Changing the theme of the National Conversation

Ibrahim Athif Shakoor

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.
Theodore Roosevelt

While the facts and figures detailing the economic downturn of the country are quite well known and need not be repeated, there is no longer any doubt that the economy of the country is in trouble. The facts are now overwhelming and it is no longer a matter of speculation. The ill wind that has been blowing across the world has been affecting different economies in different ways and at different times. But the overall message is clear and unambiguous.

Meanwhile, there are two fundamentally different courses that can be pursued.

One, and what seems to be the prevalent one is to play the blame game. It is somebody’s fault, more importantly, it is someone else’s fault. Anybody but me. It is an attractive option as it absolves self from any blame. This method is of course a variant of the popular game of tag, played by school children throughout the world. Somebody is ‘it’ and the objective is to transfer the ‘it’ to somebody else as soon as possible. But the game now is more serious, the stakes higher.

The second option is to start figuring out what can be done about it. And leading from this, of course, how can I contribute. While, this seems to be the logical and wise course to follow, the game so far has been to figure out somebody else to blame and to stop there.
Politicians and political parties are still trying to be coy about impeding economic woes. They engage in the blame game without a subsequent discussion of strategies, and options on how to tackle the issue. The question is how long the nation can afford to ignore the obvious.

Meanwhile, there is something that we can do, a role that we can all play. There is amanner in which can contribute such that important issues are become the focus of the nation’s attention. We can, at least for some time remove our focus from the normal everyday game of politics. We can refuse to be spectators of the political game. The reason that the game of politics continue to be supreme, is because we; the spectators, make it the number one sport. Because, we all buy expensive tickets to the game of politics, attend each and every game, applaud our respective teams and support them with loud cheer and afterwards engage in energetic vocal and sometimes physical debates about who won. Who was right and who was wrong.

Therefore, if we, all of us, refuse to be spectators in the normal game of politics and engage in a conversation about economics and the importance of finding solutions to the economic problems at hand, you can be sure that the politicians will follow. There will be no choice, for a politician is one who figures which direction the people are heading and then move quickly to stand in front of the crowd. We who are the crowd, can change the theme of the national debate and centre the national conversation about economics. They are then, sure to follow.