Demo-crassy rules

The rural masses are fed on empty promises, kept poor and beholden to the landlord. Doesn't sound like democracy.

It is bizarre that of all the financial austerity measures that were possible, the government’s first choice was to slash funding for education. Higher education is apparently an unbearable waste of money for this nation whereas the millions of rupees spent annually on feeding the super-rich MNAs and their cronies are not. These MNAs gorged on food worth Rs11.57 million in just 10-15 days in the recent budget session. All around the world, parliament buildings have cafeterias where the “servants of the nation” pay for their own meals. Why can’t the super wealthy MNAs of Pakistan do the same? Their average declared wealth stands at a staggering Rs80.89 million (2008-2009). Mind you, that’s “declared” wealth.

Higher education, from which the middle class benefits the most, is more expendable than the lavish expenses of the Prime Minister House and the Presidency, the fleet of customised, luxury vehicles, lavish protocol and five star foreign trips. This nation needs PhDs. It does not need fleets of bullet-proof Mercedes for the rich and powerful. But this country will continue to fund the rich and powerful, cutting essential public services to subsidise elite privileges, because the very people who are the beneficiaries of these special privileges are sitting in the assemblies. They decide what to tax and what not to. It seems that your tax liability is inversely proportional to your wealth, if you are a member of the elite class. Nawaz Sharif reportedly paid just Rs5,000 in income tax last year, less than the average office worker would pay per month. Many other prominent figures across political parties have a similarly appalling record, including the president, Prime Minister Gilani and a host of prominent figures. Only the wretched middle class pays taxes. Their salaries, already decimated by rampant inflation are slashed at source to fill the coffers of an inept and corrupt government. They are further burdened by indirect taxation on food, fuel and utilities.

Given the measly tax base, the finance minister has appealed for both houses (of parliament) to put pressure on the “elites” to bring their wealth, including agricultural incomes, into the net of taxation. Yet the power elites will never pass legislation to tax themselves. They will continue to burden the middle class with new taxes; a “flood surcharge”, which will meet the fate of tax revenues already being squandered away. What is not siphoned off in corruption is wasted, due to the ineptitude of those appointed on the basis of nepotism and cronyism. Reveal the identities and you find an incestuous network where the same extended families hold the bureaucracy, political parties, the assemblies, industry, banking, agriculture and land ownership in their grasp, forging alliances with the military and judiciary through marriages, businesses and patronage. Bank loans in the millions are given to the chosen few and then written off. Vast swathes of agricultural land escape taxes on income as well as benefitting from generous subsidies on fertilisers, inputs and fuel. Support prices for agricultural produce are fixed by the very people who are the producers.

Blatant conflicts of interest and duty pervade every important committee and institution. Yet the urban middle class is squeezed with inflation, taxation and ruthless enforcement of loan repayments – one missed instalment incurring life changing consequences with homes and small businesses seized, family vehicles repossessed by banks and credit card companies even in times of genuine distress, triggering suicides and ruin. The rural masses are fed on empty promises, kept poor, illiterate and beholden to the landlord, the patwari and the SHO. Does this sound like democracy of “equal rights for all and special privileges for none”? Not at all — it is a perversion, a greedy oligarchy. But the politicians have been telling us all along what system we live under – just listen carefully. We have “demo – crassy”. It’s exactly what they say it is folks!

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.