Pakistan Gets a Chance to Be Born again
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
“God’s gift to us: potential. Our gift to God: developing it.” - An unknown author
Like individuals, countries too are re-born many a time in life. America had its first birth on 4 th of July in 1776, and a second at the end of the Civil War (1861-1865). If George Washington was its first Founding Father, Abraham Lincoln was its second. America rediscovered itself after the Civil War. Pakistan also had its first physical birth on 14 th of August, 1947, with the Quaid-i-Azam as its Founding Father. Its second birth, however, is still awaited, as it has always been disputed because it often got aborted. It could be now.
How does an individual or a country get re-born? When both re-discover their potential, and get fired up with the desire to grow. The sleeping Europe woke up to its potential in the 19 th century. The word, “Newness” became a buzz-word. The whole era came to be termed as a period of “speed, progress, ingenuity, progress.” Inventions took place with the same frequency as deaths take place on daily basis in Karachi. “Railways, telegraphy, chain stores, washing and sewing machines, cereal in the breakfast, skin creams to postage stamps; canned food to tooth-pastes; news stands on the side-walks to type-writers, bicycles to electric trans; motion pictures to radios”, imagine all these things beginning to appear in peoples’ lives for the first time at a pace that Britain came to be called as the “Workshop of the world.” That is called growth and the exploitation of human potential.
Potentials promise prosperity and bring hope and lead people to success. John C. Maxwell is right when he says, “Potential looks forward with optimism. It is filled with hope. It promises success. It implies fulfillment. It hints at greatness. Potential is a word based on possibilities.” Pakistan has so far been a country of unfilled potentials, dreams and possibilities. So far, at best it had been like that over-worked house-wife who never got a chance to live her own life; who always remained subdued because of her abrasive and abusive husband (politicians); who looked older than her age because she never got a chance to put her dreams to practice, or convert her potential into possibilities.
It is very easy to talk about change and growth, but it is very hard to accomplish either. The talk about growth and change becomes meaningless when we lose the pull between where we are and where we could be. According to John Maxwell, it is like the Rubber Band; one end in one hand and the other after full tension in the other. Pakistan today is caught up in that situation. One situation is that of un-surmountable issues warranting immediate attention; and the other is the country’s potential to overcome them. Can Pakistan stretch itself to its fullest potential, is what will determine its second birth.
Often what we hear from the politicians, relating to change, is either about their legacies or about their past actions - (we were handed over these problems; we for the first time did this or that; we empowered the people etc. etc.). What they never talk about is about their ability and potential to tackle these hard-core problems. Remember the quote, “God’s gift to us: potential. Our gift to God: developing it.” Potential is like the rubber band; we have to stretch it, “and keep stretching it continually, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually”. This requires effort and labor, and both of these exercises demand sacrifice from the adventurer in the form that he/she will have to come out of their comfort zones. So potential is inherently linked with effort and with possibilities. In physical fitness, stretches are the most recommended form of exercises; in politics too, elasticity, accommodation, and stretching oneself even to the extent of pain are the best form of policies. Pakistan never needed that kind of elasticity and sense of co-existence and tolerance from its leaders than it needs now.
The Time magazine of May 20, 2013 characterizes the “three Biggest Challenges Facing Pakistan’s New Prime Minister” .They are, one, Keeping the Lights on: which means immediately taking care of the power shortages that have given to people a perpetual cause for irritation, and has served a death-blow to the economy. For the lights to stay on, the new government will need funds, which simply are not there. Second, Placating Militants. To broker a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban is an easy part in order to avoid attacks, but to expect such a deal to succeed is hard to come by. Third, Ousting Drones. Pakistan wants to end its cooperation with the US in this regard, and the US wants to continue it. The immediate test of the new government would be how it walks on this tight rope without tripping. It will immediately need economic aid, but it will also need an end to the drone attacks. Most importantly, the success of the future administration will solely depend on the quality, integrity, ability and competence of the members of the team selected by Mian Nawaz Sharif. He can learn from the Singapore pattern where only the best and not the convenient ones are assigned the task.
