of change, with all his personal charisma and enormous support of the country’s youth?

‘Change is not coming! It has already come’ These were the words with which the PTI Chairman Imran Khan concluded his address to the mammoth crowd of his enthusiastic supporters, who had rallied around him under the shadow of Minar-e-Pakistan. Change was the keynote of his whole speech, which was punctuated with music and interrupted by his sore throat. Rocking with delight and throbbing with excitement, his emotionally charged juvenile fans applauded rapturously, as he unveiled his revolutionary plan to introduce drastic changes in every sphere of life. Our people who have been repeatedly hoodwinked by their veteran politicians; and whose lives have been perpetually plagued by rampant corruption, sky rocketing prices, unending load shedding, agonizing cycle of violence and other problems of gigantic magnitude, are fully justified in feeling an irrepressible hunger for change. In this horrid age of disillusionment, despair and despondency, Imran’s call for change has come as a gust of fresh cool breeze in a suffocating and stinking atmosphere. It has created a pleasant stir in the stagnant waters of our life and quite naturally, more and more people are joining the former cricketing hero, hoping that with his fast and furious spell, he will bowl out all the political villains, paving the way for the long-awaited changes in our political and economic system. Suppose for a moment that this zealous advocate of change is genuinely sincere in his aspirations and scores a surprise win in the upcoming elections; but will he be able to transform into reality his agenda of change, with all his personal charisma and enormous support of the country’s youth? Will he be able to defeat those highly influential and all-powerful forces which have been controlling the country and all its resources eversince its creation? Does he have in his team such devoted, dedicated and committed players, who are more interested in collective good rather than individual gains? All such questions need to be honestly analyzed in the light of our particular circumstances and frame of mind have been controlling the country and all its resources eversince its creation? Does he have in his team such devoted, dedicated and committed players, who are more interested in collective good rather than individual gains? All such questions need to be honestly analyzed in the light of our particular circumstances and frame of mind.

As a nation, we have since long, developed a typical mind set, which urges us to lay the blame of all our sufferings, misfortunes and miseries on our rulers, without ever impartially assessing our own share in making our problems worse. Living passively in the world of illusions and phantasies, without ever attempting to reform our own characters, we are desperately longing for some saviour, who would miraculously change our fate, lift us out of the quagmire of sorrow and take us to the mountain of bliss. In such circumstances, whenever some political trickster (with real or fake intentions) chants the slogan of change and reform, we are suddenly enthralled, and make him the object of all our hopes of change, without realizing that the mere change of rulers will never change our destiny and that we ourselves also have to change and make sacrifices for bringing about a real improvement in our lot. During the last days of Musharraf’s rule, the whole country was echoing with the slogan of ‘Go Musharraf Go’ But did his exit from the scene bring about any change?  Of course not, because with regard to our ethical standards and moral values, our personalities as a whole have remained unchanged. During the lawyers’ movement, all of us were vigorously demanding the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, hoping that he would solve all our problems and root out all corruption from the country. But since his restoration, there has been no significant reduction in the corruption level despite his earnest endeavours, because while we wish to stamp out the corruption of our rulers, we never give a thought to the corruption within ourselves. In other words, we detect the straw in the eyes of others, but fail to notice the log in our own eyes. The books of history so often tell the tragic tales of the sincerest reformers and most talented leaders, who most miserably failed in their mission, only because their exceptionally high moral, mental and intellectual standards were not in harmony with those of their people, for whom they worked day and night and whose lives they aspired to change.