The hopelessness of it all

Sometimes this writer wonders if there is really any point in continuing to comment on the shenanigans of local politicians, especially when a large majority of them don’t read newspapers and some don’t read at all. Most of these political hangers-on get their news by watching television or from terse midnight phone calls fraught with panic, and they get their kicks out of stories that focus, for a change, on scandalous and sensational events in the West, like the inquisition-like hysteria over paedophilia displayed last year and its own right-wing Christian evangelism. And while journalists across the country have, on occasion, been able to catch the odd political freeloader with his fingers in the till, they have never succeeded in quelling the politician’s insatiable greed and gift for manipulation.

Remember the time when the Chaudhry brothers ruled the roost and the speaker of the national assembly, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, set some kind of record in avarice by acquiring an 11 million rupee Mercedes Benz at the tax payers’ expense and topped the icing on the cake with a demand for an office which, in terms of spaciousness and décor, was no less than that of the president? He owed his popularity to the fact that he made a habit of sending hundreds of parliamentarians on joy rides to various European capitals. What is a little surprising, however, is that while this extravagance was being flaunted, the religious parties, who always believe they represent the moral conscience of the people, did not produce even a whimper about this ostentatious profligacy. Instead of disrupting mixed marathons and leading marches against ‘obscenity’ they should have protested against this totally unnecessary squandering of the nation’s meagre resources.

In Pakistan, thrift and parsimony have always been signs of weakness. People admire authority, pomp and ostentation. It is part of the national psyche and endorses the view that Pakistan is a poor country with rich people while India is a rich country with poor people — that is, of course, if one ignores the Ambanis, Mittals, Premjis and Ruias and another dozen or so billionaires.

Unfortunately, this greed and gift for manipulation can be found at every stratum of society. Even civil servants, who were given charge of so-called ‘taken-over’ industries, managed to wangle four or five vehicles for their personal use, some of which invariably ended up in the hands of their teenage children. Incredible as it may sound, at the time former president Musharraf was catapulted into the driving seat, it was discovered in a survey that a forest officer had been allocated nine vehicles for his use! Understandably, Pakistani civil servants and the top military brass disliked former prime minister Mohammed Khan Junejo, who tried to get officers in Grade 21 to drive around in 10 horsepower cars. They also didn’t care too much for the caretaker prime minister, Meraj Khalid, who insisted on travelling by public bus.

While the media continues to garland every visiting political fireman who loses his way and lands up in Islamabad, and national television continues to wallow in the daily minutiae, heavy deficit financing carries on regardless and the poor are being crushed by the rising cost of living. Isn’t it time the country had a head of state who understood economics?

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th,  2011.