Let’s talk to ourselves

It is not just corruption that has eaten away into the system, it is also lack of foresight and mismanagement

Looking at Pakistan and all that is happening in the country, one wonders whether we have missed the boat. From a leading developing country in the 50s and 60s, we have gradually slipped into the least developed category. Our parents and grandparents talk about the good old days. In many ways they are right. Of course, we need to see what the future holds for us.

It is evident if one steps foot in Karachi or other major city of Pakistan with the exception of Islamabad, which continues to consume massive state funding and has little to give back, or Lahore where successive leaders have done much to uplift, that there is little to show for. Our cities are a mess.

Infrastructure is in a state of disarray. Crumbling buildings and poor traffic reflect a lack of will on the part of the government to enforce standards. Roads are in bad shape owing to corruption and mismanagement.

The public education system has all but crumbled owing to consistent lack of performance and haphazard short-sighted policies. Health continues to challenge, the lack of doctors and the will of the government to spend on the people are real issues. Doctors and teachers are not paid on time and in accordance with their skills.

While we bicker on who has to be prime minister and president and what our defence budget should or should not be, the real issues remain unaddressed. Our bigger issue isn’t just who calls the shots but the fact that in most of these years, most have only enriched themselves without exception instead of enriching Pakistan.

Water and power are two issues we are trying to grapple with. One look at what is happening in Chennai or Cape Town – cities where water is running out, sends shivers. What would happen if such a situation happened in Pakistan. There would be possible civil strife.

Our problems are many. These include the challenge of a growing population – poorly educated, lacking any marketable skills and living in questionable circumstances. Both poverty and stunting are problems that continue to be unidentified by the policymakers.

It is not just corruption that has eaten away into the system. It is also lack of foresight and the level of mismanagement. This can only come when there is no merit-oriented system in place. If where I was born decides what job I will do in the government, then we can begin to understand where we are failing. We also try and go for quick fixes. Never long-term planning.

Political interference in the running of the government also takes its toll. All leaders have to be held accountable – over the past four decades who did what and why. Maybe the concept of a truth and reconciliation commission can be expanded into a national dialogue where everyone gets a say on what they feel is going wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.

Let us forget what happened in the past. We all know things were much better then. Despite all the restrictions and compulsions of those days, the quality of life was better. Till twenty years back, we had a proper public health and education system. There were public buses that worked. Prior to nationalisation, there was a vibrant and growing private sector.

In the final analysis, it seems that our biggest challenge is ignorance. We are producing a generation of poorly educated, ill-informed, intolerant and ill-mannered young men and women. Keep aside all notions of the abundance of talent in Pakistan. Let us face this fact and see what can we do about it.

The rest of the world has to live with the attitude of entitlement of the millennial. We have to go one step further. We are dealing with a generation that is largely incompetent and entitled – of course there are exceptions. Do we have a national plan to deal with all this? Not at all. We leave everything to fix itself, believing more in the powers of the Almighty then in trying to sit down and take into account what needs to be done.

It is not a bright future we see ahead. But at least we can start talking on what can be done. Let us have a series of dialogues. Maybe that will wake us up.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.