A realistic review of the environment that existed during the year 2024, underscores many disturbing observations and conclusions: “We have become a nation adrift in a sea of government overreach, abuse of power and corruption. The year was marked by the government’s never-ending power grabs and relentless assaults on our civil liberties. The militarization of police forces continued unabated, with local departments increasingly resembling extensions of the military. Schools, meant to be places of learning and growth, became more prison-like with the implementation of “safety” measures that criminalize minor infractions and create an environment of fear. The right to private property and business was further eroded. Military veterans, once hailed as heroes, were increasingly treated with suspicion and subjected to surveillance. With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except for that which the Deep State grants on an ‘as-needed’ basis. Surveillance eroded what little privacy we have left. The Surveillance State grew even more pervasive. Data breaches continued to expose the vulnerability of our personal information. Free speech continued to be under attack. Social media companies, often in collusion with the government, engaged in censorship of viewpoints they deemed unacceptable. Government technicians spied on our emails and phone calls. This online censorship creates an echo chamber and limits the free flow of information. The government failed to protect our lives, liberty and happiness. The predators of the police state wreaked havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government didn’t listen to the citizenry, and refused to abide by the Constitution. Government agents—including local police—were armed to the teeth and encouraged to act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies were allowed to fleece taxpayers. The courts failed to uphold justice. Time and time again, the Supreme Court failed to right the wrongs being meted out by the police state. Mass shootings have taken place at places of worship, on college campuses, in elementary schools, on military bases, and in the government offices. The rich got richer, and the poor went to jail. Not content to expand the police state’s power to search, strip, seize, raid, steal from, arrest and jail people for any infraction. This is no longer a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” It is fast becoming a government “of the rich, by the elite, for the corporations,” and its rise to power is predicated on shackling the taxpayer to a debtors’ prison guarded by a phalanx of politicians, bureaucrats and militarized police with no hope of parole and no chance for escape. We are at our most vulnerable right now: the gravest threat facing us as a nation in 2025 is not extremism but despotism, exercised by a ruling class whose only allegiance is to power and money.” These are the views expressed by John and Nisha Whitehead (founder and president of The Rutherford Institute) about the Democratic USA.
The worthy readers who thought these were the comments about Pakistan may not be that much off the mark. In fact people from many countries may find the above conclusions relevant. Is it a global phenomenon that sham or weak democracies are wilting under pressure from the totalitarian ruling elite? Is it because of the unbridled power enjoyed by the reigning mafias or due to the helplessness of the cleverly manipulated, exploited, submissive, illiterate and poor people? Is it because of the loss of moral sense by the ruling upper crust? Or is it due to the failure of the justice system? Depending on which side of the aisle one stands, one can have different responses to the above questions; controversial and never ending debate may ensue nevertheless. However, raising the right questions in a coercive society may be as challenging and risky as finding the answers and solutions. Although, no easy way out is the universal truth; yet, there are numerous examples in the contemporary world where people rose, sacrificed and took their fate in their own hands for removing the local and international shackles of all modes of modern slavery.
Pakistan badly needs a Magna Carta of its own, which guarantees rule of law and dispensation of timely justice to all and sundry. The territorial, ideological, economic, race or class wars continue to divide us into hostile camps internally and externally, changing political arguments into blind hate. If the people of Pakistan wish to take their destiny in their own hands through a democratic process, they will have to elect people who are conscious of the painful reality that this country survives a great deal on the sacrifices and sacred blood of the martyrs who give their today for the Nation's tomorrow”. All the same, successful reconciliation must lead to restoration and respect of the unadulterated Constitution, National Laws and People’s Mandate.
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