People’s populism
All democracies function on the same theme, power belongs to the people, and yet the peoples’ taste of power is usually confined to feeling the blunt edge of it. The last time around the Peoples Party had taken a number of steps to change the system and to their credit, made fundamental reforms but ultimately Real-Politik caught up with ideals and the system adapted itself to the trappings of power, the people were left awash in the wake, not entirely forgotten perhaps but not VIPs anymore, democracy cresting only on the charisma of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The state of our finances is such that any infusion of state funds that do not give a direct return to the people are wasted in the context of the national economy. In any case the paucity of funds has invited conditionalities by the IMF which are anathema to the concept of populism. The Federal Government is, therefore, constrained by varying circumstances in translating promises into actual deeds, this is not in keeping with the raison d’etre for this government which has tried, by launching the Rs 2 billion People’s Programme, to partly redeem the pledge made to the people, a sort of a bridge measure till a full programme can be annunciated in the next budget.
Abolition of poverty requires that employment opportunities be made available in the rural areas. The state of our inner cities demand that that transmigration to the cities comes to a stop which can only happen if the rural poor find employment at their doorstep. Unless a fail-safe mechanism is established, there will remain a distinct gap between the affluent and the poor, ever-widening as time goes by. In this process one must include projects which generate income for women, a vast majority of whom populate the ranks of the statistically unemployed, but in fact bear burdens far in excess to their male counterparts in agriculture. The concept behind eradication of poverty must ensure that the social infrastructure needs of drinking water, health, housing, transport and education becomes easily available to all the masses rather than remain the privilege of the few rich.
The Peoples Party had promised in its manifesto, as had all the other parties, as would all parties in any democracy, that the abolition of poverty would be their prime motivation and in keeping with its manifesto it has launched the Rs 2 billion Peoples Programme. Very correctly it had decided in its manifesto that the maximum authority of government would be given to the smallest functional unit as it is devolution of authority that gives local bodies (and the people thereof) the power to decide issues relating to their own social welfare, the essence of democracy. This is theoretically an excellent idea as who best can know the priorities of their own areas than the inhabitants themselves? Since local government bodies are supposed to function as entities very much self-governing, the basic needs of the people must become their total responsibility as they are answerable to the electorate from time to time. If power can really be translated to the people by giving them the right to spend the funds on their own priorities, one can expect economic uplift, particularly in the rural areas. To that extent, one must commend the PPP Government in the taking of the right initiative in the correct direction, the importance of it should be signified by giving this programme the greatest priority as our people live in absolute misery in this 20th century bereft of the facilities considered as a matter of course in the developed world.
The Junejo Government had annunciated a similar Five-Point scheme with maximum emphasis on education, his other four points encompassing the other important needs of the people. It would be worth the while before launching the present programme for the Federal Government to study the progress made by the previous regime, identify areas of weaknesses and take corrective measures wherever necessary, particularly for instances of outright failures. In political terms, the Junejo Government tried to work through the Members of the National Assembly, allocating funds for every member in a sort of direct vote solicitation, this did not work as Mr Junejo could not even stop the Bhutto-machine in his own constituency. In essence the Peoples Party manifesto recognizes this aspect in the Peoples Programme keeping it somewhat ambiguous, mentioning it to be Federal in nature and talking about District Committees while leaving out the Provincial Governments totally from any participation.
While understanding that the on-going tension between the Federal Government and the Punjab is part of the political process, keeps both the sides on their toes and is not without advantages for the masses unless it really becomes vicious, which it is now gradually becoming, we believe that an excellent programme is going to be still-born because of this confrontation. The Peoples Programme, modest in nature compared to the task in hand, is an excellent first step in ameliorating the lot of our downtrodden masses and it needs to be encouraged, but at the same time the Federal Government should not ignore the fact that the principle of devolution of authority dictates that you do not ignore the first step down the line i.e. the Provincial Governments. Whereas in two provinces, Sind and the NWFP, it will work smoothly as the PPP has Governments in place and should also not be a problem in Baluchistan with the pragmatic Akbar Bugti as CM, it is in the populous heartland of Pakistan, the Province of Punjab, that this programme will come to grief as it has become a solid bone of contention. This is going to have tragic consequences for the Programme and the poor masses it is supposed to benefit will become the victim of indirect circumstances by default.
The Prime Minister is on record that she places the greatest emphasis on improving the quality of life of our people. There is a ring of sincerity about it which is not hard to fathom, her present status stems from the adulation of the masses who have blind faith in her. It is not enough for her just to try, she must come good. In this her selection of her most youthful Minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, to head the campaign is an excellent choice, force-multiplied by the presence of Mr. M I Khalil as the Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government. Since the organisational team is to be headed by this senior bureaucrat with adequate practical experience in enhancing the status of Cooperatives through the Federal Bank of Cooperatives as its Chairman just behind him, one can only expect that pragmatic, result-oriented measures would be taken rather than mere lip-service to a populist cause. The ingredients are right, the blend is right but there are missing cogs in the flow-chart, the willing collaboration of the Province of Punjab and also the elements of an employment-oriented plan.
The PM should ensure her own exhortation to “rise above self” when the greater good of the nation is involved, particularly that which immediately concerns the welfare of the masses. For the moment, one can avoid the induction of industry and commerce-oriented self-earning projects because of paucity of funds (and time) but eventually any Programme worth its salt has to be self-generating. For the short time, it is extremely necessary that politics is confined to the backwaters and the higher moral purposes dictate that the Federal Government draws the Punjab into the process as a willing partner and also that the Government in the Punjab climbs out of its self-imposed King Lear attitude and cooperates for the benefit of its people.
Perhaps the motto of the Peoples’ Programme should be “Rise above Self for the sake of the people”, it is more appropriate, more fitting than any phrase necessary for writing an epitaph, which may well be its fate if mature policies singularly designed to benefit the people (without other motivations) are not followed on both sides of the political spectrum.
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