Speaking truth to power

It is exceedingly rare for a senior diplomat on leaving his or her post in Pakistan to offer anything beyond a range of carefully honed platitudes for their valedictory address. They speak of how much they have enjoyed their posting, of the marvellous resilience of the people of Pakistan in the face of adversity and how they wish all 190 million people the very best for the future. Thank you and goodbye. Not so the outgoing director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Pakistan, Marc-Andre Franche. In an uncharacteristically forthright interview with an English-language newspaper, he was forensic in his dissection of the reasons why Pakistan was not making the necessary changes that would advance its development. His finger pointed directly at the politicians, the influential families and the wealthy, the feudals that still rule the land, and were unwilling to sacrifice short-term individual and family interests for the wider benefit of the nation. And there, in the sharpest of focus and the smallest of nutshells is the nub of much of what ails the state today.



Mr Franche was caustic in his analysis. He cited the elite taking advantage of cheap uneducated labour whilst the powerful found time to have their parties in London, do their shopping in Dubai and make their property investments anywhere but Pakistan. Landowners got the rough edge of his tongue as well. He has travelled widely, and met some of the largest and wealthiest, who pay next to nothing for their water, perpetuate bonded labour and other modern forms of slavery and then come to the United Nations agencies begging for education for the masses and water and sanitation projects — a circumstance which he admitted he found “embarrassing”.

Unlike most of his ilk, Mr Franche got around, and was “appalled” at the condition of Karachi. The woeful state of public utilities and institutions and the dilapidations that again stop the city from expanding its potential as the engine of growth in the country. Further afield, he commented on the poor progress made in terms of poverty reduction, inequality generally, the modernising of state institutions, the failure to hold a census, the dreadful human rights position of minorities and a lack of impetus when it came to reforms in Fata, an area which, he said, was living in the 17^th century.

The media did not escape his gaze, it being manipulated by powerful external forces as well as the ghettoisation of society with the wealthy creating gated communities in the cities that isolated themselves and marginalised the poor who only got inside the gates to cook, clean and drive for those who live there. There is an “apartheid of opportunity” that is forcing particularly the young and talented to leave the country. Perhaps fortunately, Mr Franche did not see a rising up of the masses as imminent, but he did not rule it out as a future scenario either. With 40 per cent of the country living in poverty, the pressure cooker will eventually explode — but not just yet.

Most astute observers will have already arrived at the same conclusions as Mr Franche, but they are less well-placed to speak truth to power in the way that he has. He revealed no secrets; every one of his observations can be supported by hard data in the public domain. Excoriating as his assessment is, past experience tells us that the Teflon-coated overclass will shrug his words aside and carry on as before, heedless of the realities that he exposes. His departure will make few headlines outside of the aid and development community and Pakistan will continue to stumble forward — or mark time — in the hands of a relatively small group of people for whom it might have been created as their personal wealth-generator. So farewell Marc-Andre Franche. You did your best for Pakistan, but sadly Pakistan did not do its best for you.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2016.

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