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At war with institutions
Monday, August 02, 2010
S Khalid Husain
The writings of some popular columnists in the print media are beginning to read like sermons for delivery to a congregation, the readers.
The common strain in their exhortations is for the readers to hear and see no evil. The columnists have not turned into saintly activists overnight. When they talk of what is bad, their reference is not to, say, loud music or indecent movies. Their new advice to readers is to be more tolerant and give more space to the government, specifically to the presidency.
This is despite the governments ham-handed handling of the issue of fake degrees. The governments actions may not save the fake degree-holders from charges of felony but they can diminish two key institutions, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
These columnists do not ask the present rulers how they aim to turn the country into an effective state that is capable of good governance, without the strengthening of existing institutions and building of new ones. Strong and durable institutions, which cannot be easily bypassed or trifled with, are vital for good governance.
Strong, well-functioning institutions not only promote good governance but also sustain it against marauders. One of the biggest reasons for the countrys consistent governance disasters, under all governments it has suffered, is the absence of strong institutions.
According to the UN paper titled What is Good Governance, international donors and agencies now view governance in any country only in terms of bad or good; there is no in-between. Bad governance, the report concludes, represents one of the worst features of society, and a major cause of its dysfunction. The history of governance in Pakistan, and the present state of the country and its society, must have contributed heavily to the conclusion.
A government, the UN report continues, is the prime actor in good governance, but not the only one. There are other actors, such as political parties, the military, the media, NGOs, religious leaders, finance institutions, business leaders and corporations. Good governance occurs when all actors involved in it are facilitated by government to play their respective inherent or constitutionally assigned roles to the full extent.
In other words, when this happens, it is like governance being put on auto-pilot. It is not, then, the government which is governing but the institutions. The responsibility for good governance, however, remains with the government, which is something no administration can abdicate, or pass the buck on.
Henry David Thoreau wrote that that government is best which governs the least. Thoreaus truism applies to governance through institutions. Only governments which are legitimate, confident, are competent, committed to the rule of law, concerned with peoples welfare and with the countrys progress, will regard institutions as indispensable tools for good governance, and not as an impediment, or as a threat to the governments hold on power.
The PPP government has been active in trying to weaken, rather than strengthen, the existing institutions. As for building new institutions (if they can be called that), it has built a few non-conventional ones, but otherwise has shown no interest in new institutions needed by the country.
The PPP government began its tenure by undermining the prestige and purpose of the institution of the presidential office. The Constitution stipulates that the president have a reputation which is above reproach and that, without political affiliations, he or she function as a figurehead. What the country now has is a president with a reputation which is a long way from being above reproach, who heads his own political party. And, far from functioning as a figurehead, he calls the shots and runs the government, despite his giving up of some of his powers recently.
The unconstitutional strengthening of the presidency has resulted in the weakening of the office of the prime minister. At the same time, there are ministers, such as the one holding the portfolio of law, of all things, who are spearheading the campaign against the judiciary. The particular minister does so by showering money on the countrys bar councils to break their resolve for the promotion of judicial independence. The minister of law, who sports a doctorate from a fake university, is assisted by the federal education minister in devising ways to immobilise the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the two institutions most directly concerned with the issue of parliamentarians fake degrees.
It does not matter if the HEC and the ECP are constitutionally protected from executive meddling. Ways have to be found, and they will be, to dodge them. The prime minister, even while reassuring the chairman of the HEC, is no more than an observer of the antics of his two ministers.
Institutions such as the National Accountability Board (NAB), and a number of others, which should have been developed and strengthened, have been almost phased out. In all this, the prime minister is merely an onlooker. What this onlooker should be doing as prime minister, but cannot, he tries to make up for it by working hard on looking good.
The only thing strengthened by this government is corruption, which had never been as strongly institutionalised in Pakistan as it is now. The vulgar display of power by PPP ministers and party functionaries is evident as never before. Heavily escorted by police, 4WD vehicles, with party flags and strange personalised number plates, routinely ply on city roads. They do so as a matter of right, ignoring all traffic rules, and causing harassment to others sharing the roads, with their passage cleared by law enforcers. A more intolerable public act is hard to picture.
The flouting of rules of governance and abuse of power by the countrys rulers have been seen before. But this was never done as contemptuously as it has been during the past two years.
