Constitutional Proposals
The military regime last Wednesday solicited public opinion for the first batch of 29 constitutional amendments proposed by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) to improve the performance of political and democratic institutions of the country. The National Security Council (NSC) and the Federal Cabinet will meet after a month to finalize the amendments in the light of suggestions received.
Nobody should have any problems with (1) reducing the term of the National Assembly (NA) and the Senate from five and six years respectively to four (2) increasing the existing 207 NA muslim seats to 357 and (3) reducing the voting age from 21 years to 18 years. It is better for the Assemblies to finish their natural terms (even though reduced) rather than having them artificially shortened by arbitrary authority. The population growth necessitated the increase in seats and the precocious nature of modern youth the decrease in age. The Provinces should be happy with the relative increases in seats, both in the NA and the Provincial Assemblies.
Democracy and Corruption
Because of the lack of accountability, totalitarian rule creates an ideal breeding ground for corruption even though the risks may be greater. Why is it then that democracy, whose touchstone is accountability, a prey to rampant corruption, particularly in the developing world? As the third world rid itself of colonialism, quite a number of the “free world’s” leaders were military dictators/absolute monarchs who not only looted their country blind but revelled in it. The west mostly looked the other way, it being convenient to support them in the name of “democracy” and “freedom” in the fight against communism. Money laundering, evasion of taxes, flight of capital, etc very much frowned upon in the west, were all conveniently ignored. The 60s and early 70s saw leaders like the Shah of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia, Mobuto of Zaire, etc as the darlings of the west, the leading edge of the cold war. As this era wound down in the 80s, these leaders became embarrassments for their former mentors. Their riches were deposited in banks in places as diverse as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man etc, their real estate holdings and other investments spread all across the world through a myriad network of dummy corporations, off-shore companies, front-men, etc. The developed world had accountability because of a free media, systemized documentation and public knowledge because of the high percentage of literacy, this accountability was denied to new found “democracies” where demagogues and so-called populists held sway, misusing their mandate to make financial bonanzas while making their future bright, in some cases attempting to also make their past bright.
Among the worst cases at the present time are the Suhartos of Indonesia, everyone of the siblings is a billionaire in his/her own right while the country is bankrupt. However the Suhartos do not make such a pretense of democracy as do the leaders of South Asia. The Bofors scandal in India is an open-and-shut case against the late Rajiv Gandhi. One of the major reasons why Italian-born Sonia has abandoned her recluse-like existence and stepped into politics is to have a nuisance value to keep the Bofors case-file from going public. The son of late Bangladesh President Gen Ziaur Rahman is a slur on the known honesty of his father while former President Lt Gen HM Ershad is still a democratic force despite the fact that it is widely believed, even by his supporters and friends, that he diverted millions in public money for his own private use. Pakistan’s great democratic hope, Ms Benazir Bhutto, has been discovered to be a looter-extraordinary, glib rhetoric and smart remarks notwithstanding, courtesy mostly of her incarcerated husband. Not only is the loot well-documented but thanks to an extraordinary effort by Senator Saifur Rahman and his lot, much in variance to his Mr Hyde personality, the foreign banks where some of the loot landed up have been detected and in many cases the accounts frozen. Brazen-faced the former PM had the gall to first deny their existence even, well knowing that she is not telling the truth. What is more extraordinary is that mature political leaders have fallen for her misleading spiel. If other leaders, even with little political standing, get in alliance with her it gives her credibility with the masses, such is the sham that goes for democracy in Pakistan.
Reza Shah, Marcos and Mobutu
Reza Shah, former Shah of Iran in 1979, Ferdinand Marcos, former President of Philippines in 1986 and now Mobutu, former President of Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1997, have much in common. All three are crooks who, having looted the Third World countries they professed to love but ruled as absolute despots without allowing any hint of democracy, went off to seek safer sanctuaries before the people could get their hands on them as they did with the husband-wife combination of the Ceaucescus of Romania. At today’s rate, adjusted for inflation, all three were US ten billion dollar men. More important, at the fag end of their sordid lives, despite all the wealth they accumulated, country after country refused them a bare six feet of earth as a final place of rest. In an ultimate insult to their beings, the countries that were most supportive of them during their years of absolute rule and where they had stashed their looted wealth, refused to allow them entry to enjoy the ill-gotten gains. The ex-Shah of Iran was eventually buried in Egypt (at a price), Ferdinand Marcos’ body remained in an air-conditioned crypt till very recently and stricken with cancer, Mobutu is still searching for a safe haven. For Reza Shah, the exploitation of his wealth two decades ago was relatively easy, not that easy for Marcos about a decade ago and almost impossible for Mobutu presently. At the request of the new Government of the Republic of Congo, countries like Switzerland, France, etc that had his wealth stashed away, conservatively estimated at US$ 10 billion, have frozen all his assets, bank accounts and real-estate, etc included.
