MOHAMMAD KHOSA Its choice not chance that that determines your destiny. - Jean Nidetch There seems to be growing criticism about the plethora of negative news coverage, about the people being turned into constant complainers by the media and of creeping depression inside the soul of our poor countrymen. We seem to have a knack of attracting and then juggling with all kinds of crises, either of our own making or because of our immense international importance. Try typing crisis and Pakistan into Google and you will get the following list: energy crisis, power crisis, sugar crisis, wheat crisis, flood crisis, humanitarian crisis and water crisis. Can you blame the media? Apart from some people in the media, who might have some other motives, the media, by and large, is actually showing us the mirror and it is definitely not appealing. Lets admit, we have a lot of problems and we are a difficult people to govern. In such a scenario, only one institution stands out. The silver lining as the people say, whether the PPP-led government agrees with this or not, is the judiciary. The judiciary has actually broken away from the past and has made a decision. The harbinger or the symbol of this might be the Chief Justice of Pakistan, but make no mistake it is not one person who has achieved this, it is the institution that has decided to clean itself up and for once in their lives start doing their jobs. All the state institutions need to follow the judiciary to reform themselves and stick within their own parameters. The politicians need to stop the power struggles that have created a dirty and murky mixture of bad governance and instability, and need to start serving the people, not limited just to their constituencies. The survival of democracy is indeed to break away from the usual tradition of involving the GHQ into politics, and start exhibiting some good governance, for in this technological age nothing will remain hidden for long. Only good governance will suffice. The bureaucracy has time and again been clubbed with the establishment. They also need to break away from the past and explore the power of truth. There is immense power in doing the right thing; it is a very difficult job when you have to strike a delicate balance between the politicians, the judiciary, and the army. One must appreciate that it is the bureaucracy that has been pushed into the front by the executive and they are the ones facing the brunt of the 'real or independent judiciary day in and day out. The bureaucrats need to speak the truth. Like the judiciary, it is time for them to make decisions and they need to do their job fearlessly. The army too needs to break away from a difficult past. There is no question that before the judiciary started coming of age, the armed forces were the most respected and most revered institution in this country. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has done admirably well to retrieve some of that lost pride. The people of this country love its army and honestly believe that it is the only institution that is seriously looking after the sovereignty and national interest of this country. That is also one of the reasons the international players often urge the military to solve the key issues in Pakistan. What should be amply apparent now is that security and economy are intricately linked and that the army can take care of only one part of that equation. So it needs to decide, once and for all, whether it will let democracy develop or not. It needs to concentrate on its job, while respecting the role of the other institutions in society. That respect has to be somehow instituted. In any case, the true saviours of this country are its people. Let the media not depress us, it is simply what we have become. But this is neither what we are, nor what we wanted to be. We need to pressurise our representatives and all the state institutions to get their respective acts together. We need to work with unity, faith and discipline to achieve our objectives. This can be a defining moment in history; lets not let this pass us by. Choose to not let the corrupt make fools of us anymore; choose to not bear the inefficiency of our public servants anymore; choose to protect the independent judiciary and the media; choose to stand by our army and give it confidence to make the right decisions; and more importantly, choose our representatives whom you believe will take this country forward without fear. The writer is a freelance columnist.