The Governments turn bad on trifles. According to Clinton Rosier, “Government is something like fire: “Under control, it is the most useful of servant; out of control, it is a ravaging tyrant.” Effort, no doubt, is the pre-requisite to any kind of change or growth, but it has a price. The people as well as the government both have to come out of their comfort zones. And this is something that neither the government nor the people want to do because for the government, it can mean the loss of popularity, and for the people, it can mean an extension of inconveniences and sufferings.
The smart British lost control over the American colonies in the American Revolution because of a trifle matter. What they wanted was to raise just 60,000 pounds through A Stamp Act. This started a war which cost England some 100,000,000 pounds, and its loss of the American Colonies. Paying taxes in Pakistan is neither a virtue nor a part of its culture; its avoidance is. This would be another big challenge for the new Prime Minister. The Editorial Board of the New York Times, no doubt, calls the 2013 elections as Hopeful, and it congratulates the people of Pakistan “for their courage” and its military for “a peaceful transition of power in a country where coups have predominated… elections are a welcome repudiation of militants who are trying to overthrow the state”.
The emergence of Nawaz Sharif is also a good sign. Imran Khan stood for change without explaining how, but wisdom demands that the law of the Rubber Band should be kept in mind. Stretching it too far can just break it. Nawaz Sharif is a fiscal conservative who favors free market economies. How he reduces the “bloated public sector, and how he overcomes the energy shortage, and how he persuades the unwilling rich - he himself falls in that category - to pay taxes, is what will determine the direction of his government. According to one critic, “Karachi factor for Nawaz Sharif will be like a banana peel, lying in his way. How soon he steps on it or how judiciously he avoids slipping on it will determine his governance.” Without the prescription of some hard, bitter pills, the ailments of the people are not likely to show any signs of recovery. This clearly is a recipe for becoming unpopular, and for most politicians popularity precedes performance.
Inviting the Indian PM to attend the inaugural session may sound like a good, positive gesture, but the pundits have already started giving it a negative spin. “It is Nawaz Sharif’s new way to please the US via India.” As said earlier, repairing badly damaged relations with the US will be the biggest test case for the new PM. The differences of Mian Nawaz Sharif with the US are pretty obvious. He wants “to coddle terrorists groups” and has “his opposition to the drone strikes”, says the New York Times. But the good point is that he has worked with the US in the past. The NY Times suggests to President Obama to “invite Mr Sharif to make an early visit to the White House.”
These are just surmises. The Pakistani media is abuzz with its own brand of theories and conspiracies after the 2013 elections. The defeated elements are giving the NS government at the maximum one year, predicting even the end of its honeymoon period in just less three months. Mr Saleem Bukhari contended in his program with Amir Ghauri on May 17, “ The honeymoon period with the media and the judiciary will end between 45 to 90 days. The reason is obvious: Mian Sahib has no stomach to digest criticism”. For him “any criticism is a conspiracy. He does not have President Zardari’s tolerance. It would be hard for him to stay neutral in the choice of the new President, the new Army Chief and even in case of the new Chief Justice.” According to Dr Hasan Askari, “Small parties will find little accommodation in the federal set-up because PML(N) may not need them.” The new elections have uniquely positioned the political parties as reflected in the results: political parties got their share in the cake based on their performance, and not according to their ideologies or lineage. PPP got reduced to a provincial level as a punishment; PTI got a chance to establish itself at the central level by showing its performance in the Pukhtunkhwa province; PML (N) got a chance perhaps for the last time just by dint of its somewhat better performance at the provincial level to prove its worth. The rest got wiped out. It is an interesting scenario that has emerged in Pakistan for the first time.
