Self Talk

Next general elections are no more out of sight in Pakistan. One and the only clean politician and famous philanthropist in our country, Imran Khan, needs to move the masses. This is high time for him to appear on national scene as a true alternative. Thanks to his naïve ways of politics, he seems far away from sweeping the national election this time. But that can be made possible if he listens to some advice. 1. The impact of internet, especially social networks like Facebook and Twitter has shown its potential in last US presidential election as well as recent Middle East uprisings of Tunisia, Egypt and others. Imran Khan must come in close touch with the youth through Twitter and Facebook where he can convey his message in real time and gather feedback. 2. A talent hunt for candidates should be started now. Or if he has already chosen few people, they should be announced now. They should be asked to appear on their respective constituency’s skyline and should try to convey Imran

In the age of twitter and facebook, witnessing a regime change in Egypt looked quite awesome. In fact I was quite lost into its final hours, stuck to live transmissions of BBC and Aljazeera, following people tweeting live from Tahrir Square and reading Cyril Almeida’s nice analysis in Dawn on regular basis. The history unfolded before my wide open eyes. It was unbelievable. Although I expected bloodshed many times in the last week, I kept my hopes high and wished the people a win.  More so because it was a led by Egyptian youth, using the social network forums to organize protest against the sitting president. Although Hosni Mubarak had been a favorite of Europe and US, he could no longer keep his hold on the government and had to surrender to the will of masses. Internet has started bringing meanings to people’s lives and now we can expect almost anything happening anywhere in the world. So is the potential of this technology. For a true democracy in Egypt, there is a long way to go.