The messiah complex

When a particularly well-performing brigadier was seen to also espouse common concerns on functional and attitudinal anomalies in the army, he became the hope of many on how the army finally may rectify itself when the brigadier reached the top. It was apparent that the brigadier would make the top one day, he was of such calibre. He did. He was made the chief of the army staff in his turn.

One year into his tenure, there was little to discern between any other chief’s tenure and the brilliant one who now held the reins. At an annual get-together, hopeful subordinates got around him to inquire, “Sir, it is already a year, and nothing has changed?” “What should have?” the chief asked. “Oh sir, all that we used to talk about; remember, when you were a brigadier, and then as you went through your promotion cycles and one prized appointment after another?” He turned around and quipped, “My dear friends, even though I am the chief, I must still work through a number of people and decision-makers and systems and structures that run the institution of the army. I am not a pharaoh or a dictator who runs the system on whims. Systems and structures run the army, else if individuals were in control, there would be mayhem.” The general went on to complete his tenure and the army continues to run as an institution, warts and all.



Someone is soon going to throw at me two names: Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad. Both became successful managers of a significant turnaround of their nations’ fortunes. Kudos to both and that is why they are recognised. Mahathir, though, had his share of political and personal ups and downs as he negotiated Malaysia into an economic boom by following strictures, which ensured that little was wasted or stolen, and by pursuing an economic agenda. Malaysia stands on a reasonably firm base today. But Lee Kuan Yew was an outright dictator, and a good one at that. He had the benefit to run his city-state almost as a mayor, enabling the single-minded focus that is needed to galvanise resources to reach a common objective. Singapore may be one of the most prosperous nations in the world today, but we don’t like dictators, and Pakistan is not a city-state. So, while well done Lee Kuan, we will have to find our own way ahead.

Mahathir of Malaysia enthuses imagination. A sliver of a country, third the size of Pakistan and with one-sixth the population, with an even mix of the native Malays and the industrious rest, is a very decent model that was led into a homogenous nationhood. Pakistan is far more complex, just in its composition and regional sensitivities that in a federation need careful handling. Forget the rest, radicalism, terrorism, insurgencies and parochialism ‘in all their hues and manifestations’ are enough meal on the table. One will need a dozen Mahathirs to set this right, all working together with a single-minded focus with equal intensity. Leaders create systems and provide structures that enable delegated functioning with due processes. In a nation of almost 200 million, it will always be an incremental move-on. For a view, see next-door India.

An interesting analysis has been done by Rajmohan Gandhi in his recent publication, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten. He determines that former north India, including all of Pakistan, was ravaged by many an adventurer from the West. Always in awe of invading hordes, the natives cyclically bowed before every Ghauri and every Abdali. If it was not them, it was Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and then the British and then in the same vein, another liberator and a messiah in the true sense, for a change, the Quaid e Azam; and then Liaquat Ali Khan, followed by Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Immersed in an un-satiated impulse to find and worship new saviours, this nation blinds itself with hoped-for deliverers. Both Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan carry virtues easily confused with such escapism. Reality, though, is far different. IK means well, but understands little. Those who understand, unfortunately, do not mean well. In its current formulation, we remain in a snake-pit of interesting collections.

When Bhutto took over, he ventured a change. He understood that a change is only possible with structural implants, and thus went ahead with civil service reforms and the changes in the military system, which arose more out of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission. He was a brave man; ordinary mortals do not venture to touch structures because they have nothing to replace them with. ZAB did, though the results at best have remained mixed. The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee system, in all these years, has never realised the power that could have balanced the authority resident in the chief of the army staff; and the civil service, to many of its own, was always a misstep because it diluted the power of the bureaucrat. Indeed, if it did, I will count that a success by a long way. Both intended changes failed to materialise in the spirit of their placement. The founding strictures are at times obdurate and resilient. Even ZAB could not shatter the convention, finally falling prey to it.

What of the poor adulating souls, who longingly brave the elements every evening to be in Khan’s company. I feel if the current trends hold and if he is able to sustain the sentiment long enough, he may finally realise his dream at the helm. But then will begin the next phase of the saga. Yes, he will have people gather around him, some right ones too, yet he may be stuck with the structures that have till date established a certain behavioural pattern. Changing those will be his challenge.

Else, the difference between a well-performing system and a weak one may well be in the order of some nineteen-and-a-half to twenty-and-a-half. This is when the proverbial will hit the fan; and, this is when dreams may shatter. Disappointment from another messiah; a failure of another saviour. It may still be in the distance, but it is good to know there remains no shortcut to hard grind. Incremental, gradual improvement. The only other way is inquilab. On last reports though, even inquilab had joined the bandwagon. At times, the wait is deadly, but it is worth its time. The messiah is in an augmentative, collective effort of the 200 million who must toil for years to make the miracle happen. It is not a person. Can Khan state that?

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2014.

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