The entertainment industry in this country should visit the Punjab Assembly to observe and learn the real art of showmanship and ‘drama’ from the masters at their best. The session held on Tuesday had it all; from the usual blame game, to shouting slogans which displayed the creative side of the law makers, and the coup de grace was completed by our law minister displaying his insightful perspective by branding the opposition with the biggest insult he could think of; labelling them a Jewish lobby.
Protests were the rage in the session, with three being held in tandem with each other in the assembly, with the opposition protesting against the treasury bench, while the treasury bench was voicing its disapproval on the actions of the opposition, and the media expressing its displeasure by completely boycotting the session in the wake of the Karachi terrorist attack on the Express Group office. The speaker’s admonishments to everyone involved were ignored, and instead the provincial representatives engaged in shouting matches to get their point across. The situation resembled an unsupervised free-for-all in an asylum for the insane, not a forum hosting a debate by the august representatives of the public. Our esteemed Law Minister for example, had clearly spent more time thinking of ‘clever’ ways to insult the opposition, rather than doing his job and answering for the Rawalpindi incident, or the recent inability to maintain law and order in Lahore. In his expert opinion, Jews are the root cause behind every attack and everything negative that goes on in this country.
It is time to realize that this prehistoric way of thinking is exactly why we are in this position in the first place. Not recognizing one’s own personal failings, and shifting the blame to a target that makes for an easier scapegoat is the real problem. Why is it that the antics in the Provincial Assembly are reduced to playground frolics by a bunch of rowdy school children? Our politicians are supposed to be professionals and are expected to trump each other on the basis of logic and debate, and not instead on who can be louder and more preposterous in insulting the other. This exuberance should instead be channeled towards fulfilling their job description and focus on things that really matter, instead of indulging in a never-ending screaming match, with no regard for others’ — or for that matter, one’s own — dignity.