Khan Sahib: Fix the Problems, Not the People - 2
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.” - Theodore Roosevelt
WALK THE TALK: You are a leader, but unfortunately you sound more like a mechanic with a hammer in one hand, banging it right and left, and with a tongue busy in cursing others, resulting in staying distracted.
You have the examples of all the military and civilian rulers of Pakistan. They were eulogized by their cronies for some time; but ultimately, they got relegated to the pages of history with lots of muck heaped over them. Their fault was that they tried to fix the people.
People can be convinced and persuaded as they are open to influence, but they do not like to be fixed, nor do they like the one who tries to fix them, be it even their own parents. Currently the two former leaders are licking the ultimate dust. Did they ever care that integrity and morality count in leadership? Did they ever think that the character of a leader includes honesty and integrity as an integral part of it?.
Once a person’s name used to be his total reputation, his honor, and his whole thing. One is reminded of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, in which the main character, John Proctor at the end says about his name: “…because I cannot have another in my life… I have given you my soul! Leave me with my name.” Name used to be one’s identity. For politicians in Pakistan, the very sense of honor is lost. The wealth of six continents now cannot restore their integrity.
Life is a boomerang; it gives you back with the same velocity what you had given it. So, start leading and stop lecturing; start performing and stop professing. David Brinkley said it so beautifully about true leadership. A great leader,“Can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” Leadership is not about creating new hells; it is about leading people like Prophet Muhammad (s) and Moses (a) out of the hell. Instead of being proactive and creative, you so easily choose to be reactionary and vindictive. A leader has to fit to the challenges of the era. “An American Civil War needed a leader who could be merciful and merciless, confident and humble, patient and persistent, one able to meditate among factions, sustain people’s spirits and translate the meaning of the struggle into words of matchless force, clarity and beauty”, says Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her inspiring book, Leadership in Turbulent Times. That leader was Abraham Lincoln. He made use of his worst enemies- enemies who would not even regard him as a human being. He accommodated them in his first cabinet, acknowledging their talent and superiority in knowledge.
Theodore Roosevelt did not fire McKinley’s cabinet after he got assassinated. He fitted the needs of the time perfectly well. His spirited combativeness mobilized the country that stood paralyzed by the coal miners’ strike; a country in the grip of monopolies and wrapped in inequalities produced by the Industrial Revolution. He did not rule by authority, but by dint of his honesty, zest. He walked his talk; when he spoke, others listened to him. He used the impact of his strong personality against the most powerful rich, the “Robber-Barons,”, against the Monopolists and Trust-holders.
President Franklin Roosevelt restored the hope and earned the trust of the American people through the Great Depression, and World War II. Americans in those days faced the same kind of economic crisis as is being faced by Pakistan these days. Banks failed and people starved. He did not put the blame on the past Presidents’ policies and over-blown optimism, as both President McKinley as well President Hoover were heard saying that prosperity was guaranteed in America.
Look at Lyndon B. Johnson. He gave to people what even President Kennedy could not dare giving, the Civil Rights Act, the education loans for the students, etc. Such steps changed the face of the country.
“There comes a time in the affairs of men when you must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.” W. C. Fields. Pakistan is passing through that time. It is isolated; it lacks solidarity; it needs radical changes. A wildebeest is not a small or a weak animal. It is only a little shorter than a cow. As once a gamekeeper explained, it is a strange animal. It runs like other animals when chased by a predator, but it is so dumb that it soon loses sight of what had inspired it to run, and then stops right next to the predator in a most meditative and appreciative mood, completely forgetting that it is the same predator that had frightened him to run a few minutes ago. Khan Sahib, don’t be like a wildebeest.
Some steps taken recently are laudable; banning of organizations that operate under the name of religion and indulging in acts of terrorism; and restoring good relations with all.
Be like a gardener in leadership role. As says Rodger Dean Duncan, a writer. A gardener does not go to the garden, shouting at the flowers for not looking fresh, nor setting datelines for them. He creates an environment that ensures their growth, an environment that is full of light (vision), and nourishment (positivity), enough space for the plants to stretch and expand (freedom of speech and taste). For leadership and gardening is all about creating positive changes. According to this writer, both, the great leaders and great gardeners resist the temptation of micromanaging things, what in our vernacular we call, “Dung Tapau solutions. Both know that flowers cannot grow if the gardener keeps jerking them out of the ground to check the health of their roots. So do not get hung up with being the PM of Pakistan. Give hope to all, by being positive and inclusive. Pick up from your worst enemies, if they had shown results in the past.
Not all the people had voted for the PTI, and this in itself is enough to remind you that others too exist in Pakistan. Your leadership will impact them as well. Pakistan is not a deserted island on which a Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe’s novel got stranded. Robinson Crusoe even there saw stars in the sky; stayed thankful that the ship did not wreck very far from the shore; paid thanks to God that there were no wild animals on the island; felt grateful that the weather was not very cold; and stayed sanguine that he still had some clothes on his body. Pakistan is not in that bad a situation as was Robinson Crusoe.
Nor is Pakistan like the “Bijuria” either, the poor girl in an art movie, ‘YATHHARTH-The Bitter Truth.”. Bijuria, a low caste, motherless girl was raised by her father who lived outside the village, and who by profession cremated the dead bodies being a Chindaal. The only time he and Bijuria got some good food and new clothes was when somebody died. So, for Bijuria, the innocent girl, “Good food and some new clothes” got linked with the death of others. She got habituated and conditioned to the idea that joys of life - food and clothes - are somehow associated with someone’s death. So, when somebody died, she would begin dancing too. The heart wrenching moment comes when her own husband dies in an accident and his dead body is being brought for cremation, and she starts dancing.
