October 15 , 2010
Parkinson’s Law and Pakistan Today
Prof. Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909-1993), British author of some 60 books, most famous of which is ‘Parkinson’s Law’, who taught history at the University of Singapore and was a visiting professor at several US universities, including Harvard, is one of my favorite writers. His book ‘East & West’ is a valuable presentation of the cyclical theory about the rise and fall of civilizations and societies. But, he earned world recognition by his satirical, though conceptually very rich, work on the rise and fall of bureaucracies and other organizations.
Parkinson’s Law is not just one theory but a conglomeration of various concepts coalescing into a humorous narration of the rise and decline of an organization.
Pakistan is now teetering at the brink of a steep hill, almost bankrupt, largely dependent on foreign doles, badly devastated by the ruthless floods, with the calamity imposed by nature on the hapless nation having been aggravated further by a callous, incompetent and thoroughly self-serving administration. Ironically, most of the natural and man-made catastrophes have descended on the much-battered nation during the past 2-½ years of the much-flaunted democratic regime.
Pakistan strikes me now like a person who has lost his way in a deep jungle. Hunger and thirst for days have sapped his earlier throb and vigor; he falters at every step and eventually collapses, barely conscious. Vultures have descended all around him and have started picking at him; for, he cannot even shout and shoo them away, his erstwhile manly voice having turned into an inaudible whisper.
Adversities do visit societies. But, the devastations in Pakistan cannot be all attributed to the deluge. The man at the top of the heap too thought it appropriate to officially visit France and Britain right when the floods were mounting a disaster on his nation. The media attributed his travels to his need for inspection of his properties in those foreign climes.
A nation gets the leader it deserves, says an old adage. But, Parkinson, the management sage, offers a different diagnosis. He finds that certain organizations, including governments, suddenly deteriorate owing to the rise to authority of individuals with unusually high combination of incompetence and jealousy. He calls this affliction “Injelitance” – an expression drawn from the names of the two ailments.
An individual or a small group of persons obsessed with an idea sincerely start building a structure for carrying out the concept. A shining and super-efficient organization emerges as a monument to their dedication to the concept. The men running it ensure that no ill-qualified and incompetent individual sneaks into it to derogate its productivity. Then an individual suffering from “Injelitance” manages somehow to sneak into the hierarchy and at a high level at that. He then makes room in the structure for a person more incompetent and unqualified than himself, chiefly to divert attention from his own weaknesses. The new entrant, in his turn, recruits a much more incompetent person to work under him. The process continues till the entire organization is loaded with functionaries suffering from “Injelitance”. The incompetent trump the competent; the structure turns into a house of cards awaiting a gust of wind to blow it away or to collapse under the pressure of its own incompetence.
That, in short, is one of the theses propounded by Parkinson, though not a major one. Other concepts are, briefly:
‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion’;
‘An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals’;
A bureaucracy expands by 5-7% annually, ‘irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done’;
Nature abhors a vacuum;
Expenditure rises to meet income.
More relevant to the theme of this column is the theory about the operation of “Injelitance” in the context of Pakistan.
One of the first actions taken by the Zardari regime, on assumption of office, was to do away with the college degree requirement for parliamentarians. A good number of parliamentarians were found to have fake degrees. One of them, Jamsheed Dasti, was publicly hailed by the President himself reflecting his disdain for the requirement of college education. Incidentally, he claims to be a graduate of a London college, which, according to an investigative media report, does not exist even on paper.
Mr. Zardari may not be a college-educated intellectual, but he is extremely shrewd and patient but quick to pounce on any opportunity for self-promotion and aggrandizement. For years he remained content with basking in the reflected glory of his wife and exploiting her position for feathering their own nest. And, what a nest - worth $1.8 billion, according to one report!
Once, his wife was assassinated generating a huge wave of sympathy, he produced a paper carrying the desire of his wife that he be selected as her successor to be the chief of the PPP. He maneuvered, quite adroitly, the ouster of Gen. Musharraf, the support of almost all political parties for the concept of a consensus in running the affairs of the state. That silenced the opposition leaders in return for lucrative positions and a share in power and resultant pelf. That also slackened the feelings over the cases of murder, corruption and loot of public funds. To add to this trend, he allotted crucial portfolios in the cabinet – Interior, Defense, and Law in particular - to persons who too had corruption cases in courts of law. The NRO came in handy in such maneuverings.
A wadera to the marrow, he treated the country as a fiefdom, rewarding profusely those who were loyal to him and punishing those not at ease with his tactics. While the United States, the sole super power, has fifteen member of Cabinet, Pakistan, half as big population-wise, has 60 members. All Parliamentarians enjoy the status and emoluments of Federal Secretaries, in addition to other perks and privileges. His government recently reinstated hundreds of PPP-appointed functionaries sacked in 1990-93. They will be paid emoluments for the entire period costing the exchequer 15-17 billion rupees.
By such partisan decisions, Mr. Zardari might be feeling himself to be in an invincible position. But, Prof. Parkinson’s precepts do not endorse this status. For, in his hubris leading to over-confidence, he has been ignoring even the recommendations of the 17-member full bench of the Supreme Court and pursuing his own intimate interests.
The appointment of the new NAB chairman, for instance, required consultation with the opposition, but he did not take into confidence even his own Prime Minister. More often than not, he conducts himself as a provincial, parochial leader, a potentate wadera instead of the highest representative of the nation. His holding the PPP’s chairmanship clearly taints his status as the President of the country. His conduct gives the impression that the top position of the nation is lying unoccupied. And, as Prof. Parkinson remarks, ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’.
While foreign donors, the US in particular, insist that the rich in Pakistan (feudal lords, for instance) be taxed to raise funds for the rehabilitation of those affected by the floods, the Zardari regime is going about the task in a half-hearted manner. For, the land barons are the chief supporters of the regime and they or their surrogates sit in parliament . The landlords, who constitute a major portion of the nation’s elite, have for decades sucked the blood of their vassals dry, and now that the time has come to pay back, their indifference triggers an outrage. A change has become ineluctable. What form it would take, would be decided by events that might follow sooner than the expectation of the Prime Minister to complete his term. “Injelitance” might take its toll much earlier.
