fatman17
PDF THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 32,563
- Reaction score
- 98
- Country
- Location
COMMENT: An irreversible trend Zafar Hilaly
Is Prime Minister Gilani now all-powerful, he asks. Yes, in theory, but not in fact, is the true answer. Is President Zardari only a figurehead? Yes, but actually no. Is the judiciary now truly independent? Yes, but seldom has it been accused of greater bias. Is the media finally free? Yes, but never as irresponsible
Pakistanis are finally coming to grips with the real enemy ourselves. None has caused us greater harm. Arrogance and contempt cost us half the country and, utterly unspoiled by failure, we are well on our way to ensuring that wilful ignorance, vanity, intolerance and obstinacy will lose us the rest. How we became our own worst enemy requires not a thousand words, to which one is confined, but a thousand pages. But what is the point? Many will read them, like they read history, but only in order to learn how to repeat the same calamities all over again.
Out of the crooked timber of our society no straight thing can ever emerge. Consider, for example, the convoluted constitution. How more confusing can it appear to the common man? Is Prime Minister Gilani now all-powerful, he asks. Yes, in theory, but not in fact, is the true answer. Is President Zardari only a figurehead? Yes, but actually no. Is the judiciary now truly independent? Yes, but seldom has it been accused of greater bias. Is the media finally free? Yes, but never as irresponsible. By which time the common man, one imagines, is neither interested in understanding nor supporting a system that has caused so much confusion and wasted so much valuable time.
Of course, now and then he can get straight, unqualified responses. Have politicians and bureaucrats learnt their lessons about serving the people and not lying, cheating or looting? No. Do Pakistanis now believe that they must pay their taxes? No. Do murderers continue to roam free because some lower court judges are scared to convict them? Yes. Can judgement precede a trial? Yes. (As demonstrated by the FIA report, which squarely lays the blame for Benazir Bhuttos murder on five of Baitullah Mehsuds hit-men and a couple of absconders, some of whom, according to a journalist, were already in custody prior to her assassination). Surely, by now any lingering hope or interest that the common man may have left about the system should have evaporated.
Removing these flaws, now deeply entrenched, and making sense of governance is well nigh impossible in the absence of leadership. And it is not that we do not have self-styled, self-appointed and elected leaders. We have many. The problem is that in troubled societies such as ours, the rot starts at the top and works its way down. All our Caesars contain in their very person the national decay. They mirror the malaise that afflicts society. Hence, they can only spread the contagion and not curb it, as time has shown.
Consider Benazir Bhutto. She entered into negotiations to share power with those who she identified as responsible for her murder. The fact that she negotiated with those who could as easily murder her as conclude an agreement did not seem to bother her or anyone else. What can better illustrate the anything goes society that we have become?
Consider further a report in a national daily of June 1, which quotes the president as having sent a strong message to the (intelligence) quarters concerned saying, Confront (me) out in the open instead of picking on my friends. The president was responding to the abduction of a friend by unknown men on the busiest road in the busiest city of this land. If true (and no denial has been issued), it beggars the imagination that such a challenge can issue from a supreme commander to his own troops. One result has been the feeling that this government is now terminally dysfunctional and the other that ours is less a state than a criminal enterprise.
To right the mess, mere tinkering with the current value system, a reordering of priorities, a tack here and a stitch there and slight adjustments to our present way of life, living and governance accompanied by dollops of patience will not do. From the evolutionary point of view, the system has stopped moving. About the only thing happening are ingenious tricks to reconcile the irreconcilable and to explore new ways of increasing efficiency to loot. Frankly, we have reached the end of our tether.
Already, the privileged and the people form two nations within Pakistan. The former fattened on commissions, kickbacks, plots, licences, jobs, sinecures, access, postings, travel, upgrades, front seats, etc and, uniquely in Pakistan, of never to be repaid bank loans. The other live on the hope that God cannot be mocked forever and that the people will at last come into their own.
