Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category
The silent majority must be mobilised by progressives.
FOLK wisdom tells us that if at first you dont succeed, then create a furor and try again. When it comes to getting people riled up, our omnipotent angels as they are euphemistically referred to these days are second to none. Unable to secure the desired result in the wake of the Hamid Mir allegations, the angels happened to chance on a dramatic case of religious slander aired on the same channel that had earlier invoked their ire.
It is thus that the countrys biggest media group is reportedly on the verge of being shut down after a rapid mobilisation campaign featuring the religious establishment and the formers media competitors. There are many aspects of this series of events that should be discussed. Most glaring is the shameless manner in which rival media houses rip into one another, confirming that liberal capitalism, with all its pretensions of civility, is an essentially no-holds-barred survival of the fittest.
At a more general level, contradictions within the corridors of power are becoming increasingly visible. In theory, the sharpening of contradictions should not worry progressives because it is when systems of domination start to dysfunction that the possibilities of substantive change increase.
Yet I have come across many progressives who are profoundly concerned about what they believe is a tilt in the balance of power back in favour of the men in khaki and reactionary political forces. Leaving aside the question of when the balance of power ever tilted decisively against the right, I want to suggest that we try and understand the nature of evolving contradictions from a different perspective.
Compare the sensibilities engendered by the images beamed out by television these days with those of the arch-conservatives that are the most mobilised constituency in the country.
On the one hand are the glitz and glamour of globalised capitalist culture, with its uninhibited titillation. Otherwise sacrosanct taboos are unashamedly challenged on the screen. That tens of millions keep tuning in every day to see more confirms that TVs appeal is growing rapidly.
On the other hand are the stringent rules and regulations of public religiosity, enforced by institutions and ordinary people alike in all realms of social life. Moral standards are firmly established and challenging them leads at best to excommunication from the community of believers and at worst to severe punishments, even death.
Which is the real world that the majority of Pakistanis inhabit? Both, insofar as most ordinary people participate in each consciously. Yes, they adopt different dispositions in either case, but this does not mean that one set of dispositions is real while the other is false.
While the future cannot be mapped out seamlessly by social scientific inquiry, the rapidity with which TV and by this I mean all information technologies is shaping social life in the present century means that everything that comes in the way is likely to be transformed. Which means that the reality of globalised capitalism is going impose itself more and more on the reality of public religiosity.
This is important to bear in mind if only because it confirms that the media houses rejoicing at the misfortunes of their rival are as much bearers of infidel cultural symbols and could tomorrow be just as easily accused of religious impropriety. In the big, bad world of Pakistani politics, there are no friends, only interests.
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The silent majority must be mobilised by progressives.
In cross-town legislative races, a combination punch for city progressives (UPDATED)
OK, so it might be a bit premature to get that "New Pittsburgh" tattoo after all.
That's one of the nagging doubts some progressives went to bed with last night, after Tuesday's Democratic primary resulted in defeats for both Tom Michalow and state Rep. Erin Molchany. Both candidates were running in city/suburb hybrid districts, against familiar Democratic names. Molchany was squaring off against Harry Readshaw, a 10-term incumbent into whose South Hills district Molchany was drawn; Michalow was battling North Side Rep. Adam Ravenstahl, a two-term rep and brother of Pittsburgh's former mayor.
And for progressives, what may be most worrisome is not whether they lost, but how:
It was enough to make some know-it-all Wednesday morning quarterbacks wonder: Could progressives have won Michalow's race if they'd invested a bit more of the energy they put into Molchany's? (There's an even darker possibility, of course: What if Michalow did better because he didn't have as much progressive "help"?)
It's not that everyone was blindsided by Tuesday's results. I've been told by various sources that Molchany's campaign had internal polling which showed that she faced a steep uphill climb: Her drubbing on Tuesday was actually not quite as bad as her own polling predicted it could be. Campaign consultant Matt Merriman-Preston, who worked on both the Molchany and Michalow campaigns, says that while no such poll was carried out for Michalow, he had field reports -- "which turned out to be fairly accurate" -- that the race would be tight.
But Merriman-Preston, a celebrated architect of Peduto's political strategy, was wary of drawing too many lessons from yesterday's primary.
"There's only a big-picture takeaway when I win," jokes Merriman-Preston, with a somewhat rueful laugh. "When I lose, it's all just minutiae."
