The term ‘common man’ has become too common and clichéd. It has now come to the connotation of the common man being somewhat below the status of an average man. It does not sound dignified. With myriad problems being faced by the average man (that’s the term I have decided to use from now on), in close up we find the effective and vote gathering slogan; Roti, Kapra aur Makan most appropriate. It served its purpose. It bought in votes for the fourth time to the party who had originally coined it. Votes of the average man and woman. The party has been and now again, after a long mid-break, is in power but the average man has come down to the level of below average. Nothing wrong with the poor. The world is full of poor people who manage two meals a day and still maintain their self respect and dignity. The poor have one great blessing - their dreams. And history tells us that from the poor dreamers arose lots of great men - politicians, reformers, leaders of nations, generals, scientists, inventors, scholars, poets, writers, and the richest of business tycoons.
Being poor, is no crime but making people poor definitely is. And who is perpetrating this unforgivable crime? In ‘Big Close Up’ we find it is the wealthy. When the rich ones rise above the wealth line, the poor start going below the poverty line and trouble begins. This has been and still is our national malady. There used to be four classes of humanity; upper class, upper-middle class, lower-middle class and lower class. In this very sequence were divided the boogies and compartments of our railway trains right from the times of the British Raj. What classes do we have today in millions of people inhabiting this beautiful and God gifted country of ours? The very upper and the very lower, and in between is being crushed the middle class that was once called the backbone of society.
This class, comprising professionals, salaried persons, lecturers and professors, in short, people who are contributing to the daily movement of life and progress of country and society are the basic tax payers because they don’t, as they cannot evade the same. These people are in majority. They are paying through their nose, a tax direct or indirect for each and every commodity that is required to survive in today’s world. But are they getting any benefit in return? Watch any television channel, read any newspaper’s editorial or columns of a daily or just ask a friend or relative and you will have the answer. On asking many tax payers the general feeling is giving the pound of flesh to Shylock, of Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ fame.
Then, where are all our taxes going ask the tax payers? The answer came as a jolt of lightning in these days of electricity outages in a displayed letter from a sensitive Pakistani, residing in Washington DC, published in the news post of The News. The salient features being:
• A dinner was hosted in honour of our Prime Minister visiting the U.S. where Pakistani Americans, 800 of them were invited.
• The dinner was organised in the ballroom of one of Washington DC’s most upscale hotel.
• To gauge the fantastic charges of the hotel, he informs us that just the valet parking of the guest’s cars at the hotel where the dinner was held is $ 25. In his words, one can only imagine the amount of money spent on valet parking for the tremendous entourage of embassy cars and expensive limousines hired to haul the embassy staff, ministers and other dignitaries.
• 80 tables were laid out for the guests and you can again imagine the catering expenses in addition to the room rentals and other costs.
• The feast that was served of this elaborately prepared gourmet meal consisted of superbly baked chicken breast and salmon on a bed of perfectly cooked basmati rice, served with two delicious side dishes of okra and egg plant followed by mango sorbet and mango trifle sprinkled with just the right amount of raspberry sauce complimented by dark chocolate still followed by tea coffee and iced tea, which was also served with the main course. And we are told that the late Benazir Bhutto in her Prime Minister days used to serve her guests with boiled rice, daal, a curry and rotis which she also partook of.
• The Prime Minister of Pakistan was seated away from the people and dozens of burly security guards were present so that the ordinary do not come close to him.
• Before all this and the opening speech stuff, our Ambassador in U.S. in his welcoming remarks asked for Rs.10 million for the purchase of old Pakistan embassy building on the Massachusetts Avenue, Washington DC, to be preserved and converted as a cultural centre.
• The Prime Minister acknowledged that he had asked for Rs.10 million but obliged by not doubling or even tripling the amount but by announcing an astonishingly generous Rs.100 million and this surprised, amongst others in the audience, the ambassador himself.
Come to think, the style and psyche of the great Mogul emperors did not die with them. It is very much alive and kicking. Otherwise, why such lavish lifestyles of our rulers? Have any of our rulers been to ‘10 Downing Street, London’? If so, did they observe anything there? Do they know the expenses and upkeep allocation of the British Prime Minister’s official residence or his entertainment allowance? We follow the British a lot, in our dressing, language, style and even in our legal procedures. Why not in austerity? Look around and we find personalities like Ahmedinejad of Iran. See how he lives, eats, dresses and sleeps. Doesn’t he behave and act like the average man. Qaddafi and Castro are other examples - though a little extreme. The king of Maldives lives in a bungalow the likes of which can be found in Defence - Karachi, Gulberg - Lahore and F-6 - Islamabad.
What’s wrong with those rulers? Don’t they want to indulge in luxuries? Or is their luxury in their people’s well being and comfort. It’s a plea to our rulers. Please come down from your self-raised pedestals to your subject’s level. Not the level of the teeming ‘below the poverty line’ masses but at least that of the upper - middle class. Your people will appreciate even that. Please set examples. Remember, you have a very loyal and faithful nation at your beck and call. Get involved, feel for them and help feed them. They are your children. Treat them as such and they will love you. After feeding them, clothe them and I’m sure they will make their hearths and holes themselves.
Just keep the slogan to roti and kapra and replace the makan bit with social justice and see the magic work.
No doubt, our rulers and leaders have always belonged to affluent families. They have not seen poverty but if visiting a certain province they can don a cap, a pagri, chadar and ajrak to identify with the locals, why not develop a lifestyle to identify with the average Pakistani - the average man. It will take some doing but can definitely be done. Someone somewhere should aspire to go down in history with love, integrity and respect.n
