The rumour bazaar
Over the past three years or so, this country has been beset by rumours, the frequency and intent now reaching conspiracy levels. Unfortunately for the psyche of this nation, the first major rumour of this present cycle, the demise of the late President on 17 Aug 1988, became all too true after a few short hours of growing apprehension and repressed excitement, depending upon the side of the political divide one belonged. Within a week thereafter, an unfounded rumour swept the country that the then Commander of the strategically 10 Corps, Lt Gen Imranullah, had staged a coup. Coming soon after the earlier rumour had been proven as a fact, this falsehood had to be officially stamped down.
Despite repeated protestations to the contrary, Gen (Retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, the former COAS, was widely expected to topple the government before retirement. The fact of Aug 17, 1988, when he could have done so without much ado cut no ice with friends or detractors alike. Expected to fade silently into the twilight, the launching of Foundation for National Security and Defence (FRIENDS) has set off another bagful of speculations as to Gen Beg’s ultimate intentions. The saving grace is that vested interests are now apprehensive that he is busy organising an intellectual putsch preceding a political role in the future, a possibility which is, incidentally, an individual’s right in a democracy.
The PPP has always been suspected of having a well oiled rumour-disseminating machine but once in power they fell victim themselves to an organised canard campaign. By the time Ms Benazir’s regime came to an untimely end, calumnies galore were being touted around, some of the most outrageous kind. The widespread smoke may have indicated fire but while some embers remain incandescent, the raging blaze being propagated around by vested interests has escaped discovery after her departure.
Jam’s liver has aroused controversial speculation, in bad taste rumours of his impending demise were gleefully disseminated and were found to be greatly exaggerated. Jam Sadiq Ali returned to a hero’s welcome and continues to survive politically and medically. Finding his liver resurgent and his spleen as stoic (in the venting of), his detractors are now headed the indirect route. The latest addition to the grapevine is the Veena Hayat gang rape. One cannot get into any conversation in this country without hearing the “actual story”, as usual the individual’s stance depends upon the side of his political leaning. As we get distanced from the event, the rumours tend to go into over-drive and multi-directional depending upon the vested interest of the individual and/or the group. In all this the great casualty is the truth, a truth that should transcend narrow parochial viewpoints in the greater interest of sympathy, justice and fair play.
In a recent seminar, Mr Ferozuddin Ahmad gave an extremely interesting hometruth about law and order. In the pursuance of order, this senior bureaucrat said that we are increasingly violating the law. Mussolini and Hitler and others before and after them have attempted to bring about their concept of “order” by subverting the law of the land at will. The law-breaking law enforcers are invariably brought down and the rule of law restored, but at great human (and material) cost. Present media sophistication makes it exceedingly difficult to get away with the shenanigans considered commonplace in yesteryears. With public cynosure more critical and sensitive to high-handedness, the misdemeanour-oriented are bound to commit mistakes, some of omission, most of commission.
One must study the facts of the Veena Hayat incident objectively and dispassionately. A lady says she was raped, this is not an easy “confession” for any woman to make, in the sense that a victim must endure double jeopardy, going through the inhuman ordeal, once physically and the other by the attitude of callous society whose sympathy for the victim is rather vicarious and tongue-in-cheek. To that end, the very fact of the reporting of such a case by the victim makes it stand the test of credibility in the fact of its occurrence. Adding the desperate cry of an anguished (and illustrious) father, the event quickly force-multiplies to that of a fact. Given that the incident did actually take place, extenuating circumstances point to the fact that participants in the perpetration of the crime were either serving or former members of law enforcing agencies. The unhurried and extended stay over several hours, the lineman telephoning his office that he was not coming back on duty, etc give confirmatory indications of some official leaning. The US $ 64000 question is whether there was official patronage behind the perpetration of the heinous crime and/or whether the perpetrators exceeded their brief and got carried away by temptation. Henry the Second may not have really meant Becket’s demise when he asked his sycophantic Gang of Four, “who will rid me of this mad priest?” The Opposition may be guilty of shedding crocodile tears while gleefully picking up political cudgels to dethrone the President and his son-in-law, the Administration is not doing their credibility any good while seeming to be shilly-shallying through an attempted cover-up. One must recognize facts as they are, a rape did take place but without concrete evidence, it is not fair to accuse Irfan Marwat for the crime. The Opposition often charges that Irfan Marwat and the Sindh CIA invent evidence against the Opposition for political purposes and then pronounce them guilty without benefit of trial, it hardly behoves them to follow the same route themselves. Irfan Marwat should be given the benefit of doubt, he cannot be pronounced guilty before the facts against him are in place.
In uncovering of any such facts and in the absence of the police doing its bounden duty, the intelligence community has a special responsibility to uncover the actual perpetrators of the heinous crime, provided they work without any bias or motivation! Unfortunately, things have come to such a pass that some of the rumours now seem to emanate from the law enforcement and/or intelligence agencies themselves, with bias, motivation or sheer negligence! The studied application of the calculated leak instead of a bland, neutral report may point to mala fide intentions, it has become common place to give over planted facts to the gullible among the media to embellish. Psychological warfare motivated to selfish purpose has reached state-of-the-art proportions in this century, this last decade has seen a new level of sophistication. In the information vacuum that persists in Pakistan, it is necessary that the powerful elite of law enforcement and intelligence officials should operate within certain prescribed parameters and not withhold or embellish facts with motivation. These gentlemen should not take it that they have cornered the market in the scarce commodity of what passes as “patriotism” and integrity. When upright men of conscience (and there are many) within the intelligence community dare to point to facts that seem to be extra-constitutional or to administrative excess, they are shut up and effectively sidelined. Their reports are scoffed at instead of being verified as to their credit-worthiness and then acted upon. In the tradition of Reinhard Gehlen, the nameless officials should remain faceless but the lack of accountability on those whom they report induces total disregard of their actual charter and leads to inventing “facts” to suit varied purposes, sometimes relying on rumour and conjecture. This is fatal for honest intelligence analysis and leads usually to national disaster.
Rumours give no thought given to the material or moral damage to the national psyche, the interests of the nation are readily sacrificed at the altar of personal ambition or motivation. Those who perpetrate false news think nothing of lasting damage in the character assassination or aspersion of any individual or any group. The unleashing of falsehood relies on the inherent tendency of the individual human being to exaggerate. Their objectives are conveniently directed to suit narrow interest, sometimes their observations may even be inspired by jealousy.
In order to effectively curtail the continuing debilitating effect of the rumour bazaar on the nation, it becomes incumbent that all reporting agencies must make a fair rendition of facts as they actually exist. When giving their opinion, the truth must not be coloured by any motivation except for an honest evaluation and it must be able to stand public cynosure. Once the rule of publicising honest facts is established, the canard machine will not be able to operate with the present abandon as they would then be liable to be easily located and dealt with. We must take corrective steps now to effectively eradicate this conspiracy of rumours. Governments usually fall when the intelligence community consistently fail to tell the truth to the rulers and thus circumscribe their educated response to individuals and events, to their detriment. Sycophants have thus historically contributed to the fall of the rulers. On the other hand, Governments that do not listen to honest intelligence analysts invariably fall by the wayside.
Punishment must be meted out where it is due, it must be based on the crime and not on hearsay and/or fiction. Pakistan’s rumour bazaar has origins in its own administrative structure, a Catch-22 situation that makes the administration not only the perpetrator frequently but ultimately also the investigator, the judge and jury at the expense of the innocent masses.
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