Mian Sahib’s biggest test of self-discipline will be in how he deals with the army. According to Mr. Saleem Bukhari, “By-passing the army in the talks with the Talibaan or with India would not fit well with the army. To put everything on the army in the war against terrorism is one thing, and to own it by the civilians is another. Now the civilians will have to change the narrative”. Dr Hasan Askari is right when he says that the army and the civil will have to be on the same page with regard to the above two issues. According to Mr. Saleem Bukhari, “If Haqanni could go out and never return, if Mian Sahib even if sentenced to death after the 1999’s could be allowed to go out, then the going out of Musharraf in about fifteen days before the oath-taking ceremony should not be taken as a surprise, nor should it be pressed too far”. Mian Sahib should avoid getting bogged down in these side-issues, nor should he let the small parties dictate or blackmail his government. In 1998, some 14 political parties ganged up against him, demanding a pound of his flesh, just because he could not please all of them. This problem would reappear again, sooner than expected. Failure or success will solely be his own; therefore, he should play his game. The earliest he buries the past, the better it would be for him. Musharraf still represents the army symbolically, and “striking at him means striking at the crown”.
According to Mr Bukhari, “ President Zardari is now in a state of “Mayoon - the bride just before the marriage”. His “Rukhsuti -departure” will take place when he leaves the office of the President. Mian Sahib should not swallow the bate of trying him under Article 6. This time Zardari’s departure will be final.
There is an element of brutal irony hidden in what happened to a nationally acclaimed number one political party - the PPP in the recent elections. “The engineer got hoisted by his own petard”. The President accuses the international as well as the county’s own agencies for his party’s poor performance. This amounts to insulting the wisdom of the people. In saying so, he perhaps is alluding to the last minute signing of the gas pact with Iran, and his bold gesture to hand over the management of the Gwadar port to China against the wishes of the powers that matter. It does not stick, not even 5%. For full five years, he held absolute sway over a party in whose troubles in the past his share had been substantial. He never made any serious efforts in giving the country even a semblance of good governance. He just does not possess the ability or desire to appoint the right people at the right place. Rejected at one place, they got appointed at elated station at another. This was the cruelest joke ever played by a ruler over the people he ruled. Not a single capable person in the 60-month period with some established reputation and integrity was appointed to any institution in the country. He watched the destruction of 14 national institutions that earn revenue for the country, and they crumbled one after another. In the wake of the biggest disasters like the floods of 2010 and 2011, he felt more comfortable by staying out of the country than being with its suffering people. While its more than 45 thousand people, including ten thousand soldiers fell prey to terrorism, he could not find time to visit them just for consolation purposes. The man remained scared of his own shadows, haunted by his own doings.
On the selection of Raja Rental, Mr Pervez Ashraf, as the country’s PM, some even called this act as “Zardari’s vengeance on Pakistan”. On his assumption of power, I had written one article in August 2008, titled, “President Zardari: Pakistan’s Destiny or Disaster”. He became the president on September 6, 2008. Why did I see something positive coming out of a man who stood so maligned in the press and in the perception of people was that best nails are made not of a precious metal, but of a baser metal called iron. A little alloy of iron (baser element in good leadership) often serves as a source of strength and not as a weakness. Most Romans who turned out to be good and effective rulers, most Shakespearean heroes who are remembered, were not angels.
Obviously, it did not happen like that. The rule to succeed in politics is simple: self-accountability first; performance in measureable and tangible terms, appointment of the best minds to the right places, and a stoical level of ability for going along with all. The future PM, Mian Nawaz Sharif, should act like President Abraham Lincoln did, by offering a very important role to the PTI leader, Mr Imran Khan in the Center. Even in recent times, President Obama made his chief rival, Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State, a very important post, and the world saw both getting along very well in the larger interest of the country. This comes only with the sublimity of soul, and with a true passion to serve the country in the best possible manner, even at the cost of one’s pride and ego.
The Editorial Board of the NY Times is absolutely right when it says, “Ultimately, the success of democracies and the politicians they produce depend on good governance. It is up to Sharif to prove that strong civilian leadership can turn things around in Pakistan.”
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