What’s the point?

ONE of my favourite parts about teaching is learning from students. Whether it’s something inane like who is Ducky Bhai to important issues like climate change and all things related to gender, I think teaching has helped me understand what urban youngsters care about. In the last few weeks, I’ve learned the news industry isn’t on their care list, neither is any political party — including the PTI.

Let me help you place these students. When shown his official portrait, they did not recognise Asim Munir and when told it’s the army chief, only one student correctly guessed his name. They could not believe Altaf Hussain had the power to shut down a city over a phone call. That too rotary because they have only known mobile phones as a normal form of communication. They did not know the reference to Pink Floyd in the great headline by the Hindu on the launch of Chandrayaan 3: “India lights up the dark side of the moon.” They rarely watch TV and many could not remember when they last held a physical newspaper. Their trust in most institutions is broken. They are not hopeful.

Please do not mistake this as an attempt to mock or worse, disrespect them. They are some of the brightest students I’ve taught and, also, more compassionate in their approach to hypothetical issues I make them address as if they were emplo­yed in a newsroom. They ask thoughtful questions and so far, always side with the victim, the oppressed, the underdog. While they may dislike the current state of the media, they want it to improve because they understand just how big a threat disinformation poses to society. We’d be lucky to employ any of them in our newsrooms. But most of them want to leave Pakistan.

Although it is a media literacy class, I try to link things back to democracy — for example, how access to fair and diverse reporting benefits audiences and allows them to make better informed decisions when it comes to voting. I remind them they are a large demographic and have the power to influence policies with their vote. But the other day in class, when I suggested everyone vote even if just for the experience, one student asked: what is the point?

There is a huge disconnect between parties and the youth.

I had no answer.

All the pundits tell us that deals have been set and preparations are underway for the PML-N to return to power. It explains other parties’ posturing on holding elections as soon as possible because they know they’ve lost a seat at a table decided by others and are preparing strategies to save face.

I invite any of their leaders to my class to convince my students to vote, let alone for them. There is a huge disconnect between parties and this youth bulge which free laptops will not fix.

Despite the growth in the global voter population and the number of countries that hold elections, the global average voter turnout has decreased significantly since the early 1990s, according to a report by the International Institute for Democr­acy and Electoral Assistance. Interestingly, that decline “has occurred in parallel with the emergence of many negative voices about the state of democracy around the world”. Low turnout figures aren’t limited to developing countries. “Plummeting voter turnout in Europe”, which has the largest number of established democracies, “is a worrying phenomenon” it adds.

There are ‘significant’ gender differences in voter turnouts; female participation was lowest in Pakistan. To remind, women were banned from voting in KP’s constituency PK-23 in Shangla in the last election.

One of the reasons for low turnouts is “economic hardship [which] can result in voter apathy and lead people to withdraw from politics and focus on meeting their basic needs”. At the rate fuel prices are rising in Pak­istan, folks may not even be able to afford commuting to their polling stations.

Many countries have mandated compulsory voting which will of course result in higher turnouts. I’d like to once again use this space to call for the inclusion of ‘None of the Above’ as an option. In January I wrote: “NOTA is a vote bank, they send a message to the political establishment and can mobilise change.” NOTA will be less bloody. At some point, the injustice of social and economic divides will turn violent. History tells us this.

In the last election, Pakistan had the largest percentage of young people ever recorded in its history, according to a UNDP report. Their votes matter but if you speak to lots of young folks, they think it’s a sham.

I believe NOTA’s inclusion in the next election will give the disenchanted an opportunity to send a resounding message to the establishment and their civilian political party enablers. Listen to young people, most of whom are literally dying to leave this country.