Or in Molchany's case, cartography. Redistricting forced Molchany into a district -- made up of city South Hills neighborhoods as well as Brentwood and Baldwin -- that was mostly Readshaw's home turf. Molchany did well in the portion of the new district she brought with her: In the city's 19th ward of Beechview, for example, she trounced Readshaw 75-25. But Readshaw beat her by a similar margin in his base of Carrick, and in the suburbs he steamrolled her by three-to-one.
"I'm still parsing the numbers, but it was definitely geography," Merriman-Preston said this morning. "When you lose by 20 points instead of 20 votes, there's more going into it at the beginning."
And while Molchany became a cause clbre for Peduto and like-minded allies, it's not always clear how much that support helped in the heavily white, working-class district. Take, for example, Peduto's ad endorsing Molchany. While Peduto's backing may have inspired progressives, it also prominently mentions Molchany's work with Planned Parenthood, which took a strong role in her campaign . But among political insiders there is speculation that, in a socially conservative district, name-dropping an abortion-rights group may have been a double-edged sword.
Excerpt from:
In cross-town legislative races, a combination punch for city progressives (UPDATED)
Stop playing politics with human lives,
The All Progressives Congress on Thursday urged the Peoples Democratic Party to stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.
The APC said it is wrong, irresponsible and uncharitable for the PDP to seek to make political gains out of the worsening and deadly terror attacks in the country. This was contained in a statement by APCs Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.
According to the party, Nigerians are too discerning to be hoodwinked by PDPs ceaseless finger-pointing and name-calling, as exhibited by the partys overly-exuberant and rarely-introspecting spokesman.
The PDP, in its reaction by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the opposition party is simply trying to vent its frustrations on innocent Nigerians.
Metuh said, Their statements are as ugly as their looks and their actions. They are carrying their personal frustrations on Nigerians; we are a peaceful nation, they should leave us alone.
However, the APC insisted that Nigerians, who watched the live telecast of the APC rally in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday saw how the party left with no choice than to proceed with the rally in view of the suddenness of the Jos twin bombings and the fact that INEC could not be prevailed upon to change the timetable of the Ekiti polls, made it as somber as possible under the circumstances. The APC statement partly read, Despite the presence of musical groups and other performers, all musical breaks in the programme and all other scheduled performances were cut out, while the rally itself was drastically abridged. There is no doubt that the PDPs spokesman did not even bother to get the full details of the rally before rushing to the media in his usual jumpy self. Mr. Olisah Metuh is definitely eager to act like an opposition spokesman rather than the spokesman for the ruling party. This is not a problem as his party is definitely fighting hard to trade places with the APC as the main opposition party come 2015.
We can only appeal to Mr. Metuh to wait for a few more months and, in the meantime, start learning the ropes as an opposition spokesman.
Stop playing politics with human lives, APC tells PDP
The All Progressives Congress on Thursday urged the Peoples Democratic Party to stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.
The APC said it was wrong, irresponsible and uncharitable for the PDP to seek to make political gains out of the worsening insecurity and increasing terror attacks in the country.
This was contained in a statement signed by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.
According to the party, Nigerians are too discerning to be hoodwinked by PDPs ceaseless finger-pointing and name calling, as exhibited by the partys overly-exuberant and rarely-introspecting spokesman.
In response, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the opposition party was simply trying to vent its frustrations on innocent Nigerians.
Metuh said, Their statements are as ugly as their looks and their actions. They are carrying their personal frustrations on Nigerians; we are a peaceful nation, they should leave us alone.
However, the APC insisted that Nigerians who watched the live telecast of the APC rally in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday saw how the party, left with no choice than to proceed with the rally in view of the suddenness of the Jos bombings and the fact that INEC could not be prevailed upon to change the timetable of the Ekiti polls, made it as sober as possible under the circumstances.
The APC statement partly read, Despite the presence of musical groups and other performers, all musical breaks in the programme and all other scheduled performances were cut out, while the rally itself was drastically abridged. There is no doubt that the PDPs spokesman did not even bother to get the full details of the rally before rushing to the media in his usual jumpy self.
Mr. Olisah Metuh is definitely eager to act like an opposition spokesman rather than the spokesman for the ruling party. This is not a problem as his party is definitely fighting hard to trade places with the APC as the main opposition party come 2015. We can only appeal to Mr. Metuh to wait for a few more months and, in the meantime, start learning the ropes as an opposition spokesman.
The party equally reminded the PDP that the Ekiti rally was not the same thing as the illegal rally in Kano, where President Goodluck Jonathan led other PDP leaders to engage in Azonto dance less than 24 hours after 75 of his compatriots were killed in the first Nyanya bombing.
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Stop playing politics with human lives, APC tells PDP