The Art of Leaking

A leaking roof could only be fixed by doing something about it. However, a leaking political machinery is because someone did something. Politics is the only machine where leaks are orchestrated. Leaks in politics and business are almost never by accident. They are rather by design. Whenever Apple is releasing their latest iPhone, a series of well-planned and orchestrated leaks emerge from various sources about the design and specs of the upcoming phone. All this is done to create hype about the latest iPhone so that people are excited enough to stand in queue outside an Apple store in their nearest malls and buy the overpriced gadget. The sad news is that it works every single time.

In the United States, calculated and well-planned leaks are released by politicians with the intention of changing a certain policy. Politicians make leaks to journalists in a quid pro quo fashion not only achieving favorable reporting about them at a future point in time but also to cause a major change to a governmental policy or party policy they do not like.

The popular character Frank Underwood in the Netflix show ‘House of Cards’ was a true depiction of the average smart politician in America and many other countries as well. Underwood makes leaks to a female journalist not only to gain personal benefits from her but also to change the course of his party’s policy direction as well as to influence public opinion.

Pakistan, which sadly is not fully prepared to digest the onslaught of media culture, is seeing the abuse of leaks quite aggressively. The politicians, showbiz, print and broadcast journalism, and everyone in between are busy making leaks for the purpose of achieving private and selfish goals. The media channels are actually sitting at the crossroads where politicians, showbiz personalities, and even media personalities release leaks. The media channels are at the junction of lies and deceit. Deception gets multiplied by 10 at the inner workings of media channels. They are the ones making leaks, whether intentioned by politicians or by their own bias.

Whether the leaks are made by the military or the civilians, the result in any case is the undeniable truth that democracy is not what it is thought to be. The fate of the nation as well as the fate of the truth are decided by a handful of people with their own selfish interests, which could be the safeguarding of looted wealth or even the continuation of those practices that would increase that looted wealth.

We witnessed the leaks of various unethical videos of some politicians where they behaved in their sheer rawness. The leaks showed a filthy inside of some politicians as well as popular broadcast TV anchors. However, what is more important is not the content of the leaks but rather the existence of the content and why the leaks were made. When the practice of democracy comes down to depend on ensuring loyalty to the party boss by such measures, I think the nation is obligated to speak the untold truth that Pakistan does not have a democratic system and, more importantly, should it fool itself by chasing it?

If observed under a microscope, nobody is squeaky clean. Everybody has their hands dirty in one thing or another or is linked closely to someone who does. The trend of using hyped leaks to influence public opinion as well as the direction of policies is a dangerous one. However, I must point out that Pakistanis do not deserve to complain about this either. All they need to know is that it is bad and dangerous. The reason they do not deserve to complain about this is because a nation where morality and hard work are not valued and respected and instead noise-makers and liars can capture people’s attention then the people should be happy with whatever little of substance they get.

When YouTubers talking nonstop nonsense are more popular than authors, when gibberish spoken at speed and with hand gestures at the camera captures more people’s attention than written words, then telling lies with a bold face makes winners rather than hard working truth seekers and truth tellers. When Facebook and forwarded WhatsApp messages become the masses’ chief sources of news, then expect unvetted leaks to convince more minds than authentic news.

Pakistan wasn’t culturally and mentally ready for the blitz of broadcast media and the nonsense that came with it in the name of free journalism. Some of us were still trying to figure out how that was rammed down our throats so quickly. This is when the nation just made another leap towards the practice of leaks that the kind of nations indulge in which have matured into societies with journalistic practice for many decades.