Credibility gap

Morality demands we find a way to aid the flood victims and also to salvage our reputation as a state.

Lack of credibility can have very serious consequences. The people of Sindh are discovering just how grave the consequences can be, as they continue to live in the squalor of camps with insufficient facilities and suffer from a lack of food, clean water and sanitation. They must wonder, too, why no one has stepped forward to help. The intricacies of international politics and the inter-relations between the global community are, of course, not easy for villagers to understand. But it is precisely these factors that prevent help from reaching people who are badly in need of assistance.

According to a report in this newspaper, senior UN officials have informed Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar that the paucity of funds coming in is linked to concerns within the international community as to the reliability of data put out by authorities about the damage caused by flooding in Sindh and Balochistan and also about transparency in the use of the funds; other factors such as reluctance to grant visas to aid workers acts as a further impediment. It is hard to understand why our authorities should want to keep such experts away from the affected zone. Surely we would want them to play a part in solving problems.

The results of this lack of trust have been disastrous. According to the UN, only $27 million of the $357 million aid appeal has come in — a tiny fraction of the amount needed. Other agencies such as Oxfam have already described the lack of funding as a calamity. As a nation, we must consider why we have suffered such a fate. The apparent perception that a notion of ‘wolf, wolf’ may be involved in Islamabad’s description of the flood havoc is especially disturbing. As is the case in the fable, we must consider why this view exists. It is also obvious we are becoming more and more isolated. This presents enormous problems for us. The fact also is that the most helpless, the most vulnerable of people are suffering through no fault of their own. Morality demands we find a way to aid them and also to salvage our reputation as a state.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.