Anchorpersons & generals

On Oct 19, 2009 Sen. Kerry and Gen. Patreus told  Gen. Kayani if he pulled a fast one, Washington would severe its ties with Pak army.  Kayani counseled his advisors and by the end of day it was decided that Kerry-Lugar Bill would not be publicly condemned. Five Pakistani journalists were contacted and told not to beat the dead horse

Prominent scholar Edward Said, an advocate of the Palestinian cause, a professor of literature at Columbia University, a critic who wrote authoritatively on everything from Conrad to Beethoven, stated: “Despite the variety and the differences, and however much we proclaim the contrary, what the media produce is neither spontaneous nor completely free.”

Working as a full-time reporter in several leading media outlets during the tyrannical rule of Zia ul Haq in Pakistan I had come to the realization that coverage of any key event or issue was effectively stenography for those in power. And since the political forces were crushed to a point where they couldn’t resist or interrogate repressive dictatorial policies, uncomfortable facts that undermine enthusiasm for religiosity, and the broader wave of militarism it is part of, were minimal and only on the margins. Dissident opinions, as they did not come from GHQ or their crony so-called politicians, were all but nonexistent in the premier media outlets where I worked.

Mainstream media create, process and disseminate information, which determines our beliefs and attitudes and, ultimately, our behavior. Consistently displayed messages create a false sense of reality and produce a consciousness that cannot comprehend or even worst, willfully rejects the actual conditions of everyday life. Many have argued that these manipulative messages become the ‘instrument of conquest’, by which the ruling elite tries to conform the masses towards their objectives.

By using ‘talking heads’ that explain, justify, and sometimes even glamorize the prevailing conditions of existence, mainstream media secure popular support for a social order that is not in the majority’s long-term interest. In the cacophony, which is often masked as intelligent debate, what remain neglected are the alternative social arrangements.

Take, for example, the Memogate: an unverified op-ed piece in the Financial Times gave license to the editors of The News to perpetrate and advance a conspiracy to weaken the civilian government. Luckily it backfired; but for a moment, ponder  the absurdity of an elected president being removed from office simply based on innuendos and inferences. This conspiracy has been deconstructed so many times that I don’t need to explain why Gen. Pasha did not get an extension as DG ISI even though he thought it was a slam dunk; an invincible Group Editor has been practically ‘sidelined’ and the GHQ has gone on defensive.

You may recall the hysteria in Pakistan after the US Senate $7.5 Billion aid package for Pakistan; instead of celebrating it as a diplomatic victory for Pakistan’s civilian leadership, cronies of the GHQ in the mainstream media had mounted an unsuccessful campaign.  Do you wonder why Pakistani pundits had stopped complaining about imperialist tyranny and exposing the onerous conditions of Kerry-Lugar Bill? Why all of a sudden KLB [Kerry-Lugar Bill] became a non-issue? I was curious and I spend several days in Washington DC in 2009 trying to understand how the Obama administration managed the PR fiasco.

The Zardari administration was portrayed by the media as too deferential to the United States. Pakistani journalists who unconditionally support the GHQ started the campaign against KLB and coalesced anti-Western politicians, and Muslim fundamentalists — implausibly claiming that Pakistan’s sovereignty was undermined and the country was going to end up as a U.S. neo-colony.

But on October 19^th, 2009 Sen. Kerry took a carrot while Gen. Patreus had his stick, and both landed in Islamanbad.  Gen. Kayani was assured that his military would get the monies and equipment that he had asked for but if he pulled a fast one, the Obama administration would at once severe its ties with Pakistan’s army. Sen. Kerry’s meeting was held earlier in the day and Gen. Patreaus arrived at the GHQ that same day, in the afternoon.

General Kayani counseled his peers and advisors and by the end of October 19th it was decided that Kerry-Lugar Bill would not be publicly condemned. Five Pakistani journalists were contacted the very same night and told not to beat the dead horse.

The Pakistani media are packed with stories of corruption – the same TV anchors who had become Hugo Chavez of Pakistan on army’s behest opposing Kerry-Lugar Bill have since launched several vociferous campaigns against people’s government exposing corruption of ruling politicians. Not a single anchor has ever asked what happened to corrupt Generals. Why are corrupt army officials beyond criticism?

From trafficking heroin to grabbing precious land; from taking kick-backs on the purchase of equipment (sub-marines included) the Pakistan army has looted everything we have ever had. Why then, you should wonder, do Pakistani journalists only discuss civilian corruption?

But lessons learned from KLB froth, the Memogate bubble, and many similarly engineered campaigns against the representatives of the  people, is that Pakistan needs structural media reform. Any progressive agenda minus media reform, in my opinion, is meaningless. I also believe that small alternative outlets are critical for keeping the major media houses in check. Were it not for alternative voices on blogs, Twitter, FB, and other social media we could not have countered the dominant narrative and the stream of ‘ghairat’ hysteria would have gone unchallenged.

Social media has been of tremendous value in challenging the discourse of Pakistan’s internal colonizers but it is limited in reach; even with plenty of quality dissident blogs and reportage, it barely makes a ripple in Pakistan because of language barriers.

To change the narrative from a national interest to the people’s interest, we need to reach 190 million in many languages including Urdu. Transitioning the ethos created by the progressive blogosphere in Pakistan to indigenous languages, in my mind, is the key challenge that must be addressed.