Whether anyone agrees or not, the biggest liar and the biggest thief in this country is the common man.
The “common man” — the collective “public” and the individual “ordinary citizen” — can be shameless, brazen, stubborn and dishonest. He is neither a politician nor part of the establishment. He is neither a bureaucrat nor a general. Yet, in his own little world, he can be the biggest Pharaoh of all. He can be the worst enemy of people just like himself.
When he sells fruit, he deliberately slips rotten or inferior fruit into the customer’s bag. When he rides a motorcycle, he becomes a nightmare for pedestrians and other motorists. When he drives a van or bus, he drives as though human life means nothing. And when he gets behind the wheel of a tractor-trolley or dumper truck, he can become an angel of death. Tractor-trolleys and dumpers have, without exaggeration, crushed hundreds of vehicles and killed thousands of people.
When this common man becomes a clerk in a government office, he hisses like a snake and stings like a scorpion. He leaves the office for prayers and simply doesn’t come back. Applicants wait and wait until, frustrated and defeated, they finally leave. Go to almost any government office and you will find a sign saying: “Prayer break at 1:30 p.m.” When does the break end? Nobody knows!
If the common man becomes a shopkeeper, he treats customers as though they were his servants and himself some kind of Haman. Buy a pair of shoes in the morning and try to return them in the evening — he won’t take them back. Forget a refund; he may not even agree to exchange them.
But the customer is also a common man, and he can be even more deceptive than the shopkeeper. He may use an item extensively and then walk into the shop demanding that it be returned or exchanged.
Everyone knows that the same “common man” we have exported abroad can behave no differently overseas. In America, for example, some allegedly buy new mattresses from Walmart when guests arrive and return them after the guests leave. This, we are told, is based on reliable testimony. In Britain, the story goes, this same common man leaves his house in a wheelchair but starts jumping around as soon as he gets inside. There is supposedly strong evidence for this too.
This common man throws his household garbage into the street. He may spend twenty million rupees building a house, yet cannot spend five thousand rupees on gravel to repair the broken road outside it.
When he builds a house, he quietly encroaches on part of the street. When he opens a shop, he occupies not only the pavement but sometimes half the road with his goods. If we were to calculate the economic benefit he derives from such illegal encroachments, the amount could be many times greater than the alleged corruption and theft attributed to the Sharifs and Zardaris.
When this common man gets a job in the gas department, he takes bribes to provide illegal and unauthorized gas connections. When he works for the electricity department, he sometimes sits at home and reports meter readings without even visiting the premises. And when he becomes a telephone operator, he simply doesn’t answer the phone.
Try calling one. Your kidneys may fail from frustration before the operator answers your call!
It is this very common man who has spoiled politicians. He willingly becomes a servant of politicians, their children and their families. He spends his entire life laying carpets at their rallies, shouting slogans and running alongside their vehicles. He fights with friends and relatives in their support — sometimes even breaking relationships — yet shows no mercy toward his own miserable condition and never demands his rights from those politicians.
Poverty may rule his family for generations, yet he will proudly declare: “We have been working for the PPP, PML-N or PTI for generations.”
This is the same common man who invents excuses for the major sins of politicians and, instead of being outraged by their failures, rushes to defend them.
This common man also causes suffering to people like himself. When he marries off his son, he demands dowry from the bride’s family. When he marries off his daughter, he may encourage her to dominate her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law or strip them of whatever authority they have.
When he starts praying in a mosque, he begins treating the imam as though he were his personal employee. When he goes into business, he uses short weights and measures. When he works as a servant in someone’s home, he may not be loyal to his employer. When he employs someone himself, he often pays little attention to that person’s food, clothing or basic welfare.
He runs after spiritual figures and beggars and humiliates himself in the process, yet fails to serve the parents sitting in his own home.
This is the common man who wants Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif, Zardari and the Chaudhrys — all of them — to transform overnight into Umar bin Abdul Aziz (RA).
Day and night, he criticizes them. He firmly believes that if there is one person in the country who is on the right path, it is himself — everyone else needs reform.
He also believes that when it comes to politics, religion, the country’s system of government or America, his word is the final word. He considers himself the highest authority on everything.
He sincerely believes that if the country were run according to his recommendations, rivers of milk and honey would immediately begin to flow.
The day this common man stops being merely a man and becomes a true human being, everything — from society to the corridors of power — will begin to improve.
Unfortunately, the hope of that transformation appears to be next to nothing.
— Adapted from material circulating on the internet.