System Failure?
A low-key but intense national debate has been initiated because of the comments of some foreign observers expressing doubt about Pakistan’s survival as an entity. In the immortal paraphrased words of Mark Twain, “rumours of our demise may have been greatly exaggerated”, a cursory analysis does show that the “doom and gloom” clouds are much more dense in Karachi, even among sincere, dedicated citizens, than up-country. In the face of continued insecure environment for the city’s citizens, this is not surprising. The creeping anxiety in the psyche of the intellectuals and the entrepreneurs should ring alarm bells for those who are genuinely interested in the continued sovereignty and integrity of the country.
An extremely bright, young ISI major in the then East Pakistan in November 1990 gave his visiting boss from Islamabad a presentation in Dhaka as to what was likely to happen if events continued to follow an uncertain and erratic course. He ended his detailed submission by commenting that those who strongly believed in a united Pakistan felt very insecure as they would be left in the lurch if the worst came to pass. Having said his piece with courage, the field officer waited with bated breath for pearls of wisdom to emanate from the great man. It was not long in forthcoming, “if you are feeling scared, let me shift you and your family to West Pakistan”. That astonished young man, who later rose to high military rank in Bangladesh, decided in sheer frustration at that point of time that despite his personal convictions about the survival of Pakistan, his ethnic background left him no choice but to go with the growing synergy among the masses in then East Pakistan for a separate country. Whereas the intent of the individual was to bring into focus the strategic relevance of the times, his boss, whose appointment and vision thereof should have taken in the measure of the situation, reduced the implications to that of a petty individual requirement. Of such faux pas by the high and mighty is secession born! Today if you go to Islamabad and aspire to get the attention of those who matter in between office routine, afternoon nap, golf, riding and/or tennis and before the usual evening reception (i.e. business as usual), the answer to your repeated entreaties to please focus on Karachi in supersession to everything else is, “shift your family to Islamabad!” When you pester them repeatedly in the hope that maybe your persistence would break through their veneer of calm, the telephone operator (or bearer or whoever) has a repeated message for you, “Sahib has just left for a reception”. If this was confined to one person one would dismiss it as an aberration, unfortunately the exasperation with the bearer of bad tidings about Karachi is universal in Islamabad. While the country was burning in 1970-71, the leadership was out to an extended lunch, no wonder our world collapsed around us. Such is the irony of fate that when it did collapse, all those who had gone from pillar to post predicting dire straits unless remedial measures were taken, immediately became “traitors” for having stated the obvious. Twenty-five years later this is the same labelling for those who now dare to talk (and write) about growing Mohajir alienation from the Pakistan mainstream. The tragedy is that now almost, all except some myopic parochial diehards (with what goes for brains in their shoes), accept that gross mistakes across the whole spectrum were committed in the East Pakistan, dereliction of the norms of leadership and statecraft being directly responsible for the disaster.
It is easy to blame the PM Ms Benazir and the present PPP Government for all of Pakistan’s many problems, nobody seems to really enquire whether everything was hunky-dory for the past decade or so and do we really believe that any alternative to the present regime would provide us the necessary relief in the future? Even if the Ms Benazir regime should fall, we will have more of the same. What we have in Pakistan is a system-failure where drastic remedial action has become necessary. But who will have the courage to make the changes? In the words of Altaf Gauhar at a recent seminar in Karachi, “we are a sham democracy, hostage in the hands of feudals who have a motivated interest in persisting with the same system”. From the rural areas our elected representatives are almost all to a man (and some women) feudals who have opted time and again to change sides to cling to whoever is in power in Pakistan. To the credit of some PPP stalwarts, feudal or not, a handful have always retained their steadfastness to their party and its leader. Since neither major party got a clear mandate, in the political compromise trade Ms Benazir has shown greater flexibility and alacrity. Aided with her substantial war chest the PM rules comfortably — and despite the odds, quite confidently. However, her very success in political manoeuvering exposes the system to be a farce, far from being representative of the genius and aspirations of the people. What else can one label a system that throws up people like Wattoo and Nakai and makes a major party like PPP hostage to their whims and desires? For both Ms Benazir and Mian Nawaz Sharif it would have been far better to have either of their major political parties rule as a minority government rather than be subject to blackmail by what are essentially political mercenaries (Pol-Mercs).
Given that the system is a farce, who do we turn to effect changes that would conform to the logic of democracy and bring about economic emancipation of the masses. Each time that we have turned to the Army we have come off worse than we were because the military leaders, instead of focussing on the primary aim started to enjoy the trappings of power. Like the IMF, the Army can only perform short-term battlefield surgery, the long-term reforms can only be enacted by a truly representative government. Furthermore despite the fact that professionalism in the Army has been enhanced up the ladder, so has the debilitating effect of a sliding scale of perks, eroding the credibility that the uniform once enjoyed in the eyes of the common man. The intelligentsia and masses are much more perceptive than they were two or three decades ago, they require self-accountability to be institutionalised before they can accept anyone’s credibility, “let him cast the first stone, he who has not sinned!” For those who have been associated in any manner with the military hierarchy, this perception leads to despondency when those who have been heroes and role models to us for many years, chose to remain silent in the face of the rapid slide of their country into anarchy (the only reasons one can apportion for their “discretion” are career, pension, plots and other perks thereof), one is forced to concede that the prevailing system has eroded the final frontiers of credibility. Who will be ready to die for one’s country if one is not ready to risk one’s careers for one’s beliefs and the integrity of the profession? When men of character and integrity are found to have feet of clay in not demanding accountability, it is useless and futile to expect their less scrupulous colleagues to show any inclination in reforming the system to suit the mass aspirations.
Bangladesh let a golden opportunity slip when Gen Ershad handed over power to a Caretaker Government. The Caretaker Government, done by political consensus (with only a nudge but no participation of the Army whose reputation had suffered a dent by a decade of martial law and vestiges of democracy thereof), was headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and was composed of persons of integrity without any political leaning, above all they were acceptable to both the major parties. Moreover each individual Caretaker had given an undertaking not to enter politics for several years after Caretaker incumbency, the Chief Justice returning to his original post. The net result is that despite the free elections and restoration of democracy thereof, Bangladesh has come a full circle as the masses are again out in the streets paralyzing routine life and government, albeit without tacit (and crucial) support from the Administration’s minions or the Armed Forces. If the mandate of the Caretakers had been extended for a period of one to two years to include comprehensive electoral and administrative reform, the malady that is now afflicting the body-politic and causing recurring system failure could have been avoided.
We have an elected government in Pakistan and whatever its merits or de-merits, it is firmly in power, strikes and black days notwithstanding. Let us first put the onus on the ruling party to effect lasting changes in the system for the good of the country while rising above narrow and petty party considerations. This country is surviving on its momentum, the laws of physics dictate that this will diminish unless changes are made to its present state. Ms Benazir should not be like the wind which cannot read, she should seize this moment in history, enacting such changes that are logical and correct, either through the present coalition or even as the head of a national government. The basics of good governance make it incumbent upon the rulers not to ignore such cries from the wilderness for avoiding the catastrophe that at least a majority of the citizens of this nation seem to feel is about to engulf this nation. What a tragedy (and coincidence) that 25 years after separation, Bangladesh is simultaneously going through the same phase of self-doubt!
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