While one can have the satisfaction that all three crooks met their comeuppance in not getting to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth, the fact remains that the poverty-stricken population of their respective countries got no real solace. Iran recovered only a fraction of late Reza Shah’s wealth in foreign countries. While Philippines was luckier inasfar as the process they adopted to recover the loot was on a systematic and legal basis, even they managed to get a portion only of the Marcos wealth. However the Filipinos set in motion a process that has changed the world environment inasfar as looted wealth is concerned, it has become that much harder to stash away and have access to looted wealth once not in power. This environment has been made much better by the end of the cold war as the west’s reliance on tinpot dictators has ceased. In Mobutu’s case, despite the recent civil war that preceded his downfall and the precarious ascent of the Kabila regime, Congolese Justice Minister Lawangi moved fast to approach countries like Switzerland, France, etc. where Mobutu’s wealth is mostly located, US$ 5 billion in Swiss Bank accounts alone, and had a quick response to the official request by the newly installed government. Like Reza Shah and Marcos before him, Mobutu is now engaged in an odyssey for a place to die peacefully in, finding it much more harder than Reza Shah and Marcos to find a place in the fading sun, finding it that much harder to gain access to (and thus exploit) his fabulous wealth. Oil-rich Iran, resource-rich Philippines and mineral-rich Congo, all have the capacity to recover from the excesses of their erstwhile leaders, most Third World countries do not have that luxury. Population-rich, economically almost-bankrupt Pakistan neither has any room to manoeuvre or the time to afford such an exercise. Fully US$ 30 billion is estimated to be in the foreign accounts of our politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, former armed forces and police officers, etc. That is more than the estimated US$ 28 billion national external debt. Recovery of even a quarter of that amount, about US$ 7 billion, would tide us over our debt crisis for three crucial years i.e. US $ 2.33 or Pak Rs 100 billion per year. That is about the amount of the deficit in the Federal Budget. Today the Mian Nawaz Sharif regime has made the right noises about recovering the ill-gotten wealth, yet their moves have been confined to lip-service and have been half-hearted enough to be suspect as to their sincerity. It will need much more commitment on their part and an objectivity in targeting known political criminals, not just those who are in the Opposition (or are not with the government, which according to Chanakhya’s rules” about relationships means the same thing). A definite process of law is required, the rhetoric is meaningless as rhetoric alone cannot fill the empty coffers of the country.
Accountability, Filipino Style
No one in modern times personified the misuse of public office for acquisition of wealth by illegal means more than late President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos. The lasting symbol of that blatant corruption was the 3,000 pairs of shoes owned by Mrs Imelda Marcos which were gawked at by demonstrators (some bare-feet) who broke into the Malacang Palace soon after the Marcos family fled Manila for safer havens. The street power that brought Corazon Aquino to the Presidential chair demanded accountability and one of her first acts as the new President was to issue Executive Order No.1 on Feb 28, 1986 creating the “Presidential Commission on Good Government” (PCGG) to assist her, to, quote “in the recovery of ill-gotten wealth accumulated by President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his immediate family, relations, subordinates and close associates, whether located in the Philippines or abroad, including the take over and sequestration of all business enterprises or entities owned or controlled by them, during his administration, directly or through nominees, by taking undue advantage of their public office and/or using powers, authority, influence or connection or relationship”, unquote. Needless to say, because the Philippines was the very first nation in the Third World to break fresh ground in trying to get the illegal wealth back into the national coffers, as such there were legal loopholes, safeguards, parameters, sensitivities of fairness and due process, etc both in national and international circles. The almost unanimous public demand for immediate accountability needed to have due legal cover and two more Presidential directives, Executive Order No.2 on March 12, 1986 and Executive Order No.14 on May 5, 1986 were issued, making the required explanations and tightening the laws. On March 25, 1986, Presidential Proclamation No.3 Article II Section 1(D) duly ratified by Parliament stated that “the President shall give priority to achieve the mandate of the people to recover ill-gotten properties amassed by the leaders and supporters of the previous regime and protect the interests of the people through orders of sequestration or freezing of assets or accounts”, unquote. The Proclamation stated clearly that “the vital task was the recovery of ill-gotten wealth to help and hasten national economic recovery”, unquote, Philippines having been beggared beyond description by the Marcos-es.
In the mid-80s the international community was still forgiving of despots in Third World countries who not only amassed wealth at the cost of those whom they ruled who also allowed their cronies and relations to run riot at the same time. Imelda Marcos had fantastic PR (Public Relations) among the jet set (“the beautiful people”), people with influence in the corridors of power in most western countries. The cold war not yet being over, the western world still had use for authoritarian regimes which held the line by proxy against communism. The Filipinos did not have a single precedent to help them, yet they went about it expeditiously, cautiously but carefully. Executive Order No.14, a little over two months later, finally put in place the necessary laws to recover the ill-gotten wealth. The laws governing the Commission (PCGG) clearly defined viz (1) who and what was the focus of recovery by the Commission (2) the powers of the Commission (3) it allotted a certain sum (Fifty million Pesos ie. about US$ 4-5 million) for financing of the Commission’s task (4) it spelt out clearly parameters regarding the powers of the Commission (5) it gave out legal cover and immunity to those engaged in the Commission’s work (6) it allowed the Commission to take over and freeze all assets and properties of Marcos, cronies and relatives, etc in whatever form domestically and internationally and not allow disposal till so allowed by the Commission (7) it forbade the disposal, transfer, conveyance, etc of all such assets and properties (8) it commanded those who knew of such assets and properties to report this to the PCGG (9) it allowed the Commission to obtain information from any person, government offices or government agencies (10) to frame and promulgate such rules and regulations as would be necessary to help in the success of the Commission’s work (11) recommend/adopt measures to prevent recurrence of such graft and corruption and (12) appeal to foreign governments in assisting to recover the ill-gotten wealth.