The Wind Cannot Read
Two momentous events concerning the media and Press freedom have recently taken place in Pakistan. During “the night of the Long Knives”, the PM Ms Benazir Bhutto, replaced the whole team of her media-handlers, from the Secretary Information, Hussain Haqqani, downwards, the only escapee being friend Farhat Ullah Babar, the PM’s loyal Press Secretary. Farhat is such a mild and honest soul that the PM’s hand may have been stayed by some angel.
Congratulations are in order to former PM Mian Nawaz Sharif because the incumbent PM has brought back into information power almost the whole team who had made her life miserable successfully during his tenure as PM. The PM kept one surprise choice up her sleeve, the aberration of Ms Rana Shaikh was transformed from being Secretary Culture to being the 22nd Managing Director of PTV since 1964. A former TV actress and Producer/Director, this was a natural end reward for the Herculean PR efforts of the wife of the Foreign Secretary, Mr Najmuddin Sheikh, to display the liberal side of Pakistan culture by a special “song and dance” fashion show in the US during the PM’s Yatra, a designer-clothing performance that could not be seen (being banned for TV viewing) in Pakistan by the likes of Maulana Fazlur Rahman lest he forget his holy vows of abstinence from such worldly pursuits. Ms Rana Shaikh shrugged off accusation of plagiarism, when you copy from many plagiarism turns into research.
The second major event to rock the boat was the banning of six Urdu eveningers of Karachi by “competent authority” because of publication of news detrimental to the “Maintenance of Public Order” and some such. Since successive Martial Laws had not achieved this “Wednesday Night Massacre”, not for want of trying, kudos to Ms Benazir’s Government (and whoever advised her in this respect) for shooting her regime successfully in both feet repeatedly.
Management of information is essentially a combination of sales promotion and damage control. In Pakistan, where successive governments regularly face self-inflicted political and economic debacles which are compounded by the histrionics of colourful personalities with a recurring foot-in-the-mouth disease, the game of managing information flow is infinitely harder and it is mostly limited to damage control. Much depends upon the personality of the leaders that the media-persons serve and the bad vibes they regularly seem to create. For leaders like Ms Benazir, who remain acutely conscious of their public image and photo-opportunities (photo-ops), media-persons have their work cut out for them. The driving seat in the Information Ministry is a high-risk job as Ms Rana Shaikh will soon find out, her spectacular rise (next stop Deputy Prime Minister?) notwithstanding. Government of Pakistan has had 9 Secretaries of Information during a period of 24 years between 1961 and 1985, (at a sedate average of about one every 3 years), while in the so-called democratic period since 1985, there have been as many as 17 Secretaries in ten years (at a breakneck, no pun intended, average of almost two every year), a singular high rate of attention. While it is true that the presentation of the facts and the “twist” one gives to it (called “spin” in the US) depends very much on the media-handlers, one can hardly change the facts as they happen on the ground, particularly when bad news is endemic and frequent (even Lord Haw-Haw and Tokyo Rose found this difficult in the Second World War). How does one hide daily casualty figures or keep horrendous pictures from the pages of the print media? As it is the government media has very little credibility, to further erode it by trying to change or colour facts is asking for a media-disaster. The government media is usually quite adept at diverting attention), ignoring issues completely may provoke wild rumours that are counter-productive and prove far more damaging for the government’s image. G-men are prisoners of the bad circumstances (and vibes) that their leaders in government create for them by bad decision-making, they can hardly be expected to take the blame for the originating of an event or for failing to project images in a light taken favourably by the masses. It is fantasy to assume that the “dream merchants” can invariably manage to covert a frog into a Prince, the basic product has to have an inherent potential of acceptability by the masses for it to be successfully promoted. What happens is that in the attempt to promote an image, the image-makers overdo the presentation and it usually backfires. A good example in Pakistan was the backlash that the “Decade of Reforms” projection in 1968 at the fag end of the Ayubian Regime. People got thoroughly sick of (1) seeing the Field Marshal’s image day after night after day on the TV screen and (2) hearing about him (and his deeds) ad-nauseum over the government-controlled radio, that revulsion hastened Ayub Khan’s downfall. More than a quarter century later the ADs comparing Ms Benazir’s performance with that of her predecessor has ensured that the Ms Benazir regime pays for the photographs of Mian Nawaz Sharif being plastered in the major newspapers day after day, keeping him in the public eye for free. Whether you have people like Hussain Haqqani and Farhad Zaidi or Haji Akram and Rana Shaikh, the basic credibility problem remains, if the government is hell-bent on breaking the very democratic principles it loudly espoused while in Opposition, the damage-control necessity becomes much more acute and frequent. When handling personalities who have used the powers of office to make their future bright, media-handlers soon discover that these people also are very anxious to make their pasts bright. The syndicate solution for our Satcchi & Satcchi-type local image-makers is to portray their clients at the present time as gentlemen farmers of substance deeply involved in benevolent concern for issues that bedevil the common man (this may make for good international copy but is seen as sheer hypocrisy locally).