The writer is former corporate executive. Email: husainsk.@cyber. net.pk
Monday, August 02, 2010
S Khalid Husain
The writings of some popular columnists in the print media are beginning to read like sermons for delivery to a congregation, the readers.
The common strain in their exhortations is for the readers to hear and see no evil. The columnists have not turned into saintly activists overnight. When they talk of what is bad, their reference is not to, say, loud music or indecent movies. Their new advice to readers is to be more tolerant and give more space to the government, specifically to the presidency.
This is despite the governments ham-handed handling of the issue of fake degrees. The governments actions may not save the fake degree-holders from charges of felony but they can diminish two key institutions, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
These columnists do not ask the present rulers how they aim to turn the country into an effective state that is capable of good governance, without the strengthening of existing institutions and building of new ones. Strong and durable institutions, which cannot be easily bypassed or trifled with, are vital for good governance.
Strong, well-functioning institutions not only promote good governance but also sustain it against marauders. One of the biggest reasons for the countrys consistent governance disasters, under all governments it has suffered, is the absence of strong institutions.
According to the UN paper titled What is Good Governance, international donors and agencies now view governance in any country only in terms of bad or good; there is no in-between. Bad governance, the report concludes, represents one of the worst features of society, and a major cause of its dysfunction. The history of governance in Pakistan, and the present state of the country and its society, must have contributed heavily to the conclusion.
A government, the UN report continues, is the prime actor in good governance, but not the only one. There are other actors, such as political parties, the military, the media, NGOs, religious leaders, finance institutions, business leaders and corporations. Good governance occurs when all actors involved in it are facilitated by government to play their respective inherent or constitutionally assigned roles to the full extent.
In other words, when this happens, it is like governance being put on auto-pilot. It is not, then, the government which is governing but the institutions. The responsibility for good governance, however, remains with the government, which is something no administration can abdicate, or pass the buck on.
Henry David Thoreau wrote that that government is best which governs the least. Thoreaus truism applies to governance through institutions. Only governments which are legitimate, confident, are competent, committed to the rule of law, concerned with peoples welfare and with the countrys progress, will regard institutions as indispensable tools for good governance, and not as an impediment, or as a threat to the governments hold on power.
The PPP government has been active in trying to weaken, rather than strengthen, the existing institutions. As for building new institutions (if they can be called that), it has built a few non-conventional ones, but otherwise has shown no interest in new institutions needed by the country.
The PPP government began its tenure by undermining the prestige and purpose of the institution of the presidential office. The Constitution stipulates that the president have a reputation which is above reproach and that, without political affiliations, he or she function as a figurehead. What the country now has is a president with a reputation which is a long way from being above reproach, who heads his own political party. And, far from functioning as a figurehead, he calls the shots and runs the government, despite his giving up of some of his powers recently.
The unconstitutional strengthening of the presidency has resulted in the weakening of the office of the prime minister. At the same time, there are ministers, such as the one holding the portfolio of law, of all things, who are spearheading the campaign against the judiciary. The particular minister does so by showering money on the countrys bar councils to break their resolve for the promotion of judicial independence. The minister of law, who sports a doctorate from a fake university, is assisted by the federal education minister in devising ways to immobilise the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the two institutions most directly concerned with the issue of parliamentarians fake degrees.
It does not matter if the HEC and the ECP are constitutionally protected from executive meddling. Ways have to be found, and they will be, to dodge them. The prime minister, even while reassuring the chairman of the HEC, is no more than an observer of the antics of his two ministers.
Institutions such as the National Accountability Board (NAB), and a number of others, which should have been developed and strengthened, have been almost phased out. In all this, the prime minister is merely an onlooker. What this onlooker should be doing as prime minister, but cannot, he tries to make up for it by working hard on looking good.
The only thing strengthened by this government is corruption, which had never been as strongly institutionalised in Pakistan as it is now. The vulgar display of power by PPP ministers and party functionaries is evident as never before. Heavily escorted by police, 4WD vehicles, with party flags and strange personalised number plates, routinely ply on city roads. They do so as a matter of right, ignoring all traffic rules, and causing harassment to others sharing the roads, with their passage cleared by law enforcers. A more intolerable public act is hard to picture.
The flouting of rules of governance and abuse of power by the countrys rulers have been seen before. But this was never done as contemptuously as it has been during the past two years.
The writer is former corporate executive. Email: husainsk.@cyber. net.pk
