Accountability as an economic asset
It is gratifying to see that our leaders are impressed with Singapore’s economy as a role model to emulate, symbolized by a welcome visit from the architect of the Singapore miracle, former PM (and now Senior Minister) Lee Kuan Yew. Pakistan’s prime objectives in organising the tour, other than honouring this great man, was to place the whole gamut of the privatisation programme as well as the far-reaching economic reforms effected by the Govt of Pakistan (GoP) before his critical eyes to analyse, an occasion to solicit his advice to increase the pace of economic amelioration of the lot of the masses. The tour itinerary and the exhibits, human and material displayed, did give a fleeting feeling that perhaps the exercise may have been staged to impress the great man and his lady. This base thought was discarded in the belief that trying to impress pragmatic Lee Kuan Yew had as much chance as a snowflake in Sibi in the month of June.
Singapore’s economic miracle stems largely from being geographically placed at a convenient crossroads among the world’s shipping lanes. When Sir Stamford Raffles selected this marshy island for a staging post, one could never imagine that it would, by the beginning of the 20th Century, become one of the world’s great ports. The prime Japanese objective in World War 2 had been to use Singapore as a springboard from where to militarily dominate the sea lanes to Australasia, South East Asia and South Asia. However, it was in the 60s that Lee Kuan Yew’s far-sightedness made him pull out of the Confederation with Malaysia and then proceed to transform Singapore’s geographical potential as a military base into a commercial success by converting Singapore into one of the world’s primary free trade areas. Singapore invited investment from all over the world by minimising bureaucratic inter-action and providing all the Services required by industry and commerce willingly and immediately without being subjected to paperwork, subsequent inordinate delays and harassment, ending in extortion by corrupt bureaucrats.
The prime reason for Singapore’s success has been the incorruptibility of the bureaucracy. While Lee Kuan Yew has exercised a tight control over democracy, loosening controls gradually, he was exceedingly severe on corruption, making examples out of recalcitrants. The result of his toughness has been that the onus of any delay is transferred to officialdom and this responsibility factor has made for an efficient bureaucracy that prides itself in immediate answers. In fact any delay in completing paperwork is seen as harassment motivated for the purposes of corruption, this accountability is perhaps the greatest economic asset that Singapore possesses. At the same time, Singapore’s civil servants are extremely well paid,their average take-home salaries not being less than their counterparts in commercial enterprises.
Whatever may be the other factors, the prime reason for Singapore’s success has been the personal example set by Lee Kuan Yew. Accountability has to start with the person at the top and Singapore’s great pride is that not one person among its top leadership cadre has ever been tainted with even a whiff of corruption. This example of incorruptibility is best illustrated by the way Lee Kuan Yew lives. In the midst of high-rise buildings, parks, huge commercial centres, etc, there is a small dilapidated-looking single-storey bungalow guarded by a single Gurkha Guard on the road known as Oxley Rise. This discrepant building, probably 50-75 years old, has been occupied by Lee Kuan Yew for over 30 years and he has refused to move to fresh lodgings till all of Singapore’s citizens were better housed. Among other things the prime example for our leaders to thus emulate must be self-denial. Such examples give credibility to one’s cause and motivates the government machinery to remain corruption-free. Lee Kuan Yew is a difficult act to follow, he had set his own agenda for the fulfilment of his vision, by personal example he has managed to see his dreams become reality in his lifetime. That old bungalow on Oxley Rise serves as a salutary symbol of his personal commitment to accountability. This is a far cry from the parade of interior decorators that are used in Pakistan to satisfy the comfort requirements of those in power.
Bureaucracy’s main weapon in extorting money is the complicated forms one has to fill, this results invariably in inordinate delays, thus giving over the initiative into the hands of the corrupt. The volume of graft depends upon the nature of the requirement of the common citizen. While those with influence manage to get their work done depending upon the pressure they can bring to bear on the bureaucrat, the masses have to part with money. Even that may not get their job done in a hurry as the bureaucrat knows that inordinate hurry will invite attention. Even honest bureaucrats, and there still happen to be a great preponderance of them up the line, deliberately delay the process so as not to be accused of pocketing money without the sharing of it in the right quarters. Corruption is deeply ingrained in our society, mainly because arcane laws give tremendous powers to the individual bureaucrat and forces the individual applicant on a merry-go-round to a myriad number of departments located at different places all over the city to obtain permission. In some cases this is a Catch-22 proposition, with the citizen running from pillar to post to seek succour, only to find themselves back at square one. This extends to every walk of life, there being no such thing as a one-window operation except as a figment of imagination.
