Source: Dawn.com
The role of the ‘public intellectual’ is in disrepair. In the Arab Spring the revolutions and uprisings were brought about by a new generation of social activists. The surprising thing about the Arab Spring was how the main intellectual class of the Arab World was so severely disconnected from the Arab revolutions – they had made their peace with the “status quo”. As a result Arab intellectual discourse became politically desensitised and was completely removed from the practical aspirations of their publics.
Two pieces by Michael Teague and Mona Naggar show how Arab intellectuals are isolated and played no active role in the revolutionary uprisings. This ‘Silence of Thinkers’ as Naggar puts it is also applicable to Pakistan. When Cyril Almeida wrote an article in DAWN criticising the democratic credentials and political practice of Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP he was censured by the likes of Ali Dayan, Kamran Shafi and other Pakistani columnists and intellectuals on Twitter. A well known Pakistani political blog (acting like the propaganda arm of the PPP) even went as far as saying that Almeida was ‘inviting the Army’.
Categories: Pakistan, Psychology