The bunker mentality

Around 30% of the Karachi police force is reserved exclusively to massage the egos of the rulers

A society living on the edges of extreme defensiveness and self- justification, often based on an exaggerated sense of insecurity, is likely to run into at least four major complications. This feeling of insecurity will progressively worsen. The society will spend all its energies and efforts on defensive measures instead of proactively eliminating the root causes of the problems it faces. The bureaucrats, the contractors, the law enforcers and the security agencies will be the largest beneficiaries of the insecurity hype. The resources and attention of the state will shift towards protecting the life and property of its ruling class, forcing the common man to fend for himself.

This ‘bunker mentality’ appears to have become our standard operating procedure for responding to our largely self-created problems. Let us look at our response to some of the recent incidents that took place in Pakistan in the last few days. A fire broke out in Karachi’s Agra Taj colony. Eight shops and clothes worth millions of rupees were burnt to ashes. The government promptly concluded that there is a need to ‘buy’ more fire brigades.

The truth is that fires break out every other day in one shop or the other, in katchi abadis, in buildings, warehouses and factories. However, no one deems it necessary to push for measures that will ensure that fires do not break out in the first place. Improving electrical wirings, following warehousing rules, carrying out periodic checks on the state of electrical fittings, ensuring no-smoking precautions, preventing kitchen fires, isolating combustible materials, ensuring effective government inspections and building control measures, eliminating sources of sparks, using smoke detectors and creating fire escape routes, all receive little attention. We all know that fire brigades extinguish fires, but do not prevent their occurrence. But the bunker mentality would prefer going for the proverbial ‘fire-fighting’ over instituting measures that could help prevent fires.

In a recently held meeting at the office of the Commissioner Karachi, it was decided that all banks must build bunkers inside their branches to curb the growing trend of bank robberies. Interestingly, no banker participated in this meeting. The government, however, found a perfect opportunity to sub-contract its responsibility. The architects and contractors are already gearing up with fancy bunker designs. This is analogous to demanding that besides surgical instruments, surgeons also keep a Kalashnikov handy in the operation theatre. The bunker mentality, an extension of disaster capitalism, demands that we must focus on building and hiding behind bunkers and not on catching and disarming criminals.

Moving on, these are gloomy times for the anti-gun lobby of Pakistan. The Commissioner Karachi has readily agreed to heed the plea of private security companies regarding the issuance of automatic weapon licences to upgrade the efficiency of private guards. Automatic weapons and private guards are the new compulsions of the ruling elite, a class that is primarily responsible for the spread of weapons and violence in Pakistan. An argument was put forward to explain why foreign banks do not face as many robberies as local ones. They ‘invest’ more in security i.e., more guards and more weapons. No one seems to have come across the famous words of the poet Charles Simic, “Anyone who tells you that having a lot of guns will make us safer is either out to make money out of dead children or living in a fool’s paradise.”

One can only thank the Punjab government for its brilliant illustration of how the ‘bunker mentality’ shifts the resources and attention of the state towards protecting the life and property of our rulers. Suffering from extreme paranoia, the Punjab government has released Rs364.4 million for the Sharif family’s security in Jati Umra, Lahore. This was in addition to the funds already specified in the current budget for the security of the prime minister, his brother and their families. What is the shopping list for this budget? Rs283.2 million for erecting a 4.4km fence, 90 CCTV cameras, 20 elevated check points and Rs86 million for the purchase of security equipment. This does not include the expenditure incurred on 2,751 police officials appointed for the security of the prime minister, chief minister and their families.

When the government allocates almost a billion rupees and over 2,000 policemen to protect just one family, it is depriving its ordinary citizens of not just security but every other opportunity to seek a better life. How is the Karachi police any different when 30 per cent of its force is reserved exclusively to massage the egos of the rulers? We have regrettably opted for ‘bunkering’, a brilliant corporate-driven recipe for selling fear. Not choosing rational and proactive solutions and opting to hide behind barriers and bunkers is an addiction that needs to be comprehended and then given up.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd,  2015.

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