Leftist resistance politics needed to correct state’s moral compass: Farhatullah Babar

Islamabad: The joining of hands of extremists since the 1980s has imposed a moral compass that has de-humanized the state and the leftist resistance politics must strive to set it right by negating the narrative of the rightist elements.

This was stated by former senator Farhatullah Babar at a memorial reference held by the Awami Workers Party in honor of its president Yousuf Masti Khan at the National Press Club in Islamabad Tuesday evening. Yousuf Masti Khan died a few days ago.

When blood is shed in the name of religion and ethnicity the relevance of the Left which glorifies none of it becomes more important to challenge the narrative of the religious extremists and establishment combined.

The beleaguered left must ponder over the causes of the decline of the left and re-group itself to reverse the slide set in motion since the 80’s he said.

Given the weakening of resistance politics, resistance journalism and the retreat of organized labor and civil society on the one hand and the establishment’s clinging to status quo the Left is a beacon of hope, he said.

Farhatullah Babar also called upon the left to revisit its standard chant of denouncing everything which though emotionally appealing it loses focus on the real threat to the state and society from religious militants.

Chant of ‘down with imperialism’ is right but only if imperialism is a tumbling block in achieving a reform agenda. Why, for example, raise slogans against imperialism in defence of the rights of farmers on military farmlands in Okara, he asked? The chant must be raised against the usurpers of lands.

The left’s chief weapon is discussion, debate and reasoned dissent while that of the right is self righteousness in the name of religion. The left will matter to Pakistan only if it chooses to pick its fight against religious extremism, he said.