- Ibn-e-Taha
- khan_adnan040@yahoo.com
“Prime Minster suffers heart attack”, was the top trend on social media, till the time the rebuttal was issued by the Prime Minister house that he is OK, spending vacations with his family at a hill station.
The trend was used as characteristic of Social-Media (SM), disturbing socio-political framework of society and state. SM from Emails, Text messages, News stories etc. has dwelt into a strategic asset in forms of digital media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, What’s-app, Snap chat, YouTube and Hash-tags etc. Protagonists of SM are effectively implementing quotation coined by Marshal McLuhan in 1964:
“Medium is the Message”
Medium, used by SM in Neo-Journalism has become a dominant factor in real-politics. Palestinians instead of Israel are painted as oppressors, Iraq second war was waged for having “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)”, later those alleging had to apologize. Developments in Iran are an “Agenda Setting” thru social media. Germany surfaced on SM with news of a coupe, which might be an exploitation of SM Afghanistan’s bigger preposition today is female education instead of humans suffering from hunger and epidemics.
“Arab Spring” planners exploited SM in Dec, 2010, when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire. President Hosni Mubarak was forced to quit the power thru SM campaign in Egypt. In Libya, Qaddafi was overthrown in October 2011, during a violent civil war. SM played his footage being dragged in streets of Libya and Saddam Hussain being hanged, giving message to opponents to behave. In Yemen the ongoing war is also linked to “Arab Spring” thru SM. Bahrain’s peaceful pro-democracy protests in the capital Manama in 2011 and 2012 are resultant of skillful SM tool tailored according to the local culture.
SM force the followers to advocate for a movement, store content or tweets for future use, allowing contributions to a movement. Idea is excellent to eradicate poverty and highlight the social-evils. However, misusing this tool in “Agenda setting” may subdue merit and justice by flux of one type of ideology. Originating of tweets from fake accounts also has made it distorting and clarification has to be issued by the effected source to nullify the rumor psyche.
In another dimension of SM, personalities are presented as Saviors and Avtar exploiting the Nationalism in pursuit of Jew concept of Amalqa. Global politics sees Putin, Trump and Moodi improvising these new dynamics today. Obama won the elections in 2008 on slogan of “Change and making USA safe”. Trump also managed to win elections applying “Cambridge Analytica” to win the US elections in 2016. Russia is also alleged for collaborating through SM in making of US governments during 2016 elections. Human relations between opposite sections are being exploited as enmities instead of opposition. Respect of other’s point of view has been overtaken by imposing “I am more informed”. “Good Cop/Bad Cop” and “Change” concepts have been transformed as New social set up, leading to disturbances in the society.
In Pakistani society wishy quotations of self-praise and Narcissm have overtaken logic and reasoning. The first ever state on religion basis is being drawn in un-necessary internal divide-brawl and belief system has been altered severely. Today Pakistanis are persuaded to accept “Agenda Setting”, before realizing they are forced to follow a trend which according to their own social codes is absurd. The innocent minds are dodged to believe, every system in the country has gone to dogs. They are not allowed to analyze systems exist for assistance and grievances. Police, Passport office, NADRA, Public transport, roads/Motorways, Banks, hospitals, Internet and communication means, Petrol pumps, fruit/vegetable markets, milk shops, poultry, clothing, shoe factories, medicine markets, furniture, electronics products and money changers are there to provide services. Improvement may be incorporated for civic systems in place.
SM pushes the main event behind projecting the “sensational one” at the top. News like Quaid-e-Azam’s birth and death anniversary have been pushed to a last headline in electronic media and small news in the newspapers. Even at Govt level, national holidays are merely vacations. Frustrated Pakistanis at international level are painting Pakistan as a fragile state. Our social evils are propagated thru SM world-wide, without authenticity and the point of view of Govt of Pakistan. Endeavor is to condemn ideology and creation of Pakistan. Half-truth is bombarded into the minds by projecting weak Ahadith, mis-interpreted Quranic Ayaat, misquoting old philosophers/war-specialists, misrepresentation of old historians etc. Anti-state SM warriors are asking international community to pressurize the Govt of Pakistan for their personal interests.
There are hundreds of thousands of ordinary Pakistanis, mostly young, that have imbibed the siege mentality propagated by state ideologies and are promoting Tweets and posts of dissidents. Hate speeches, violence and polarization of society is being regularly spread, giving an impression, it is order of the day. SM sites are using the name of the state are inciting disorder and disobedience. Imagine if two sections come across each other in streets enchanting slogans and fighting, what will happen to the society.
