A Note to the PM
By Dr Haider Mehdi
UAE
This is a national policy review article, in fact, a political doctrine document, directly addressed to the Prime Minister at a time when the state of Pakistan is adversely overwhelmed by domestic, as well as foreign related problems, to an extent justifiably viewed as a national crisis.
It is apparent that Pakistan is a sinking ship - that is, until the captain in command does what a skipper is supposed to do: unload the unnecessary baggage, steer the ship onto the right course and safely to its destination. It is at such a point in time that a captain’s expertise, courage, vision, and, above all, leadership qualities are at stake and are judged. At the same time, maritime traditions are that if the captain fails to save the ship, he goes down with it to the bottom of the sea. There is no exception to this rule - his destiny is ultimately tied to the fate of the ship. So, metaphorically speaking, the important questions in the post-May 11 elections are: is the democratic ship of Pakistan, so to speak, on the proper course to its destination? Is the captain in complete control? Is he aware of the possible looming crisis ahead, as the sea turns into a hovering storm? Is he knowledgeable of crisis-management strategies when the sea turns rough with whirlwinds and typhoons in accordance with the laws of nature - out of human control and driven by wild forces subject only to their own rules? Does he know when to unload the unnecessary baggage? Can the skipper manage teamwork in a crisis situation? Can he evaluate the coming of a crisis? Can the captain change its course before the storm strikes and avoid the foreseeable disaster?
Comparing 2013 Pakistan to a ship on a rough sea is only an analogy to explain the nature of this nation’s complex and complicated political-economic progress. Day in and day out, our problems, both political and economic, are multiplying. Governance over the last several decades has failed. Poverty has increased. Public services have been decimated. Social and cultural progress has nose-dived. Foreign relations are continuously and indefinitely in a state of error. Our sovereignty has been violated. The domestic law and order situation can be described close to a civil war analogy and there seems to be no end to our ever-growing national difficulties. The question is: after all, why is it so? There is an old saying: “All dark clouds have a silver lining.” Unfortunately, I do not see Pakistan’s fate going in that direction. Do not get me wrong - I am not a pessimist - but “realism” at this juncture of our national history, with a view to acknowledge and recognize the factual realities of our disruptive political-economic discourse, might lead us towards a renewed search for a change in our political direction.
Pakistan needs a revolutionary resolution of its ailing political-economic system and getting rid of its six decade-old dysfunctional political mismanagement. Indeed, successive Pakistani civilian-military rulers have been flawed in their political-economic developmental concepts and national doctrine for a democratic prosperous Pakistan. A word about democracy here: democracy is not only a procedural holy ritual of periodic voting to elect public representatives. In fact, it is a process of enhancing the quality of life of each and every citizen of a nation. Has that happened in Pakistan? Notwithstanding the political rhetoric, the fact of the matter is that the common citizens in this country have been economically better off during military regimes as compared to civilian eras (for example, consider Musharraf’s era with the 2008-2013 democratic era, etc.).
Without going into a complex debate on this issue, it is obvious that a doctrine of public welfare has not evolved, philosophically and conceptually, in the civilian ruling circles of this country. It appears that civilian rulers are more focused on attaining and preserving “political power” than serving the interests of the masses. How else can we explain the ever-growing socio-economic divide in society: the ruling civilian-elite getting fabulously rich, while the common citizen, the majority of them, have reached the level of absolute poverty and socio-economic deprivations of all kinds (including health, education, and so on and so forth).
The present-day civilian rulers of Pakistan need to formulate a clearly defined socio-economic-political doctrine of public welfare and implement it urgently. Today’s Pakistan is like simmering underground lava about to explode with its drastic and destructive consequences - the common citizens have had enough of it - there are warnings written on the walls. Traditional political modus operandi, old tricks, old time socio-economic views are all things of past backward thinking. It is time to drain the soap operas out of Pakistan’s traditional political theatrics and deal head-on with the real issues and problems of the common citizen of this country. Political history can provide the contemporary Pakistani civilian ruling elite with some instructive lessons. For example, on April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space - a landmark achievement in science and technology. Amazingly, within a short span of some 44 years after the 1917 revolution, the Soviet Union had attained full literacy, developed over 400 vocational and professional educational institutions, provided full employment, housing, and health facilities for all its citizens, made remarkable advancement in science and technology, passed unprecedented legislation for human emancipation, developed massive industrial and communication infrastructure all over the country and became a global power - until Gorbachev’s experiment with corporate capitalism disintegrated the country. Obviously, corporate capitalism did not work there.
China has not sold its profit-making companies to the US-Western corporate entities, or to any foreign countries (as Pakistan has done under the pretext of foreign investments), neither has it accepted US dictates over its foreign policy or domestic policies (as Pakistan has done for the last six decades) during its phenomenal rise to global industrial, commercial and diplomatic eminence. Even today’s China has not adopted corporate capitalism to continue its phenomenal rise in world affairs and national reconstruction.
And there are scores of other nations that have developed on the basis of self-reliance, mass mobilization of its population for industrial growth, dramatic achievements in science and technology and in attaining self-sufficiency. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ in the US “helped improve the lives of people suffering from the events of the depression. In the long run, ‘New Deal’ programs set a precedent for the federal government to play a key role in the economic and social affairs of the nation.” The point that I am making here is that corporate capitalism has never been a remedy for national reconstruction, including the US. I implore the contemporary civilian rulers in Islamabad to seize this moment to try something different from corporate capitalism to set this nation on a political discourse of economic-social and political development. “Out-of-the-box” resolutions and imaginative steps are needed to take this nation to self-reliance and independence: for example, the privatization of national commercial institutions is not the resolution of mismanaged state enterprises. Indirect taxation will not resolve economic problems. Foreign investments will not make Pakistanis affluent (except for some vested interest groups). It will make foreigners rich. Commercial plans with foreign collaborators such as Pakistan Private Investment Initiative are old-style tricks that do not work.
What Pakistan needs is an enlightened, nationalist leadership that is selfless and visionary - and willing to learn from the lessons of history. Otherwise, we are at the edge of a self-destructive path.
(The writer is UAE-based academic, policy analyst, conflict resolution expert and author of several books on Pakistan and foreign policy issues. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York.)
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