Responsible governments

The Dutch government resigned over the weekend over a welfare payments scandal. The move was so responsible and remorseful that the fabric of Pakistani politics would disintegrate if it were to be repeated here. The crime committed by the prime minister and his cabinet was not one of personal gain, as we are so familiar with here. It was incompetence, something we are also familiar with. The government had wrongly accused thousands of welfare recipients of fraud and demanded the return of payments. No one was pocketing the money. They were just apathetic towards deserving citizens.

This is what happens in genuinely democratic countries where citizens’ outrage actually counts for something. Let us not forget that a previous Dutch government also resigned in 2002 after a report criticised it for failing to prevent the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War. Again, that is a government resigning because it did not do enough to protect innocent people’s lives in a civil war in a country with which it does not even share a border. It is akin to a Pakistani government resigning over the Sri Lankan Civil War or the actions of the genocidal Pol Pot regime in Cambodia — almost farcical, yet expected of a government that wants to spread peace and respect for human life around the world.

While the Dutch government’s detractors are only saying that the resignation is an attempt to get around a no-confidence vote next week, analysts remind that PM Mark Rutte will win again when elections are held. Imagine a Pakistani government that was held in such high regard by the people that it resigned due to a significant failure and was still reelected. In 70 years, we have not even had one at the federal level that managed to get reelected at all. This is what happens when a government truly shows that it is diligently working for the people.

Mistakes can be forgiven, but first, those responsible must apologise. Unfortunately, all we have ever seen in our country are ministers involved in various scams refusing to even apologise. Yet, in a summary of what is wrong with our system, they get ‘promoted’ instead of being sacked.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2021.

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