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.