ARTICLE (May 08 2010): As one enters a different world, it is apparent that Pakistan will have to do things differently. Business as usual will not do and the meanderings of the last decade will be disastrous. First, the waste in the current economy has to be so modified as to get into a new rhythm, creating a new kind of work ethics and setting a trend for a new type of economic structure. Pakistan has never considered how it will develop its human resources.
The capacity-building projects of the last decade were merely a gloss to hide the cracks. The capacity-building projects worked itself without due care. The interventions were, more or less, on the purchase of cars, of computers and of such actions as were responsible for encouraging the development of the economies of the west.
The projects that I had the chance to visit and analyse were so ridiculously handled that one did not see how these could deliver anything. Thus one of the 'modern ministries' helped themselves to 147 cars and buses, 87 desktop computers and an equal number of laptops and then what was left of the financial resources that was to be utilised for junket tours.
As I examined the entire project, I realised that Pakistan was being fed the typical graceless medicine of Islamabad-heroin. The people here are in a stupor and the new ones that come in, no matter of what ilk, catch up with the heroin-intoxicated organisational structure. Most of them are delirious with the make-belief work world in which they are living.
Every morning, if they are here in Islamabad, they move moron-like to the place of their posting - a policeman-on-the-beat-sort-of living. The policeman-on-the-beat is one who travels on his beat every night and day and sees that there is nothing disastrous taking place in the area of his beat. The policeman is ultimately responsible for what takes place and there is no interference by the bosses.
Now things have changed. What am I supposed to do if the policeman at a barrier stops me and wants to see documents that are not part of his responsibility? He wants to determine ownership or is he looking for a chink in the doings of the owner and is he trying to help the fellow-citizen or is he trying to squeeze something out of him?
Over the years, that kind of working takes an ugly toll and that is what we witnessed in the Bhara Kau incident some months ago. It was not a protest against travel prices but a sudden jerk in the system. Had it been the former, the policeman would have been able to handle it. The public had no faith in the ability of the policeman to be fair. In the best of times, equity and fairness is difficult to implement and to think that the uninitiated will be able to perform is just being ludicrous. So whatever one sees, one has the feeling that we have meandered out of the system.
The system that is supposed to be doing wonders for us. Where do I stand on these issues simply stated, is that no one else can be responsible for developing us and we have to go it alone. Why would some other agency/country set us up for competition of the colonial world and their imperialistic designs? It is against the selfishness of the developed world. They talk of free markets and then they rough it up. I do not see the logic in that kind of thinking. If it is a case of doing things the other way, then the best way is to trust oneself.
That has been lost due to the subservient and the slavish mentality that we have developed over the years. It has been a massive effort at breaking down the personality[s] of the peoples of this country. The policy-makers frequent flight to the west does not augur well for us, for they are subjected to a process of brain management. That damage has to be somehow contained. The West seems to be an ideal for everyone.
It seems to be doing its work for its own self and I have no reason to squabble on that. I would probably want to do the same given the opportunity. What I would want to do is to do well by my country? It is too dear to me to think of anything else and one is sure that every one of us is a patriot in different ways. That is, after all, human nature for no one can claim to be absolute. That belongs to the celestial world.
The effort then is to do little things well and to do so in a manner that helps everyone along. There is no point in having all the conveniences in Islamabad and none in the other towns what to talk of the countryside. The effort has to be on the equitable development of the country in terms of social, economic and other conditions that do prevail and that need to be overcome. No high-fluting equation is going to do this. That effort has been lost and recovery is difficult unless we realise that the effort has to be massive and is going to be an uphill task.
The uncertainties and indecisions of the last sixty years are not going to be removed by an effort that is only of a couple of years. That would require sustained effort. The economic, social system will only work if the human element is worked in such a manner that it works for the betterment of all. That does not require a massive dose all over the country but simply the involvement and not the interference of the policymakers to work on the positive side. Over the years, what has happened is that the bureaucratic system has become more and more rigid.
This has resulted in, obviously, a system that does not deliver. Delivery is not dependent on how much one can please, but how much one can do to be in harmony with the social system that is before us. No one can explain why, in the periphery of Islamabad, do we have more people living than in Islamabad? The cost of living has become exorbitant in the town and that has been basically due to the land-based actions that have been taken in the last decade or so.
The agency responsible for this can only undo a matter if it is based on the systematic assumption that every one has the right to benefits and that no one can be above the spirit of the country's requirement. Selfishness in allotment of plots and in perverting a land system has to go. I was once a tenant of a clerk of CDA and he would ring up his clients from my office rather than his own house.
He had something like 40 plots and an unlimited number of houses. He had been, for a number of years, there and that is how he managed to work things out through unlimited lust and greed. As with the scrooges of this world, he was unable to enjoy the fruits of his worldly goods.
So how is the scrooge to be dealt with and how would one deal with the greedy and the persons that believed in acquiring much more than what would be their requirements? In other countries, rules are followed, irrespective of what power they enjoy. The best and the worst have a similar outlook to asset formation and the place that society gives to such overnight rich and how that lust for money is dealt with.
Fiscal policies are so encouraged as would deny any benefits to those who want to sit back and live off the land. This is easily dealt with. Society then decides that those who work hard and for the country are entitled to the benefits that can be given to any citizen. So everyone has an even chance and not some exaggerated asset formation. Indeed, the days of the Barons seem to be over.
The effort required is at the conceptual level, where the rightful place is ordered for the benefit of the citizens. That would mean that the organisational structure be so developed as would be equally available to all, irrespective of caste or creed. Difficult yes, but doable-no? Take your pick and see how it affects the ordinary citizen.
The conclusion may be different from what you have thought. Take care. Governance in circumstances, as we find ourselves in, is difficult to understand and hence implement. The rural areas have just as much right on these assets as we have in the urban areas and the urban poor have the right to move up the scale through hard work. It has to do with people-centered policies.
Source:http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=1053743&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment