M. Q. Yaaser |
Politics is the name of possibilities. In his last speech, former Prime Minister of United Kingdom Mr. David Cameron said that by politics you can achieve a lot of things; one of them is public service.
Hillary, in their view, had already harmed world peace and had lied a lot to the public. By that standard Trump actually, seemed to be a better option.
There are times when the political slogans of the leaders become so extreme that for their followers the slogans become quite un-defendable. Whoever had been following the American presidential elections 2016, may know that most of the Americans who had made their mind to vote for Donald J. Trump said that they didn’t like much in Trump but they considered Trump as a ‘lesser evil’ than Hillary Clinton. Followers of this ‘lesser evil’ concept grew up to be so many that it made Trump win the election.
Trump’s victory could have been predicted months before the November ’16 elections only by judging the Facebook following and by reading the comments by the followers of both Trump and Clinton on social media. It was clear that whatever Trump was saying about the women, minorities, Muslims, and LGBTs couldn’t convince his followers, yet they considered that he was a lot better than that of Hillary.
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Why was he better than Hillary? Because Hillary, in their view, had already harmed world peace and had lied a lot to the public. By that standard Trump actually, seemed to be a better option. In my opinion had this not been the fair elections in America, Trump would have been lost it quite easily and his followers would’ve accepted the results (as Hillary has scored 3 million votes more than him and the polling industry were always predicting this against Trump to make a public opinion).
Fair elections in Pakistan
The same happened in the 2013 elections. Imran Khan was considered as a ‘lesser evil’ as compared to his political rivals like the two times elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the then President Asif Ali Zardari.
It is reasonable to assume that had Trump been in Pakistan, would have easily been defeated as a result of rigged elections and nobody would have bothered much. Thanks to free and fair elections in America which made Trump win even though all the establishment, including Wall Street, the mainstream media, and the polling industry, was against him.
Same fair elections in the UK on 23rd June 2016 helped the ‘Leave’ campaign win. Nigel Farage, the main supporter of and torch bearer of ‘Leave’ campaign narrates that he himself was surprised to see the results on Election Day, as the pollsters were showing the ‘Leave’ campaign 10 points down as compared to ‘Remain’ campaign even on the day of the referendum.
This has been happening in Pakistan since the countrymen went to the polls for the first time in 1970. The same happened in the 2013 elections. Imran Khan was considered as a ‘lesser evil’ as compared to his political rivals like the two times elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the then President Asif Ali Zardari. The pollsters were printing different things on regular basis. As a result of elections, Nawaz Sharif won, but after a few years, the Supreme Court decided that more than 37% of the votes cast had no counterfoil in the record.
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There must be a fair electoral system in place if a real change through a ballot is desired. Had the slogans of Nigel Farage and Trump been ‘politically correct’ they would never have won elections. The slogans of both were quite unconventional.
In Pakistan, the elections can be free and fair only by the introduction of biometric and electronic voting. Until then the slogans of Imran Khan and others like him will remain publically un-defendable like Donald Trump and Nigel.
Imran Khan cannot win elections in Pakistan by being ‘politically correct’, rather he cannot win elections only by being as vocal as he is. In order to increase chances of winning an election, the electoral process must be fair to support him or any other party which talks against the stream.
In Pakistan, the elections can be free and fair only by the introduction of biometric and electronic voting. Until then the slogans of Imran Khan and others like him will remain publically un-defendable like Donald Trump and Nigel. This looks a distant possibility, though.
M. Q. Yaaser is working in an organization for children’s vaccination. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and one in Sociology, He has an interest in international and domestic politics. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.