Ms Benazir’s regime took a spectacular nose-dive from its pedestal with respect to freedom of the Press on the banning of 6 Urdu Eveningers in Karachi. In all fairness it must be said that one or two publications were skirting dangerously with respect to incitement to violence, enthusiasm can be the only polite word to use for rampant sensationalism. Eveningers, Urdu and English, survive only on the basis of lurid headlines and scandal, their penchant is to scream out material that aims to attract an audience that had already read the morning dailies in some depth. Akin to the tabloid of the western Press, Eveningers do tend to border on the fail-safe line with respect to public sensibilities. However, to quote Ms Benazir on the rule of law whenever someone in Opposition is accused of wrongdoing, “they must address the courts of law for succour”. Conversely, what was stopping GOP from taking all these Eveningers to court for any number of reasons? Going the route of administrative misadventure by using the edict of the Deputy Commissioners, Ms Bhutto has succeeded in alienating (and uniting) the entire national print media against her government, a rather unfortunate faux pas (and predicament) for a democratic government. The loyal Press Secretary, Farhat Ullah Babar, expressed as much surprise as anyone else and attempted to distance his Boss from the media quicksand by giving the blunder a local Provincial colour rather than it being any Bhutto “Farman”. Given the slavish track record of the Abdullah Shah government and its endearing habit of waiting for Federal Diktat for even going to the Rest Rooms this would seem a vain and ludicrous (though admirable) attempt by friend Babar. Not only is the government now a target of approbation within the country, organisations outside the country have been quick to rise to the defence of the Fourth Estate. The only honourable (and pragmatic) course is to sound full retreat and thereby limit the damage to Ms Benazir’s reputation as one of the world’s foremost advocates of democracy. The PNPO and NECP have echoed the protests of its rival organisations as APNS and CFNE saying that, “the banning of the newspapers is a serious blow to Press freedom in Pakistan.”
The timing of friend Haqqani’s dismissal as Secretary Information thus becomes rather unfortunate for the Ms Benazir regime. As a working journalist aware of the backlash and repercussions, he would hardly have been seen condoning this drastic action. Coming immediately after his transfer as Chairman House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), it gives an impression that he was opposed (though he denies it) to such a draconian sweeping measure. Hussain Haqqani is a brilliant right wing ideologue who has excelled in keeping the opponents of his clients at bay. Mian Nawaz Sharif should never have let him go, by the same token Ms Bhutto should never have kept him. Having moved him into her inner circle of advisors despite protestations of the PPP faithful, attempting to put him out to pasture will have serious consequences for the PPP even though the PML(N) may be averse to using his services again. While Mushahid Hussain has done a remarkable job in shoring up his client, on the matter of points scored Haqqani had a clear edge since Mushahid’s basic tactics remain a gentlemanly media campaign that is intellectual but not offensive in letter or spirit as against an aggressive no-holds barred street fighter posture that Haqqani brings forth. If Mr Haqqani should ever be lured away from Ms Bhutto, a Mushahid-Haqqani combination would be lethal for PPP.
Would things in the media discipline be better under Mian Nawaz Sharif — or for that matter anyone else? The problem lies in the quality of leadership we are blessed with. Pakistan has some outstanding leadership potential but personality clashes and severe divergence of views is short on principle and long on childishness. It is rapidly polarising this nation and threatening its existence. We have young leaders who lack vision despite their protestations to the contrary, their aides are mostly sycophants who are best at anticipating their leader’s desires and then falling over themselves in carrying them out. Instead of discussions and criticism being institutionalised, governance continues to remain a day-to-day occurrence dependant upon the whims and caprices of the rulers, there being no depth in the thought process or maturity that must be the essence of decision-making in government. Above all, our leaders never seem to read warning signs or be amenable to listening to any criticism. The print media provides regular warning signs, now its own freedom is under threat. To quote a Chinese Saying “Though on the signboard it is written, do not pluck the flowers, it is useless against the wind which cannot read.” It is becoming increasingly clear that the major Pakistani leaders are like the wind, they do not read the warning signs, and if they do, they do not heed them. Given that no individual is above the integrity and well-being of the country, the survival of our nation may well depend upon another period of politics in limbo. Ms Benazir’s regime has shown the way by imposing curbs on Press Freedom, next — a curb on democracy? And, by whom?
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