IK's philosophy

Even if Imran Khan’s corruption-free utopia comes into being, it will not end capitalist and feudal exploitation

The clean-shaven Amir of what the Beyghairat Brigade calls “Beautiful Jamaat-e-Islami” has begun to draw even more attention in the mainstream media since his show of street power at Minar-e-Pakistan. While one must appreciate the revival of street politics in a country brutalised by terrorism, Imran Khan’s politics is hardly liberating for peasants, workers, the urban poor, the minorities, oppressed nations and women. Jamaat-style elitism and simplification of complex politico-economic questions underpin his politics.

While the Jamaat believes in a team of musleheen (reformers) to usher in an Islamic revolution, Imran Khan asserts in an interview making the rounds in the blogosphere: The poor should stay away from politics.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_zuiMkYZ1Dk

He believes politics should be a realm of the rich because, unlike the poor, rich people are content. A content person, he believes, would not practice corruption.

He simultaneously blames corruption for all the ills plaguing this country. In the first place, the politicians he accuses of corruption are all rich. Hence, the notion that excluding the poor from politics by reducing them to mere voters and spectators is false from the outset. Also, this elitist vision is hardly new. When the world was reconstructed by imperial powers in the wake of the Second World War, Winston Churchill came up with similar ideas: “The government of the world must be entrusted to satisfied nations, who wished nothing more for themselves than what they had. If the world government were in the hands of hungry nations, there would always be danger. But none of us had any reason to seek for anything more.”

These elitist solutions have been brilliantly deconstructed by Noam Chomsky. The “rich men,” in Chomsky’s view, “are far from lacking ambition. There are always new ways to enrich oneself and dominate others, and the economic system virtually requires that they be pursued, or the laggard falls out of the game.” The poor in Pakistan are not poor because they are earning less. It is capitalist logic that profit should always be accumulated by the capitalist. Workers need to act politically to secure a share in the profit created by their labour power. They need to form unions and political parties.

Better living standards for the workers in the West owe to decades-long political struggles. Only a century ago, Swedish workers were virtually living on subsistence level. Politics was the realm of the rich. Swedish workers began to influence politics through their unions and parties, which culminated in a social-democratic government. It is only then that were they able to secure a decent life. Today, Swedish workers have perhaps the highest standard of living. Their political exclusion would have meant perpetual poverty.

Even if Imran Khan’s corruption-free utopia comes into being, it will not end capitalist and feudal exploitation. The workers will keep creating profits to be accumulated by the rich. Instead, any attempt at building unions will be seen by their bosses as corruption. The serfs will continue toiling on the lands of the Pirs, Khans, Maliks and Chaudhrys lining up these days to join the Tehrik-e-Insaf. Any struggle for land ownership rights will be declared corruption.

For the persecuted religious minorities, his message is clear: blasphemy laws will not be tinkered with. As a matter of fact, Imran Khan and his Khaki patrons do not need blasphemy laws. However, Khan and Khakis need mullahs. The beards do need blasphemy laws.

For oppressed nationalities, his message is ‘two nation theory’. In other words, Balochistan will continue burning. The people of Sindh should give up their struggle for water, language, culture and economic rights. Pashtons not supporting the policy of ‘strategic death’ deserve Taliban’s puritan wrath.

Since we have no reason to doubt Imran Khan’s wisdom, hence we believe the TTP cadre will embrace Gandhiism the day the infidel bites the dust in Afghanistan while sectarian outfits will stop blowing up shrines and Imam Bargahs. However, there is an acute national question in Sindh and Balochistan. The external debt is approaching $70 billion. Population growth and environmental catastrophes are depriving an increasing number of Pakistanis of their livelihoods. Nuclear waste holds our future hostage. Will Mr Khan solve all these problems by persuading politicians to make their bank accounts public?

(A shorter version of this piece has appeared in The News earlier)

Farooq Sulehria is working with Stockholm-based Weekly Internationalen (www.internationalen.se). Before joining Internationalen, he worked for one year,2006-07 at daily The News, Rawalpindi. Also, in Pakistan, he has worked with Lahore-based dailies, The Nation, The Frontier Post and Pakistan. He has MA in Mass Communication from Punjab University, Lahore. He also contributes for Znet and various left publications in Europe and Australia.