Running A Country
Countries of the third world were beggared by the socialist wave that swept the world through the middle of the last century. In hindsight all the towering figures of the non-aligned world of the 50s were not even great politicians, the vision they had for their people was based mostly on grandiose, economically bankrupt plans. In contrast to totalitarian regimes of the communist world, the free market economies of some dictatorships were far more successful, albeit with generous economic help (US AID) from Uncle Sam, the US being the doyen of all capitalist countries. With the aspirations of the people the need for democracy grew stronger, even those leaders were found having feet of clay. One lesson should have been learnt here, in the developed world with its vast economic and industrial base the private sector with its sound management and good business practices kept services and utilities within the buying power of the masses, when free market philosophy is applied in the developing world, it puts an enormous, even back-breaking burden on the common man.
You Can Hide, You Cannot Run
The arrest of former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mansurul Haq from a select posh area in Texas, USA marks a significant step forward for the process of accountability in Pakistan. Substantial evidence is on record about the Admiral’s financial indiscretions, even the lavish abode and the manner of his living in the US was way beyond the means of a retired Naval officer. His incarceration, pending extradition to Pakistan, will act as a model to bring other fugitives to justice. The Chinese say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, to get the American system of justice to acknowledge that the evidence being presented from Pakistan was not tainted by prejudice is one very giant step. From the statement of witnesses it is apparent that the Admiral’s only salvation lies in becoming a prosecution witness, i.e. blowing the police whistle on his collaborators, among them politicians, bureaucrats, uniformed (and retired) colleagues, arms merchants, brokers, etc all those involved in skimming millions of dollars from purchases made by the Pakistan Armed Forces over the years.
The ruling military elite cannot be accused of bias against the Navy, this case was instituted by the political regime of Mian Nawaz Sharif, as against Air Marshal (Retd) Waqar Azim, jailed because of the PIA computers case. The Army has utilized the maximum portion of the Defence purchases, rumours abound of several hundreds of millions of dollars pocketed in commissions, ranging from helicopter gunships to artillery shells to tanks, etc why has no senior person ex-Army been prosecuted for corruption in arms trade? The perception of justice being seen to be fair and equitable is only when it is applied even-handedly, on friend and foe alike. The much vilified former Senator Saifur Rehman did yeoman’s work in going after the corrupt, unfortunately some cases were blatantly politically motivated, on the contrary very obvious evidence leading to logical conclusion of indictment and prosecution against PML’s politicians, friends and colleagues was conveniently ignored, this blatant partiality undermining his credibility and that of the entire accountability process during Mian Nawaz Sharif’s regime. The Supreme Court (SC) recognized this bias in setting aside verdict in the Bhutto-Zardari SGS/Cotecna, however on the basis of the evidence has ordered a re-trial. Having given the SC a clean bill of health it will be virtually impossible for Ms Benazir to tar and feather them the next time around if she is declared guilty, hence the overtures to the military regime. While blowing hot for the general public, she is busy trying to strike a pre-emptive equal to sustain her political longevity. As a political animal, Ms. Benazir has no living equal in Pakistan, at least at her level, except Abbaji, of course. She out-manoeuvred “master manipulator” Ghulam Ishaq Khan twice to become the PM, the second time she ensured he remained out in the cold never to return to power.
Privatise, but Carefully!
Pakistan’s golden economic years were the 60s. While there were aberrations, e.g the disproportionate distribution of wealth among only a handful, they were nowhere as serious as those confronting the nation today. A mixed economy with benevolent central direction was a model for the other emerging economies of Asia. Today we will be lucky if we can regain any semblance of the momentum lost to us over the past three decades. By the early 70s, despite the fact that it had become quite apparent that the concept of socialist economy was a dismal failure and many of those countries that had followed the romantic notion of socialism under the leadership of charismatic leaders were already re-thinking their economic strategy, we started to head pell-mell in that direction. The first major breakaway from the pure socialist model was the Peoples’ Republic of China, which under Deng Tsao Peng started to gradually brake and reverse the socialist Soviet model and by the early 1980s was well on the road to a mixed economy. In retrospect it seems they followed Chinese cousin Lee Kwan Yew’s Singapore model of the late 60s/early 70s on a far bigger scale. The far smaller Island-State provided the blueprint for opening the economy to free enterprise with public utilities under State control, at places in partnership with the private sector. The leaders of both Singapore and China were careful to keep the opening up of the economy ahead of the loosening of controls over freedom lest the public’s aspirations overcome achievement. In the early 80s Thatcherism was born when Margaret Thatcher established her policies on the dual Chinese experience (Singapore and China), to quote “when you copy from one person it is called plagiarism, when you copy from many it is called “research”.
The father’s penchant for sweeping nationalism has only been transcended by the daughter’s for complete privatisation, an orgy of extremes and excess, both at the wrong time. Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at least had his own vision, neither Ms Benazir’s vision or her objectives seem to be her own. Bhutto went about dismantling Ayub’s economic legacy with wholesale vengeance but this paled in comparison to the bureaucratic excess during Zia’s Martial Law that followed. Given a veritable treasure package to handle, bereft of political control and with the military men-in-charge having no sense of economics, bureaucracy went berserk in personifying the worst of Soviet-model control in industry, ushering in inefficiency, pilferage, corruption, etc in so rabid a manner that despite free-wheeling movement towards free enterprise over the past 5-6 years we cannot stop our economic slide downwards. One saving grace of the Soviet model was that those corrupt or profligate with the public money or property faced firing squads, has any of our corrupt managers in the 1977-1985 period faced any punishment?