What are the chains of freedom?
- Each freedom struggle in the third world produced a new class of oppressors.
- This new class raises the slogans of the first freedom movement to keep the public placated.
- The chains of freedom is the psychological state of being trapped in the nostalgia of the first freedom struggle.
----------------
Hello. Hello. Check.
This is Radio Tunisia.
Do we have Pakistan on the line?
Hello. Check.
Signal clear. Voice heard. (‘Don’t know if it’ll be understood?’)
[Transmission begins]
----------------
Asalamokaim Pakistan. We were told this is the greeting you prefer.
This is Radio Tunisia.
The Tunisian people have fought a struggle for their own freedom. Some say it is a democratic struggle. It is a misrepresentation. Democracy is only part of our aims.
We are to speak to you of our freedom struggle. A second freedom struggle that was waged after our first freedom struggle.
We hear that you have also waged similar struggle. We hear your history is also graced by dictators. We hear that you often take to the street. We in Tunisia hear a great many things about you.
But in this one sided transmission we wish to speak many things to you.
The Middle East and the Magreb is known to be less politically active that you. Many said we were a land of dictators, for dictators, by dictators. Not Algeria of course. The Algerian people’s struggles we oft fell back upon. You, Pakistanis, we often did draw inspiration from. You had stood up to a fair share of dictators.
But you are a strange people. We shall speak about you later.
The Middle East has decided to change. Not the State, but the people.
It is in people changing that the future of movements to reclaim humanity lies. That is our attempt.
When we run our first freedom movement, we thought we would be restored to the status of equal humans. We did away with our colonizer – you too did. But then a new class emerged and new chains emerged.
These new chains we remained shackled under for over thirty years. So did the Egyptian people. You too remain bound by the same chains.
As we rise up and continue our second struggle to break free from the chains of our freedom – we wait for you to rise.
But what will you rise for?
Some say the outsiders’ eye pierces more – so we guess we must share some of our observations of you with you. We, of course, do not claim to know you completely.
There are a number of questions that we shall put to you – and open up a number of potential answers to be sought:
What happens when independence is attained? And how are people put in chains by independence?
These are not easy questions to answer. There are too many bad habits that we humans have. These are exactly why it took us in the Middle East and the Magreb so long to make our move.
The idea of becoming a nation is the first oppressor. Not that becoming a nation is bad. Not that coming together is bad. But the idea of becoming a nation oppresses those who do not fulfill the criterion of the centre within the territory that our freedom claims to apply to.
In Pakistan, does this not explain the marginalization of the Baluchis, the creation of the Mohajir identity, the rights struggles of the Seraiki people, the struggles and toil of the Sindhi’s and the deep marginalization of the Pashtun’s.
In Pakistan, does this not explain the daily protests that break out sporadically. In the last one week amongst social classes only in Lahore: khwaja sira’s have protested, beggars have protested, traders have protested, factory workers have protested, students have protested, government workers have protested.
This is not a reflection of the reactionary nature of their struggles – but rather a reflection of the struggles of these classes within the social structures they engage with day-to-day. These are not struggles that shall end soon. There is a need for re-invention.
Our sense is that you have not even thought about yourself yet. Not thought of your local reality. What structures your day-to-day? How you form relationships with each other? How do you change the relationship to each other? How do you change your relationship to the State?
The struggle we began in Tunisia has spread to Egypt. There is it most powerful.
But when the Egyptian people began to rise no one believed they were serious. Hosni Mubarik had rules them for 30 years. His son was being geared to take the reins.
But the Egyptian people were serious. They stood up and took out protests every day. When a curfew was imposed and the army was sent in people did not succumb to it. They took to the streets and the army took to the streets.
What happened on the streets is what amazed us. The two groups are said to have danced together. The army refused to fire on the protestors. Elements within the State and the people found unity. It is this transformation that needs to be completed. It is in this change that the first real notion of the freedom struggle we are now fighting is being realized.
But we must be cautious. Revolution – or in lighter words – revolt, dear Pakistanis, is not a one time event. Maybe we shall make the same mistake of thinking that it is. For now we are not making it.
Our new President has tried to keep the old guard in Parliament and in Cabinet. We cannot trust the old party. The issue is not one man – but the psychologies he builds into a set of men that take the reins of government. We shall continue to fight. And we shall stay on the streets till the change we require comes.
It was Gandhi’s lesson that we learnt when we understood that we have to win over those parts of our oppressors that were themselves being oppressed. But did you hear – of the police force that began by beating us when we began protesting, 2000 police officers along with members of the National Guard donned red arm bands and joined our protests. Our oppressor and we became one. And it was he that submerged into us – not we.
It is similar in the Egyptian struggle. Members of the police force have began to join the struggle. You see under an oppressive government no one is happy. And the police is a State structure designed to oppress you.
Remember that each police officer, in his heart, supports you.
But we cannot say the same about the army intelligence. But we remain hopeful. It is our purity of intent – and dedication to our struggle that will make us succeed.
For now we remain steadfast in battling the chains of our freedom. And we wait for you to begin your struggle. But before you struggle, now what you struggle for.
As we end our transition we must return you the words an hero – a hero that remained committed to the freedom of the people’s of the third world - to you uttered on the eve of your first Freedom:
Woh dagh dagh ujala, woh shab gazeeda sahar
Ye who sahar to nahi jis ki aarzoo lekar
These tarnished rays, this night-smudged light
This is not the Dawn which we set out for
Nijat-e-dida-o-dil ki ghari nahin a’i
Chale-chale ke vo manzil abhi nahin a’i
The time of the freedom of our hearts and minds has not come
Let us move further for the promised Dawn is yet to come
[Faiz Ahmed Faiz]
We hope you too begin the struggle for your second freedom...
[Transmission over]
- The article was printed in The Review on February 8 with Pakistan Today.
No comments:
Post a Comment