The wrong question

Ok here’s a pop quiz question to get your grey matter working. What do the Queen, Bill Gates and eminent Pakistan journalist and former editor of The News Ghazi Salahuddin all have in common? Answer: Neither one of them have a degree. Nor, for that matter, did Steven Spielberg, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs, John Major or Harry S Truman.

We can go back further in history. Moses, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) did not have a tertiary education. It’s debatable whether they were even literate. But that does not stop many millions in this world from following their teachings and actions. These are people to admire, respect and follow, yet today they wouldn’t get a seat in the Balochistan provincial assembly. Conversely, the likes of George W Bush, alleged credit card thief Shumaila Rana and our very own chief minister of Balochistan, Nawab Aslam Raisani, all supposedly have degrees. Yet would you want any one of them representing you?

Raisani recently rebuked reporters saying "A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it's a degree! It makes no difference!” Ok Mr Raisani, please allow me to perform open heart surgery on you whenever you are ill. I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. Doesn’t really matter that I’m not qualified, does it? A doctor is a doctor, qualified or otherwise, nah? Despite apparently having an MA degree in political science, pro-cheating Raisani has clearly proven ill-suited to run a ghusalkhana let alone the largest province of this great country.

President Musharraf’s rule requiring politicians to have a degree was always misguided, even if honourable in theory. The impetus for its introduction was to raise standards in parliament but that didn’t disguise the fact it was undemocratic, elitist and ill-advised. In a country where barely half the population is literate, the degree law turned us from a democracy into an oligarchy overnight. As if having a degree automatically qualifies you for high office? Between Abdul Sattar Edhi (no degree) and Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri – he of ‘burying women alive is part of our tradition’ infamy (who purportedly has a degree although it’s highly suspect) – who in your educated opinion has the welfare of the people at heart?

But as a nation we always ask the wrong questions — whether of our parliamentarians or prospective sons-in-law. Do they come from a ‘good’ family? Good often being a highly subjective term. Are they rich? Do they have a high-quality education and a good career? Are they influential? They could beat up our daughter on her wedding night for all we care as long as he has a job in a bank or a multinational.

If I ever have the opportunity to grill a potential son-in-law, I would want to find out about his character and his values, not his bank balance. Is he an honest, decent man? Will he treat my daughter with love, care and respect? Will he make her happy? These are surely questions worth asking of our leaders too? Instead of looking at their educational qualifications we should look at their character and moral fibre. Will they look after us? Will they treat us with care and deference? Are they honest, decent men?

Unsurprisingly, this parliament of cheats rescinded the degree requirement in April 2008 not out of any genuine desire for meritocracy but to save their own skins. Perhaps a new law should take its place, a law which doesn’t bar entry to those without privilege, family ties or money. Maybe this law could instead demand an independent audit of all our parliamentarians’ assets and their tax returns from the start of their adult lives. Anyone who fails to pay their taxes or who is deemed to have knowingly, grossly and fraudulently ripped of the state will be barred from political office. However, you don’t need a degree to know that such a law will never be passed and for now we can start by asking the right questions of those we choose to elect.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2010.