Despite shooting down Bharati pilot, by PAF on 27 Feb, 2019, SM was not activated in declaring India an aggressor and taking UNO and its’ member states into confidence. Resultantly, he was made a distinguished hero by the opponent’s SM and the ruling party went on to win the upcoming elections in India. Unfortunately, energies of youth have been diverted towards negativity and frustration. Only a few could tell them the founders of Pakistan faced much more difficulties than today. Convincing a super power to consider Muslims as a separate identity was not an easy task but they did it. Now it’s our responsibility to shed away negativity and use our potential in positive direction. Psychological negativity is in line with the philosophical thoughts of Walter Lippmann, who described it,
“When all think alike, then no one is thinking”.
Government of Pakistan endeavors curbing these effects. According to official figures, in the first half of 2018, Facebook restricted more than 2000 posts content in Pakistan, than in any other country in the world. Twitter also received requests from Pakistani authorities to remove content from more than 3,000 accounts, compared to under 700 in the second half of 2017. Nevertheless, vigorous efforts are needed to give a point of view. This may be achieved by orchestering PRO of all Govt organizations, who may have to sacrifice their comfort zone and be available 24/7 for comments on misinformation about their department. Providing instant point of view by every Govt office may spur fake news spreading. People also need to understand difference between information and knowledge. Everything available in SM is information and not the knowledge.
Our judicial system may need revision in terms of induction of judges at the lower courts, their career progression and appointment at the highest level. Perception prevails, being intimate at highest level, your low priority matters may qualify for sue-mu-to. Contrarily, justice may be delayed for all other constitutional rights. Apparent imbalance in prioritized hearings is causing extreme pressure on courts in No of pending cases. Cases like “Asghar Khan” are decided after the death of one party, strange, isn’t it? Citizens may consider “Stay order” a hindrance in transparent trails? After judicial revolt against Pervez Musharraf lawyers have also become stake-holders in ruling politics: Nevertheless, in Kulbhushan case, Pakistan depended on London based Khawar Qureshi instead of the local big names?? Interestingly, ill-doings of courts from Justice Muneer till day are termed as follies of individual judges (not the SC), for failures of sports teams, sports board chairmen are blamed (not the board), for poor foreign policy foreign minister is answerable (not the foreign office), whereas errors of Army personnel are not called as individual’s mistakes but institution is defamed. Pakistanis need to be aware of this delicate poison feeding against the prestigious institutions.
Top trends against the national army revolves around:
a. Mercenaries fighting without a cause.
b. Top brass is corrupt and directionless.
c. Their ranks are full of intriguers.
d. Their arsenal is obsolete and useless.
One may ask, if the country is invaded today, which army will the Pakistanis prefer?? Nation may question, why can’t cases of 9 May, be tried in military courts. SM misinformed, cases will be heard by a uniform officer who doesn’t have any clue of the Pakistani law. ISPR may clarify, tri-services have special Judges Advocate General (JAG) branch in the three services. Qualified lawyers are enrolled as legal officers of JAG branch in the three services, purely on merit after thorough security clearance and verification of outstanding qualification degrees. After induction, they are placed as rookies under senior lawyers. Very senior ranking JAG branch officers are detailed for conducting a court martial ion each service. During court martial, accused are given full rights to engage any lawyer in the country as defence attorney. However, only few big names appear before any military court. Reasons can be best explained by these big lawyers. A common mind may think, they prefer engaging civil courts where they manipulate inertia in the law books. They also engage in lengthy non-issues ensuring their recurring bread and butter.
This trend in military courts is discouraged due to time bound decision making. If somebody is punished by military court, his imprisonment is to be completed at any civil jail and not the military custody as none of the armed forces have any jails. The time period spent in military custody (during court martial trial) is also counted as time spent in jail and is subtracted from the total sentence awarded. Even after announcement of punishment, accused may seek relief from any civil court. Instances reveal civil courts have over turned the military court’s decisions and have let the accused (both military and civil personnel) free. While the legal system of at civil courts remains under discussion, law experts may offer comments on question “Will the lawyers and those against military trails be termed as abettors of mutiny and intentional disorder? Critics of Pak Army however, don’t criticize for involvement in Polls duty, Polio eradication, Floods, Earthquake, Census, Meter reading and CPEC?
People have to be cautious as SM planners are attacking their culture and national will. They have to be mindful of:
a. Being disciplined nation, respect law and order.
b. Sense of nationalism. They may plan to work for improvements in society.
c. Paying attention to research, scientific learning and conclusive debate to discourage brain-drain and develop promising potential domestically.
d. Avoiding vulgarity, unethical/fake news, sensationalism and promoting criminal activity under the garb of “Right to speak”.
e. Avoid defaming Pakistan especially by the immigrant diaspora abroad. As no other nation in the world does this.
f. Follow the three thought provoking principles of Jinnah “Faith, Unity and Discipline”.