By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

January 04, 2008

Battle of the Billionaires


Like the game show “Con Banega Crore-Pati”, the question, come January, is which billionaire will head the next government?
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, it is again likely to be ‘government of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich’. Some things don’t change.
The squabble for seats for the upcoming elections is similar to the stampede to get to the food first when wedding meals are served. The needs of the more polite and bashful are well and truly trampled and usurped.
Elections change nothing when the system is inherently rotten. Without daring leadership and depth of understanding, the current situation will remain mired in rut. When there is acute national disagreement and deepening polarization, the timing of these elections is inconsistent with the priority of forging first a coherent strategic vision.
For its part, the public may be duped in voting for proven failures. 
Those skilled in gaming and manipulating the system have more or less ensured that fairness and integrity do not figure as salient features in the public domain. Predictably, then, under the hijab of a political party, a mini-monarchy flourishes, with all the privileges and paraphernalia of a kith and kin culture. 
True, the problems cited in Pakistan exist to a degree in other more industrialized states and societies. The damage done to US democracy by dynastic politics, as typified by the inept George Bush – according to Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post – “includes a more unstable Middle East and an increasing hostility to the US around the world.” But Pakistan – with its multiplicity of challenges – can ill-afford the continued luxury of venal and crass governance.
Consequently, elections become a mechanism to prolong the status quo. The battle for the ballot boxes is, in effect, a battle of billionaires, with the slogan of democracy being used as a tool for the rich to rule. The masses are there to rubber-stamp the division of spoils and then expected to keep mum. The middle classes are pacified for a time by being given the lollypop of ‘elections’ and ‘democracy’. 
As for the so-called opposition, it appears more interested in pursuing its personal ambitions through its unseemly hurry to file nomination papers under the very umbrella of the very umpire whose legitimacy it challenges with such verbosity – especially, an umpire whose continuation at the helm has galvanized popular resentment across the nation.
Uncovering what really is concealed under the cover of democracy and elections will remain one of the key challenges, if Pakistan is to purposefully forge ahead toward prosperity. 
The core question remains: are any of the incumbents or contestants qualified, in terms of ability and integrity, to lead the nation in arguably the most difficult era of its existence? The smothering of ability and integrity in the public realm by the affluent and the well-connected has produced results which are now devastatingly transparent.
Can a system flourish if it continues to reject merit and exclude and deny participatory opportunities to the many, while it confines its dividends to the privileged few? It is that lack of fairness which is, by itself, feeding despair, fueling nihilistic extremism, and turning segments of society against the state. 
A question often asked is what, in this connection, is the overseas Pakistani community to do? It needs to curb courtship of the rulers and, also, minimize the tendency of being overly condemnatory of happenings in Pakistan. US-based Pakistanis can further enhance their leverage in Pakistan by not remaining voiceless in the US system.
The beaten track has not worked and, to persist with it, opens the doors for continuing crises and praetorian interventions. It is said that the abiding lesson of history is that no lessons are learned from history. 
There is enough attention on the election process but, perhaps, not enough on the repercussions of its outcome.
Blunders, blind ambition, and ill-considered elections cost the nation half of Pakistan in 1971. Blunders, blind ambition, and ill-considered elections may now imperil the other half. A change in personalities will not make a difference. What is required now is a change in politics and policies.

 

PREVIOUSLY


Clash or Coexistence?

The Radical Behind Reconstruction

POWs & Victors’ Justice

Islam on Campus

Community of Civilizations

Rule of Law or Rule of Men?

Unpredictable Times

The Quiet One

Turkish Model & Principled Resignations

Live and Let Live

Leadership & de Gaulle

Dark Side of Power

2002: The Year of Escalation

Whither US?

Politics, God, Cricket & Sex

The Company of Friends

Missing in Action : The Kofi Case

Accountability & Anger

Casualties of War

A Simple Living

The Nexus & Muslim Nationhood

The Kith and Kin Culture

It Is Spreading

Road to Nowhere

Misrepresenting Muslims

The value of curiosity

Revenge & Riches

The Media on Iraq

The Perils of Sycophancy

Legends of Punjab

Mind & Muscle

Islam & the West: Conflict or Co-Existence?

The Challenge of Disinformation

Britain on the Backfoot

Paisa, Power and Privilege

The Path to Peace

On Intervention

Countering Pressures on Pakistan

A World at War?

Raising the Game

The Argument of Force

Affluence withtout Influence

The Shawdow of Vietnam

Heroes of '54

The Imperative of Human Decency

Hollywood and Hate

Living in Lahore

Fatal Decisions

Singer or the Song

Arrogance

The Power of Moral Legitimacy

The Trouble with Kerry

Green Curtain

A Nation Divided

Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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