Pakistan: a theatre of neo-feudalism experiment
The writer is associated with International Relations Department of DHA Suffa University, Karachi. He tweets @Dr M Ali Ehsan
Neo-feudalism is termed the re-birth of policies related to governance, economy, and public life on the same lines as existed in the feudal societies of the past. In the 21st Century if anyone wants to understand the concept of neo-feudalism the best laboratory to visit is Pakistan. This country has been available to our colonial masters as a theatre of experiments to try any and all things out. To the misfortune of the people who live in this country, it doesn’t matter one bit to anyone how they are (mis)treated since our political leadership doesn’t mind making this country a battleground for all kinds of experiments. The latest experiment has been the experiment of regime change which has brought out from the bottle of democracy an uncivilised genie in the form of a shadowy force unleashing violence on its citizens.
For neo-feudalism to succeed a country must have high levels of inequality, the kind that prevails in Pakistan where the elite almost live in an altogether different world, where democracy cannot intervene to change anything because democracy itself is allowed gated access to parliament and where basic security and social services are disappearing fast. Neo-feudalism is best described by a renowned Pakistani TV host in one of his recent video logs in which he claims that this is no more a country for ordinary people to live in as ordinary man has no rights. Those in the government, the justice system, and overall the state fail to protect these rights. Actually, security in Pakistan is no longer a basic function of the state; it is only something available to those who are in power or those who can afford to pay high premiums to afford private security — both the domain of the elite and a growing symbol of a society experiencing neo-feudalism in Pakistan.
Are we living in an age of Mongols? Is this the thirteenth-century Baghdad that we are living in? Where will this privatisation of violence and purposeful targeting of the people lead this country? Are we even a civilised country anymore? We were always scared of the war on terror going on at our borders, but what about this terror that this uncivilised government has unleashed on its own people at the home front? Is this the best that could be arranged as an alternative to Imran Khan’s disposed-off government? Nobody in the country still knows who has tortured and victimized PTI leader Shahbaz Gill. A byproduct of neo-feudalism this discreet unleashing of torture is a shining product of neo-feudalism. It is the job of the state to provide security to the people and not unleash terror on them but intimidating and targeting civilians has become commonplace in Pakistan since the arrival of this ‘put in place, substitute government’.
Somebody needs to correctly see the tell-tale signs and prevent Pakistan from being torn apart and becoming another Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen or Libya. Almost everywhere in the world, one can see that the states are imploding from within and not without. States that allow the privatisation of violence through illegitimate, shadowy non-sovereign entities gradually lose power. Sociologist Max Weber defined the state a century ago as a “human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence within a given territory”. Given this definition, are we even a state, a civilised state? What should people of any country do when they cannot trust the government any more than they can trust the people harming them? Concentrating violence in the hands of Gullu Butts and shadowy non-state entities can be a strategy employed in Italy and Germany by the governments of Mussolini and Hitler but this is Pakistan — why are our leaders determined to make us a case study of neo-feudalism in 21st Century?
Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York. She is the author of many books and has coined the term, ‘organized abandonment’ for administrations in countries like Pakistan where the goal of broad-based societal prosperity has been replaced by secure and uninterrupted prosperity of the elite class alone. This ‘organized abandonment’ of the people and their aspirations by this government is pathetic, to say the least.
Where are the American Senators like Mike Lee from Utah who tweeted: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want human conditions to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.” Will the American senator have a good look at the flourishing human conditions in this country? The gifts of democracy in this country are not flourishing human conditions — it is increased rates of poverty and unemployment and rising concentration of wealth in the hands of the ruling elite. All that the colonial puppet governments of the West that proclaim themselves to be democracies are in fact unpopular authoritarian governments with no interest in people’s prosperity. In fact, such governments have lowered an iron curtain on the pathway to common people’s success. Forget about success, more and more people are feeling insecure in this country where law enforcement agencies instead of protecting the public at large are busy not only guarding the powerful, their spouses, and children but also keeping the poor people away from the gated compounds, luxury places, clubs, hotels, etc. If democracy was to protect the best interests of the people and not the elite that rules them, it would have its legislatures legislate to remove this ambiguity that is breeding social disorder and insecurity.
According to The Guardian more than 40 countries — including the US, China, Canada Australia, and the UK — have more workers hired to protect specified people, places and things than the law enforcement officers mandated to protect the public at large. An example of this is India where 7 million private guards are employed against 1.4 million state police.
No neo-feudalist government will ever relieve the law enforcement agencies to do their actual job — protect and safeguard the lives and property of the public at large. In fact, neo-feudalists will continue to project their power through the misuse of these agencies like the way it is being done these days. Will there ever be a political leader who will legislate and withdraw all government-provided security from the elites, ask them to hire private security that they can afford, and leave the general public feeling more protected secure, and satisfied?
Neo-feudalism is not the future of the next generation and it is not the future of Pakistan. The smell of its death is already in the air.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2022.
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