Take the case of an application for a gas connection for a restaurant in Karachi. There is the necessity to run around to get someone to do a survey, this survey can only take place once money changes hands, then one has to pay out more money to obtain a Provisional bill. Having paid that bill, one becomes dependent upon an “approved contractor” to do the preliminary work, more extortion takes place. Having done all this, one waits anxiously for someone to come and connect the gas, all this time using expensive gas cylinders, the obtaining of which is a separate story by itself. While waiting anxiously for the job to be completed, woe betide you if perchance one of the engineers or executives in the chain of hierarchy of the gas company walks into the restaurant along with his entire family and then some. Having dined full and freely, he then announces his status and appointment to the management staff, demanding that his bill be treated as free. When the staff inform him about their inability to accede to his request (!!), he flies into a temper and threatens to ensure no gas will ever be made available to the restaurant. True to his words and despite intercession at the highest level, the restaurant still waits for a gas connection, five to six months after having paid the Provisional bill. While the aforementioned horror story concerns Sui Southern Gas Company, the same may be true in different cases in almost all individual applicants hoping to obtain connections from KESC, KWSB, PTC, etc, etc. The sequence of extortion may be different for each department, the extracting of money from the average citizen is commonplace.
Given the deteriorating law and order situation, and the many cases of looting of bank vans, a Pakistan company applied to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for permission to import Used Cash-in-Transit (CiT) vehicles. A precedence was in existence already since the MoC had given such permission in the middle 80s (and repeated it twice as late as 1991) to a Joint Venture Foreign Company. This seemed a straight-forward request in the face of the government’s policy encouraging privatisation, the transferring of cash between bank branches by the use of CiT vehicles would lead to increased security sophistication against the criminal elements that have repeatedly looted money transferred in soft-skin vehicles. Obviously this request militated against the present monopoly enjoyed by the foreign company (which allows them to dictate prices) and bureaucracy became duly obdurate. After no reply was received for some months, the Pakistani company approached the Honourable Minister for Finance for his intercession since the vehicles would be used in the banking sector. The moment this happened, the officials in the MoC decided that they needed NOCs from other Ministries, thus widening the scope for the permission, thus delaying it further and shifting the responsibility for the delay onto other shoulders. The permission has only been possible because the Honourable Minister for Finance personally intervened in the matter. If the CiT vehicles were here, other than the security considerations in the safe transfer of cash this will create 12 more jobs per vehicle directly and another 12 indirectly, the number being multiplied dependant upon the number of the vehicles, thus contributing to the economy by providing employment.
The aforementioned are just individual cases, needless to say bureaucracy will formulate some pat answer for both these incidents, i.e in case those in authority deign to take note of it. These different cases serve to illustrate why the delays due to bureaucratic foot-dragging end up being a loss to the economy. This sort of harassment, only the magnitude differing, is repeated in every town and city in this country many hundreds and thousands of times everyday, the cumulative effect on the economy is disastrous. Unless we can bring accountability into the economy by skewering recalcitrant bureaucrats who deliberately cause delays so as to fulfil their personal requirements, we cannot hope for the economic amelioration of the masses. The bureaucracy has an inborn capacity to frustrate the sincere intentions of the politicians and unless their power to be obdurate is hamstrung, nothing will change.
Accountability is the major economic asset for Singapore. While we can lay many grandiose economic plans, it can only be through accountability of civil servants at each stage if we are to remove the shackles on the economy. Without removing those constraints, the economy may make progress, but the upward progression will be stunted and the people in power will never be able to emulate what Lee Kuan Yew has wrought in Singapore.
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