The plot sickens
Reality TV shows are my on/ off guilty pleasure. I should be more embarrassed to admit this, but here we are. It began with a curiosity for The Kardashians and then it went downhill, shows about rich housewives, home makeovers, hoarders, marrying someone you’ve never seen. Some are truly terrible, but then you have Traitors (the original British version) which is addictive and very good.
As a (ahem) connoisseur of such shows, I’ve realised the boundaries between politics and reality shows have blurred. I’m not saying anything new. Donald Trump has shown how it’s no longer ludicrous to think a reality TV star can become president. Kanye West also attempted a run. People want Oprah Winfrey to run. Taylor Swift influences elections. Ukraine and Guatemala have elected comedians as presidents. Politicians in the UK have participated in reality shows, including George Galloway on Big Brother in 2006, when he was an MP, and ‘Brexit king’ Nigel Farage received a whopping £1.5 million for I’m a Celebrity last year.
Celebrities have quit movie careers in Bollywood, for example, to join politics. And, of course, we have Imran Khan. He has turned his celebrity status into political success. His politics relies heavily on charisma, drama and spin, components of reality TV. Everyone else is copying his style but are poor imitations.
Bad behaviour is rewarded in both fields; there is no accountability either. The worse your behaviour, the more you are lauded. And the media you perform on, profits. But reality TV isn’t real. The audience sees an edited version, a narrative that suits the performers. Like our politicians.
Writing in Political Studies Review in 2019. John Street explained how, over the years, there’s been a mediatisation and personalisation of politics, resulting in politicians being treated as celebrities and not politicians. Celebrity politicians, as the brilliant media scholar Neil Postman wrote, are held to different standards. Well before the term ‘fake news’, social media and the internet, celebrity politicians were not held accountable for their falsehoods. US president Ronald Reagen praised apartheid in South Africa for ending segregation, when it hadn’t. But voters didn’t care for accuracy, they saw him as someone who tapped into their emotions.
Politicians have learned that being a celebrity is lucrative and they benefit financially, like Khan’s inner circle did. Of course, all political parties benefit by working for corporate, military and business interests, but they’ve never sold themselves as revolutionary.
While the issues facing Pakistan are serious, we have been at a nazuk mor since before you and I existed, politics is debased and unserious. It is parties throwing accusations at each other and trying to outwit the other in whataboutery. Policy matters are linked to slogans. Everyone’s in on it: subsidised atta has Nawaz’s face on the bags, as if we forget who’s in power there.
This plays out every night on our airwaves and social media, where everyone’s vying for virality. To remain relevant, one has to up the ante, which is where tactics from the celebrity playbook help.
Two recent incidents illustrate this example. One involves PTI MNA Shandana Gulzar, who implicated Maryam Nawaz in an audio leak wherein she claims the now chief minister told someone to “run over [PTI worker] Zilley Shah”. The FIA has summoned her and she will likely be asked to produce evidence. In the same week, Sher Afzal Marwat accused Maryam Nawaz of plotting to kill him and paid Indian business tycoon Jindal $100,000 for this hit.
This is the level of politics, and it sells. It is, as Street wrote, “the art of performance, the art of being celebrity”.
I don’t believe politicians say outlandish things because they believe them but because they want to emulate their leaders and remain close to him/ her. They are expected to behave this way. And, they are not held accountable for their claims by the media; some journalists ask tough questions, but audiences don’t care about veracity. Could action by FIA, for example, against Gulzar serve as a deterrent?
The day the UN released its Human Development Index Report showing Pakistan’s decline in its position to 164 out of 193 countries, our media was busy analysing the meeting between KP chief minister and the men he spent a long time denigrating.