Powerless also rise

http://www.dailynationalcourier.com/national_courier/jul2009_daily/05-07-09/artical/artical1.htm

(Published 5.7.2009)

It has started exactly fifteen days after the publication of my column "Civil Disobedience?" on June 18. Those who read the article may like to read it again while those who didn't may access it at: http://www.dailynationalcourier.com/national_courier/jun2009_daily/18-06-09/artical/artical1.htm Of course I am talking about the reports splashed across the front pages of almost all the leading dailies today that talk about massive civil disobedience against extended load sheddings and monstrous electricity bills.
Am I sneakily trying to take any credit for the rising of the consumers against the power companies who despite providing them less and less power keep on increasing the tariff already to absolutely unaffordable level already? No, I am just saying that it is time for the policy makers to wake up from their luxurious slumber to realize that country is heading towards power riots. That the over-worked and underpaid, jobless, taxed to death, hungry, roofless and tattered masses are no more ready to bear the brunt of inhumane load sheddings under the most merciless sun while their elected leaders jump from cooled palaces to cooled chauffeur-driven cars to cooled aircrafts to cool hotels to extremely cool and unnecessary foreign trips on this pretext or that.
I feel like punching the teeth out of pretty male and female faces, including blue-eyed-blonde-hair boys and girls, as well as old veterans, of electronic and print media, who advise the people to "˜save electricity'. How can you save anything which is just not available in the first place? These dignitaries should tell the people whether they are paid for delivering their senseless "˜power saving sermons' or did they volunteer to shoulder the "˜heavy burden' for the love of the people. It is only ethical that they must let the people know what moved them to add insult to the injuries of people- the money or the "˜conviction?'
While writing the article "Civil Disobedience?" (notice the question mark?) I knew that we were heading towards mass civil disobedience that would begin with power riots. It took no rocket science to reach the decision that a massive civil disobedience was underway because eyes are meant to watch but also to "˜see'. What should one expect when policy makers keep increasing power tariffs with every increase in the duration of load shedding to the point where people have to make a choice between paying power bills or go hungry; when the state itself not only remains indifferent but also actively protect the criminal inefficiency of WAPDA and KESC in additional to let them fleece the people to death; when people are forced to survive the unmerciful summer heat without the comfort of even fan air, hot as it is, day-in-and-day-out; when monstrous load sheddings cooled the hearth of hundreds of thousands of factory workers and their families; when the unfortunate masses have no choice but to jump from hot homes to even more hot and crowded public transport vehicles and even more hot sweat houses called factories and industries.
The massive public unrest underway had to be when tens of thousands of big, medium and small production units in formal as well as informal sector are to be closed for such an acute power shortage; when so many are deprived of one the most basic right- a good sleep- during night and still forced to carry on their pathetic existence during hot humid day without power. Yes, the inhumanely fleeced and taxed; economically and financially exploited, socially abused and neglected people are long known to resort to civil disobedience throughout history. However, history also proves that rulers living in utmost luxury had never heeded the signs to avert the looming unrest until it's too late. This is so because civil disobedience means active refusal to obey unjust, repressive and suppressive laws, demands and commands of a government, or an occupier, with passive resistance without resorting to physical violence.
America need not threatened us sending us back to Stone Age. WAPDA, KESC and other state-owned power generation and transmission companies in league with distribution companies and independent power producers have proved convincingly that they are capable of doing that on their own just as, if not more, efficiently.
As is, KESC has turned Karachi , the economic engine of the country, into a vast hot, humid and dark wasteland of nothing, a ghost town with miles and miles of dark patches on any given night. Instead of making efforts to better its workings, the top-heavy corrupt entity, has seen it fit to call its consumers "˜thieves' primarily to hide its own criminal doings. KESC has tried to hide its efficiency by trying to hide behind the mask of patriotism. It has gone to length to wear patriotism on its sleeves making it appear as if demanding power is a crime. However, KESC must understand that patriotism has nothing to do with its miserable failure to perform its core duty- generating, transmitting and distributing power. It must also understand that its contract with its consumers is purely commercial and professional that has nothing to do with patriotism- whatever how KESC spell or pronounce it.
Why should few keep on living in luxury that could shame the leaders of the richest nations of the world in a country whose vast majority is forced to carry on its sub-human existence at par with animals deemed good only for casting votes and taxed to death at all other times irrespective of who is in power- a despotic or a pseudo-democratic dispensation?