Talking business

Details are awaited.  Wen Jiabao has wafted through Islamabad with all the confidence of a superpower unencumbered by the weight of past mistakes.  Moving with slow grace at the head of a 400-strong delegation, he stopped briefly to address a miscellaneous set of gatherings, from ‘business leaders’ to parliament.

I have it on good authority that nobody tried to impress him with the virtues of democracy, nor were Pakistan’s democratic credentials rolled out like a buffet.  But details are awaited.

I have heard it mentioned somewhere that when dealing with the Chinese, patience is more than just a virtue.  It is a tool when held in the right hand, an empty weight when held in the left.  It is a door through which all that is good under heaven comes and goes.  Did something good just come or go with the Emperor’s visit?  Details are awaited.  Please be patient.

Overcome by the charm of China, our media tripped over each other to endow an otherwise rather pro forma visit with an over the top richness.  One channel went so far as to say, in their main news bulletin, that China has x amount in foreign exchange reserves (I think they even got the number wrong, but details are awaited) and “if they gave us even one per cent of that money, we could say goodbye to the International Monetary Fund.”

This is a beggar’s view of things, the beggar who salivates over the wealth of others and speculates how little of it would be required to solve all of their own problems.  Why should China give us even one per cent of her forex reserves?  Why should we salivate at the prospect?

So much of the inspired nonsense that was being made out of the visit sounded like the crude and simple anticipation with which the poor relatives roll out an over the top welcome for the wealthy relations when they come to visit, all the while salivating in their minds at the prospect of a few coins being left behind on the table at the end.

And a few coins were indeed left behind; $410 million worth.  Just about enough to cover the hole that will be left behind in the budget by the failure of the reformed general sales tax (RGST) effort, or just enough to pay for this year’s interest on the power sector debt, or just about… never mind, you get the point.

What really got me though were the platitudes.  Talk about over the top!  Our prime minister actually said that Pakistan “condemns all attempts to undermine China’s sovereignty.”  Excuse me?  Coming from a party that prides itself on having fought for democracy in the country, this is a rather strange statement, wouldn’t you say?  And who is out to undermine China’s sovereignty anyway?  Taiwan?  North Korea?  Can our prime minister tell us?

What left a smile on my face was the meeting with the opposition parties.  Smile because this is probably the premier’s first view of the quicksand that his foreign policy is going to get stuck in as China deepens its engagement with Pakistan.

It began the same way with the Americans, remember?  Britain’s star had set, the American star was in the ascendancy and they dealt with our country as if it were their own possession.  Today the fate of their empire is caught between the warring factions that make up our country’s political landscape.

As the sun sets on the American empire and a new dawn breaks in the East, there is a sense of déjà vu in Pakistan.  We’ve lived through a moment similar to this before. Once again we turn away from one great power towards the other, with all the wiles of a beggar, towards the one whose pockets are deeper, whose stride is sturdier, whose interests are unencumbered and whose words are sweeter.

Will we be a tool in their hands or mere dead weight?  How many tranches of aid will it take before they too will tell us to learn to stand on our own feet before asking others for help?

Details are awaited.  Please be patient.

the writer is Editor Business and Economic policy for Express News and Express 24/7

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2010.