anwer.mooraj@tribune.com.pk
We have no shortage of rabble rousers who at the drop of a hat call for protests and strikes, knowing jolly well that nothing is going to be done to rectify a problem or to improve a situation. Some causes are frivolous. Others are deadly serious. Take for example the strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami on September 20, 2012. Tempers flared and there was a great deal of rancour and bitterness. On January 24 this year, the Ulema Action Committee ordered a massive strike over the law and order situation in the country. And the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen asserted its demand for a military operation against terrorists. It didn’t solve anything. The army was unmoved. What it did achieve, however, as other protests, strikes and demonstrations have achieved, was to deprive daily wage earners like street vendors and contract labourers of their livelihood. Some bright spark in the ministry of finance pointed out that the Jamaat protest caused a loss of Rs12.5 billion to the exchequer. Does anybody really care?
There doesn’t appear to be any feeling of guilt or remorse from the prime minister who these days is being wheeled out as a patrician do-gooder. Nor was there a squeak from the hangers-on who surround him; not even that awful clenched cliche of intensely whispered anger that American senators occasionally display in meetings with Third World delegates. The man handling the country’s finances, who comes across as a constant and uncompromising campaigner credited with manoeuvering the fall in the price of the dollar, has taken up a great and righteous undertaking to bring back the $220 billion illegally stashed away in Swiss banks by Pakistani tax dodgers. If he can destroy the code of secrecy of the Swiss banking system, he should be working in Langley, Virgina. Nothing much can be done about the sense of lethargy in the workplace where there’s an infinite reluctance to get a job done satisfactorily and in a specified time. Nor can anything be done about a whole raft of issues that keep taking us back to the thirteenth century. Head of the list is the infinite reluctance to administer polio drops to children and adults in certain areas of the country because of the injunction of one man. Who would have thought the World Health Organisation would come to the rescue?
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (11)
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@Sexton Blake:
After reading your comment I think I will petition the Websters people to change the definition of denial in the next edition of the Merriam Webster's dictionary.
de·ni·al noun \di-ˈnī(-ə)l, dē-\
psychology : The Pakistani mindset in which the population continues to believe that the problems facing their country are either not real or not as bad as they appear.
@Tariq: Dear Tarig, Most of the remarks you made were correct to some extent, but we have been deluged by them for the last 100 years or so. At the end of the day we are constantly told that our system is better than the other guy's. Unfortunately, that is not quite true. Over the last 60 years or so the advantages of so called democracies have been slowly eroded via the tip-toe effect. If the countries that you laud had introduced all the loss of freedoms we have experienced immediately, there would have been uproar. You also have to realize that Western economic systems developed hundreds of years ago. If they had started in 1947 they would still be basket cases, and in fact are rapidly becoming so anyway, and are currently living off their fat I would venture that 90 percent of the world populations standard-of-living will be on the same low level by 2040. Pakistan does have certain social problems, but look behind the veneer of most countries and you will find that all is not well. For example American violent deaths far exceed Pakistan, and India is not doing that well. At least 60 percent of Indians are doing it tough (over 700 million), and most of them do not have bathroom facilities. I could use dozens of statistics, but at the end-of-day, yes, Pakistan has problems. However, I would suggest that they are not as severe as the ones certain Western counties are routinely creating.
@Sexton Blake:
Sure, you can find a number of faults with democratic countries of the west. Nobody ever claimed that democracy is a perfect system. However, results indicate that it is a better system than any other that has been tried in history.
Human nature is pretty much the same everywhere. People will always look for an edge for themselves and their families. That is why the institutions of democracy have to be so strong that they act as a brake against individual self interest. Unfortunately Pakistani institutions were never allowed to take root because of constant interference by the Military. You don't need to look at America or Europe. Just take a look at India. Pakistan and India started out as nations at the same time, however India has never had a military takeover and today it is a thriving democracy with strong institutions. Pakistan on the other hand...but we all know our sorry history since 1947. No need to repeat it.
I think it would be better if we stop making excuses for our own failures as a nation by turning over stones and looking for problems of other countries. Yes America has its problems, Europe has its problems, India has its problems, no democracy is perfect. But, on balance, a fair minded person has to conclude that these countries are still far far better off than us.
@Parvez: Dear Parvez, I got it wrong on my first try. A group of shadowy people, n the background, with selfish vested interests, select the candidates for two or more parties. The candidates somehow form a government of sorts, merely obey the shadowy people in the background, and it does not really matter who is elected. The results are just the same.
@Parvez: Dear Parvez, Quite agree with you. Leadership or lack of it is a world wide problem,particularly under so called democracy. Basically, two groups of people with vested interests select candidates who will do what they wish and the needs or interests of the people are purely coincidental. In effect, governments are out of control.
@Dr. Meheren Lateef: You are dead wrong.......the people are to be given direction and be guided by their leaders.......that is what leaders do or at least are supposed to do. The fact that the people HAVE NO CHOICE but to elect the same rotten leaders, due to a rigged system, is not their fault. Leadership requires sacrifice, dedication and a love for the country and our leaders possess none of these qualities........so don't blame the people.
Ask anyone and he will say he cares for clean water or education but again and again our emotions betray what we are truly passionately care about. We passionately want Sharia. We passionately want to persecute Ahmadiyas for blasphemy. We will burn down our cities with a passion if a newspaper from the other side of the world publishes anti-islamic cartoons.
If we were passionate about our economy we would be another South Korea. Do not blame the politicians or generals or feudals. If the typical close minded, emotional Pakistani really wanted positive change no General or Politician can stop him.
Excellent.......that read well. In a way you have addressed the dilemma posed, in your opening paragraph when you say : ...but it is the people who have elected these leaders under systems that passed for democracy.......AND THESE SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY PUT IN PLACE BY THE LAWMAKERS THEMSELVES SO AS TO BE SELF PERPETUATING........Catch-22.
I see very little difference between Pakistan and most other countries, particularly in the West. Although the West is more affluent the systems are basically the same, incomes are dropping, infrastructures are collapsing, military expenditure is increasing, the jobless are rising, oligarchs are multiplying exponentially, wars are everywhere, the bottom 80 percent are doing it very tough, and the elderly, if they should be lucky enough to live to old age, are barely getting by with very little assistance. I have noticed that whilst poor people in Australia are just getting by, the Government has decided that pregnant women earning one million rupees per annum will be given a generous maternity allowance until they go back to work. After protest the propose top earning figure was reduced from 1.5 million rupees. The point I am making is that politicians everywhere appear to lose all sense of reason and capacity to think correctly. the best reassurance that I can give to Pakistani people is that they are not suffering alone. I hope my little missive does not encourage pregnant Pakistan women to attempt an illegal boat trip to Australia. If they do they will be shipped to an offshore Asian island living under appalling conditions indefinitely.
"But it is the people who have elected these leaders under systems that passed for democracy; and it is the people who are responsible for the emergence of dictators like Ziaul Haq". And it is the people who have done nothing to organise themselves to be able stop those they elect, falling into the hands of organised Mafiosis. People will get nothing and the Mafiosis will get everything, always. Why? The people at large fail to see the sense in organising themselves in such a way that the Mafiosis have no part to play in their life and choice of destiny..