The government of Pakistan, the current or the previous ones, sound like the Bhudai, the father of Bijuria - weak, poor, and apparently helpless, unwilling to change - a kind of low–caste in the comity of the world countries. Any loan, aid or donation makes us dance just as the sight of a dead body made Bijuria dance because for her it meant a temporary relief from eternal hunger. The biggest news in Pakistan is when the IMF or the World Bank, or a rich country doles out some loans to facilitate the interest payments on the huge loans erstwhile given and devoured. Pakistan like the poor Bijuria appears to be dancing on its own death. Loans are good if used like President Franklin Roosevelt had done during the Great Depression times. They become a curse, a trap, a yoke around the neck of the people if wasted, as in the case of Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif in his last tenure, did produce some results, but the bulk of loans now do threaten the very sovereignty of Pakistan.
For God’s sake, wake up. Pakistan is a nuclear power; it has the best disciplined army; it has the huge fund of youth pulsating with energy and passion, ready to impact the world; it has the most resilient people on earth who keep on moving, struggling, and who never appear to be giving up or giving in. Pakistan has people who even find virtue in their miseries and spirituality in their sufferings. Is there a valid cause for Pakistan to be in the hole in which it is now entrapped? The saying is, “Stop digging when in a hole; and do not look at the mud, look at the stars above.”
Imran Khan has appeared on the scene at the right time. He has the blessings of the Judiciary as well as of the Establishment. His personal honesty and reputation are his best assets. But honesty is not restricted to financial matters alone; it is pervasive. Its sphere extends to your tongue; to your dealings and to your clarity of thoughts and vision. Contradicting yourself in every statement twice is a serious flaw; vulgarity of language is not a sign of boldness, it is a sheer show of ill manners.
Lastly, as says Clayton M. Christensen in his wonderful book, “The Prosperity Paradox, Prosperity is a recent phenomenon. Most wealthy nations not long ago were not so; The United States was desperately poor, rife with corruption, and chaotically governed. America was desperately poor in the 1850’s, was more impoverished than present day Angola, Mongolia, or Sri Lanka. South Korea in the 1970’s was a miserably poor country, now it is the success story for the world, “The most successful country in the world,” Fareed Zakaria. China has reduced its rate of extreme poverty from 66.6% in the 1990’s to less than 2 percent today; India has driven 700 million people out of poverty trap. Pakistan on the contrary has slid down.
The tea-serving Modi, in 2016, gave a shock to the Indians when without any advance warning he declared the 500- and 1,000 rupee notes obsolete, a move that almost brought the Indian economy to a standstill. 98% transactions in India take place in these two currency notes. This was termed an economic tsunami. Tens of millions of Indians lined up for hours to convert their old notes. It brought truckloads of money to the Indian government, plus it caused many Indians to resort to innovation, to look out of the box.
Mexico introduced a program of exchanging trash for food. Mexicans could exchange the recyclable trash with food vouchers. The vouchers were made good at many farmers’ markets. A new idea delivered very positive results, for the farmers, for the people and for the environment.
Singapore, the world’s richest city-state, once was very poor. Its first PM then had said, “We inherited a heart without a body.” It attracted foreign investment in order to create employment. The world rushed to this island state because Singapore did not ask for aid, or charity hand-outs; it asked for investment and for technological ingenuity. In 1970, the FDI to Singapore was around $93 million, by 2017, it was about $60 billion. This is called success. Every cabinet member in Singapore is a world-famous personality, with at least a PhD.
Look at Rwanda. It suffered the worst kind of massacre in human history in 1994. Its system was tedious; to get a business license was as difficult as it is in Pakistan; it was inefficient as if the Rwandan government did not want people to do business in the country. In 2009, it created the Rwanda Development Board, which simplified the investment process. By 2017, this Board registered a total investment of approximately $1.7 billion, up about 50 % from 2016; Foreign Direct Investment totaled just over $1 billion, up from around $ 8.3 million in 2000. Hotels and access of big corporations like Costco and Starbucks made their way to Rwanda.
Pakistan lost its identity in the world comity and became embroiled in sectarianism; the politicians and the establishment began looking sideways as gradually the country became tunnel-visioned. Corruption gnawed it both from inside as well as from outside. Its leaders funneled the country’s precious resources to foreign countries, and invented new ways to legalize corruption of those in power through legislation. It suffered a betrayal, the like of which was never seen in its past history. India emerged; Bangladesh emerged, but Pakistan went down, in all spheres of life. Our Muftis “placed scientific knowledge at the toe of their shoes,”, and yet the people listened to them. Khan Sahib, stop whining, and whipping the past; take the responsibility, by acknowledging the power of, “NOW”. Tax the rich, not the poor people. You cannot be more forceful than Musharraf in his zest of building a dam and expanding the tax-payers bracket. He failed because he approached these two valid issues most uncreatively, and somewhat bookishly. New taxes have resulted in revolutions, the examples being the French Revolution and the American Revolution. Foster collaboration; create a climate of trust, and healthy relationships. Justice is always impartial, or it is not justice.
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