Army’s role in nation building
Third World countries that perforce have to have large standing armies in order to safeguard their security and integrity as nations pay a high economic price for this luxury. For developing countries, with a constant need for infusion of fresh capital to ameliorate the misery and privation of their masses, the non-development expenditure incurred in defence is a sacrifice that can only be justified because of a very visible threat to their sovereignty and independence. Faced with an implacable foe never fully reconciled to the division of South Asia into areas of Muslim and Hindu majority, Pakistan (and Bangladesh) have to divert precious foreign exchange to their defence needs. Even Sri Lanka, once an island paradise of peace and harmony has had to multiply its military strength many times after India’s Research and Analytical Wing (RAW) provoked the Tamils into violent revolt, the tragedy is still unfolding in bloody detail.
How can we ensure that the funds diverted to our military needs can be gainfully employed for nation building? At the outset we must recognize that this is already being done both by very visible and invisible means, the sectors being mostly socio-economic. The visible sectors that are being engaged by the defence personnel are education, communications, health, water, sewerage and disaster relief. In education, the large number of private schools that have been organised and opened by the Defence Services mean that a significant portion of school and college going children who do not have parents in the military have access to meaningful education on a uniform basis. Furthermore since army cantonments are in far, outlying places which have no access to quality education, running of cadet-colleges and public schools has been a major plus point for backward areas where parents may not have the requisite funds. In particular the military’s role in uplifting technical education by creating schools of excellence like the Army Medical College, the Army College of Engineering, PAF Aeronautical College, The Navy Engineering College, etc has been of great benefit to the nation. It is now believed that College Entrance Tests, which will be a combination of the pattern of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), will be organised by National Engineering of Science and Technology (NEST) on a countrywide basis to bring uniformity and merit into those aspirants with merit who want to be inducted into the system. With respect to communications, the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and National Logistics Cell (NLC) have already done tremendous work in constructing roads and highways at remote places on the pattern of the US Corps of Engineers. One of the greatest feats of road engineering in the world is the Karakoram Highway (the old Silk Route). Since most roads in the public sector development programme only exist on paper, monitoring of public sector programmes could conceivably be placed under a Control Organisation run by the Army. Similarly development of telecommunications in the public sector could at least be monitored by the Army’s Corps of Signals. As regards health, it is no secret that barring a few medical institutions like Aga Khan, Shaukat Khanam, Al-Shifa, etc most hospitals are in deplorable state as compared to Combined Military Hospitals (CMHs) in every cantonment of the country. The Army’s Medical Corps has already done excellent work in many of Pakistan’s backward and remote areas, Field ambulances could be tasked on more permanent basis to take over health processing at the district level so that the common man gets adequate health coverage near his doorstep. As fantastic as it may sound in this high tech age, a considerable portion of our population lives without proper drinking water, the Army has done significant work in this respect, particularly in the country’s deserts and other remote areas. Proper sewerage is also non-existent in many areas because funds are pocketed by those responsible for its development. Inspection of work progress can be done by the Army, it will lessen, if not curtail, corruption that denies this basic civic facility in this day and age. In all the socio-economic uplift projects services of retired personnel should be gainfully utilised.
The Army’s role in disaster relief is of primary importance to the nation. Without the Army, all the civic facilities would collapse, rescue and relief work would be non-existent and aid would never reach the victims of the particular disaster. Nothing can better illustrate this than the flood relief work being carried out in the Punjab as well as construction of the all-important river bank (Ghouspur Bund) in Sindh. At all times Army helicopters support logistics operations in the mountainous Northern and AK areas, whenever rescue operations are mounted the invariable choice is for direct Army support.
Many people count the cost of large standing armies as a pure non-development expenditure that makes no contribution to the economy. In fact, in countries with employment problems, the defence services payroll and expenditures directly force-feeds the economy. An economic cycle is created by the disbursement of salary to the individual, who keeps a part for his own use and sends the rest to his family. When the soldier spends his salary on or near the base he is working, he pushes money into the local economy. His family does so similarly at home. Without that money going into local economies, these would collapse. Military funds support both the manufacturing and services sectors, creating employment opportunities, one cannot label them non-productive or non-development. It is true that when we pay for weapons and equipment for abroad, this money is totally lost but for each penny paid to the serviceman or in other expenditures incurred locally by the military the economy grows many times over.
No nation can exist without discipline. The process of training of soldiers and their service thereof means they go back into their local environment after doing their tenures, the Defence Services contribute to instilling discipline among the masses. This is also the effect on children who get the benefit of education in institutions run by the Military. In an invisible way character of a sort is built that is not possible in the average educational institutions in the country. Moreover the system generates leaders and as we have seen we have a surfeit of good leadership at every level.
The Defence Services also serve as an example of implementing accountability in a country where accountability is considered good enough for lip-service purposes only. Unless the leaders of this country are encouraged to recognize that assuming of office also involves responsibility to ensure that the powers of that office are used for the good of the citizen rather than misused for personal benefit. The laws of the land must be applied without fear or favour, the Defence Services ensure that accountability through all its rank and file structure.
What is required is that all the nation-building efforts of the Defence Services must be coordinated by a single HQ, in this case a Directorate should be created in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). That Directorate can inter-act with a Coordination Cell in the PM’s Secretariat to dovetail the socio-economic uplift programme of the Government. While there is tremendous activity already in this respect by the Defence Services one feels that the full potential has neither been harnessed or realized. The Defence Services particularly the Army, make both a direct and indirect contribution to nation-building, this must be recognized as the economic force-multiplier that it is.
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