Political polarization is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, toward the ideological extremes. Polarization is associated with the process of politicization scholars distinguish between ideological (difference between the policy position) and effective polarization (a dislike and distrust of political out-groups).
Aspect of polarized political culture:
In majority countries when two political opponents interact with each other they talk in respectful manner. But today in our Pakistan we see that the language of our political parties is becoming more and more harsh, which in turn not only destroy our image all across the world but also affect our youth, who adopt similar behavior with the followers of opposite political parties. Today our political debate is more on demonizing opponent rather the articulating their own position. Political opponents are seen as enemies who are to be eliminated instead of competing. Our political middle ground is being shrinked.
Major reason of polarization among youth:
A nation become politically polarized when the personal interest of political parties influence the national interest. Today in our Pakistan we see that the personal interest of our politicians are getting more importance then the national interest. Unfortunately our politicians has left national interest and are focusing more on their personal interest, which lead to sever political polarization. Moreover they are targeting our youth and are using them for their personal interest. They are utilizing the potential of our youth in wrong direction as a result of which youth is becoming extremist day by day.
Consequences of this polarization:
In Pakistan almost 65% of population comprises of youth which is divided into two mere categories:
- Half of our youth is skilled. Every year a lot of students get there degrees like PhD and MPhil done but are jobless because of unemployment rate increasing day by day as a result of which they become enemy of present government and start targeting their supporters.
- The other half of youth is uneducated or less educated. They spend most of their time on social apps like TikTok. This category of youth is the main target of political parties who use them for their own benefits.
Both these categories of youth is becoming extremist whether they support PMLN, PTI or any other party they consider the followers of opposite parties as culprit which cause tension among youth. This tension among youth because of political polarization can lead to out break of conflict. We have already face such conflict in our history in 1971 where east and west Pakistan become extremely polarized. The politicians mobilized the youth of East Pakistan among the youth of West Pakistan and we can see that their consequences were very dangerous and our country was divided at that time. Now today again we see such kind of situation where our youth is the main target of the political polarization.
Strategies to combat polarization:
Proactive strategies to counter these powerful patterns are straight forward but can be challenging to implement. Courage and perseverance over time are usually necessary to overcome likely resistance and recover from any setback.
- Improve communication channel and create forums for dialogue.
- Use guidelines and neutral facilitation to maintain respectful interaction.
- Political parties must not involve youth in politics.
- Take opportunities to built working level of trust.
- Built an environment of cooperation not competition.
- Our youth should be trained enough to distinguish between right and wrong.
Our mission to provide positive direction to our youth:
As we know that political polarization has reached to extreme level and it most be controlled, otherwise the consequences will be more worse then we think. In order to guide our youth in positive direction we built a platform Jazba Talks. We train our youth through seminars and workshop and make our youth able to understand and cure the different issues faced by them. The mains focus of our Jazba Talks is youth and our mission is to provide great opportunities for skill development, leadership grooming, capacity building, inspire the youth of Pakistan with motivational stories and make them able to achieve something positive in their life.