Hijacking Democracy – by Anas Muhammad

Today we live in an increasingly dangerous world, which is filled with people who have their ulterior motives and willingness to harm others to benefit themselves. Our world is filled with criminals, gangsters, murderers, and terrorists. The people who would go to all extremes to get their way being inconsiderate of the rights of other human beings.

Every state and the government has the right to arrest any criminal it wishes to put off the street for the safety of others, it does that to keep the law and order intact, and most importantly to keep the social order in place. The state also provides services to its peaceful citizens, hoping that nothing out of ordinary will happen, that no one with their ulterior motives will try to abuse that service.

A service like a commercial plane is there to help its passengers travel, but often we see maniacs abuse that service, in other words hijack the plane for their own ulterior motives. That is when things start to turn chaotic, everyone panics, the innocent lives and the system is put on stake by a few hijackers.

In situation like this a state, who would arrest criminals, has to release them. At time it has to pay them, or help them escape. It does it for greater welfare of the innocent lives. It negotiates with the hijackers, listens to their demands, regardless of how absurd and illegal they are, state fulfills them.

When this happen and the plane lands safely, the passengers come out and breath freely, and many lives are saved, we consider it a victory of the state. Although state might have given up to many criminal demands, released prisoners, given money to the hijackers, or let them flee to a different country safely. The state does not lose in this case, but succeeds to protect the most valuable asset, the life of innocent.

This very situation occurred in Pakistan. As the country began a perfectly normal day, went on with its business, everything was perfect and normal till some one got into a flight and hijacked the plane. All the sudden there was uncertainty, havoc, and chaos, created by the commentators in the studios lashing out at the government for its inability to stop the hijacking.

As the hijackers stood to their grounds the government had to go in action, they started formulating plans, and counter plans, assuring their citizens that they have everything in control. Before the government could sort things out, it started to face retaliation from the sympathizers of the hijackers. Government stuck, between a rock and a hard place, started the process of negotiation with a very few options. It started to become a zero-sum-game, as the sympathizers and the commentators, disregarding the sensitivity of the situation, kept giving the “end of the world” impression.

All democratic governments know how to deal with situations like this, but the key is not to let its citizens panic, cause if they do, their negotiation position is compromised. That is exactly what happened – thanks to commentators and sympathizers of hijackers – and things got worse. Things happened exactly as the commentators wished, apparently they were hoping to capture a plane-crash in their cameras.

End of the day, the government gave into the demands of hijackers, allowing them to get what they wanted. Doing so the government succeeded in freeing up its citizens and saving the nation. Pakistan’s very valuable asset, democracy, and its citizens were saved from incurring great losses. It was a victory for the government, democracy, and the peace loving citizens of Pakistan.

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