To trust or not.

Byline: Zubeida Mustafa

THE underlying cause of what is currently termed as 'confusion' in our political discourse is a deficit of trust. Simply put, it is the paranoia that has subsumed people from all walks of life, causing them to distrust others. Can you blame them when they have been deceived so often?

Take the case of the pandemic. On June 19, a very eminent infectious diseases specialist, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, wrote an excellent article in this paper explaining the pandemic, the emergence of the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 and the need for a lockdown. According to her, we have already crossed the Rubicon. She attributes the failure to win the full cooperation of the masses on SOPs to 'poverty, illiteracy and dense populations' as well as 'ingrained habits'. Hence she appeals for specialists to be given the opportunity to explain what the pandemic really is.

True, the masses are now not paying much heed to the specialists and, as a result, 'smart lockdowns' have had to be imposed. It is not that the specialists have stopped explaining their case on the media. Their mission has been hijacked by the wrong people - conspiracy theorists and political leaders who claim to know better. Such are the ways of Facebook and WhatsApp, the biggest nemesis of an uneducated society. As a result, the masses who had responded quite responsibly initially are now denying the very existence of the virus and accusing doctors of telling lies and killing people with lethal injections. By bringing up the 'lives vs livelihood' debate, the prime minister also took the focus away from the urgency of the matter. As a result, the common man no longer believes what the specialists say.

Given our dilapidated health delivery system, people have often been forced to depend on quacks whose drips and injections have seemingly brought them relief from pain. So they believe the quacks whom they trust. That is the basis of credibility.

Our rulers are afraid of teaching our children to think critically.

This trust deficit is the direct offshoot of the politicisation of life in Pakistan. For decades, leaders have fed us on lies so much that we have been left with no faith in them.

Just a week after Dr Salahuddin's article was published, the prime minister made one of his rare appearances in the National Assembly. He had a lot to say, mainly about his 'achievements'. He also expressed his desire to see parliament functioning and holding debates on national issues. Well said...