Learning from China

Pakistan is plagued by a feudal system which has taken the entire nation hostage. According to a rough estimate, there are about 50,000 feudal lords in Pakistan. Transparency International published a report with the statistics regarding corruption in Pakistan. The country was ranked 42^nd among the world’s most corrupt countries in 2009, whereas in 2008, Pakistan was in the 47^th position. According to the report, the root cause of corruption in Pakistan is the feudal system.

In fact, corruption has plagued this country since its birth. Quaid -e-Azam once said:

“Among many other curses, our country is suffering from corruption and bribery and we have to bring it down with an iron hand” (on December 9, 1947).

It is high time our leaders take China as an example, as it successfully weeded out corruption with serious punishments being meted out corrupt officials. Is the same possible in Pakistan under the prevailing circumstances?

First, we will have to create a Pakistan similar to post-revolution China. In China, it was communism that worked the miracle of freeing the common man from the yoke of the feudal lord. Here, if we utilize the force of Islamic democracy, we will achieve much better results. Mao Zedong liberated China from its feudal past and his successors led it into 21^st century. Now, the population of China is over 1.3 billion and it is self-sufficient in terms of food production. China’s annual exports are over 760 billion dollars. It has foreign reserves of over 1 trillion dollars.

Shakespeare said, “Feudalism, thy name is corruption.” It is time we learned from our neighbor and took care of the corruption within our own ranks.