Hillary Clinton talked about possiblity of presence of Amyn-al-Zawahiri in Pakistan and demanded Pakistan to do more in interviews and Press Conference in India. She immediately received a powerful ‘shut up’ call from Pakistani social media. Hashtag #ShutpClinton started trending, showing the unity of Pakistanis across the board on this sensitive issue. Hillary clinton was shown the real face of America in various tweets, highlighting the reasons behind the anger. A video containing confession statement of Hillary was also virally tweeted in which she confesses of USA being responsible for a lot of mess in the area. Mainstream electronic and print media also took notice of the twitter activity and reported it accordingly.
For me, it signifies that Pakistani people on social media have responded quicky and forcefully to the accusations and allegations (without evidences). It showed that despite our differing political opinions, we stand united as a nation, which has been hit hard by drones, loss of civilians and soldiers, casualties terrorism brought home by US war on terror, and corrupt puppet rulers bowing to the neo-colonial forces. It shows integrity of the people and their commitment with the homeland. Twitter especially has given voice to everyone and it was a pure display of public sentiment which showed the love of people for Pakistan. Our youth is awake and these words can be translated into actions if appropriate guidance and platform is given to them. Social media is indeed proving powerful and it can bring us closer and grow us stronger, if used properly.
While some tweets only displayed rage, a lot of tweets (opinions) were based on logical arguments. People pointed out the double standards of US policies, committing genocide in Japan, Afghanistan, Iraq and turning a completely blind eye to Indian and Israeli atrocities. Clinton was told to look into her home country first and clean the mess up. Human rights abuses and repeated lies of US government were tweeted vigorously. Even in United States, #ShutUpClinton became a trend which shows that the sentiments crossed the borders. The message was loud and clear, that USA should not interfere in the internal matters of Pakistan and any threats to the sovereignty of the country will unite the people.
Some people might term it as a ‘on-line lip-service’ of ‘keyboard jihadis’ but it certainly showed a spark in the nation which will be converted into a flame if these double standards continue. ‘Word of mouth’ is very important tool. Even marketing professionals consider it extremely important to have a positive ‘word of mouth’. People have started talking about the US atrocities and these words can transform into actions just like Arab world. Important thing is that all those who are using social media are literate and educated people. The common perception was that educated people remain aloof of the problems of the country especially pertaining to the foreign affairs, but this was proven wrong by the whole activity. People today are more aware of the injustices and double standards done by super powers. Gone are the days when you were to blamed as conspiracy theorists if you were to expose the lies of the powerful. For me, not only Muslims, not only Pakistanis, but the whole world is now exposing the hypocrisy of the US government and the terrorism trend, it has introduced to the world due to its unjust policies.
“Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident” ~Arthur Schopenhauer German Philosopher (1788 – 1860)