Or, perhaps, that if we hold firm to the present system, repeated elections will wash away the flotsam that dictatorships invariably throw up and that, given time, Pakistan will emerge stronger for the experience. However, it is time what we do not seem to have. A handful of wars and operations loom on the horizon. The economy is barely above water. Without emergency foreign assistance it would be in a free fall. Inflation has steadied but at an unaffordable 13 percent and joblessness is rife. Besides, the nations unity is fraying.
Clearly, we have to do something we have not done before in terms of civil-military relations and of bringing the mainstream parties and the military on the same platform in some creative, innovative way. And to fashion a government that will work with reasonable competence and sensitivity in order to save this nation from itself. Or else we will create a situation so desperate that the people will clamour for yet another military takeover.
With the way things are going, we stand to lose everything, perhaps even our existence as a nation. Thus far we have been our own worst enemy and perhaps the time has come to get the best out of those on whom we must depend and who, in the final analysis, will determine our fate, and this lot happen to be ourselves.
The writer is a former ambassador. He can be reached at charles123it@hotmail.com
Is Prime Minister Gilani now all-powerful, he asks. Yes, in theory, but not in fact, is the true answer. Is President Zardari only a figurehead? Yes, but actually no. Is the judiciary now truly independent? Yes, but seldom has it been accused of greater bias. Is the media finally free? Yes, but never as irresponsible
Pakistanis are finally coming to grips with the real enemy ourselves. None has caused us greater harm. Arrogance and contempt cost us half the country and, utterly unspoiled by failure, we are well on our way to ensuring that wilful ignorance, vanity, intolerance and obstinacy will lose us the rest. How we became our own worst enemy requires not a thousand words, to which one is confined, but a thousand pages. But what is the point? Many will read them, like they read history, but only in order to learn how to repeat the same calamities all over again.
Out of the crooked timber of our society no straight thing can ever emerge. Consider, for example, the convoluted constitution. How more confusing can it appear to the common man? Is Prime Minister Gilani now all-powerful, he asks. Yes, in theory, but not in fact, is the true answer. Is President Zardari only a figurehead? Yes, but actually no. Is the judiciary now truly independent? Yes, but seldom has it been accused of greater bias. Is the media finally free? Yes, but never as irresponsible. By which time the common man, one imagines, is neither interested in understanding nor supporting a system that has caused so much confusion and wasted so much valuable time.
Of course, now and then he can get straight, unqualified responses. Have politicians and bureaucrats learnt their lessons about serving the people and not lying, cheating or looting? No. Do Pakistanis now believe that they must pay their taxes? No. Do murderers continue to roam free because some lower court judges are scared to convict them? Yes. Can judgement precede a trial? Yes. (As demonstrated by the FIA report, which squarely lays the blame for Benazir Bhuttos murder on five of Baitullah Mehsuds hit-men and a couple of absconders, some of whom, according to a journalist, were already in custody prior to her assassination). Surely, by now any lingering hope or interest that the common man may have left about the system should have evaporated.
Removing these flaws, now deeply entrenched, and making sense of governance is well nigh impossible in the absence of leadership. And it is not that we do not have self-styled, self-appointed and elected leaders. We have many. The problem is that in troubled societies such as ours, the rot starts at the top and works its way down. All our Caesars contain in their very person the national decay. They mirror the malaise that afflicts society. Hence, they can only spread the contagion and not curb it, as time has shown.
Consider Benazir Bhutto. She entered into negotiations to share power with those who she identified as responsible for her murder. The fact that she negotiated with those who could as easily murder her as conclude an agreement did not seem to bother her or anyone else. What can better illustrate the anything goes society that we have become?
Consider further a report in a national daily of June 1, which quotes the president as having sent a strong message to the (intelligence) quarters concerned saying, Confront (me) out in the open instead of picking on my friends. The president was responding to the abduction of a friend by unknown men on the busiest road in the busiest city of this land. If true (and no denial has been issued), it beggars the imagination that such a challenge can issue from a supreme commander to his own troops. One result has been the feeling that this government is now terminally dysfunctional and the other that ours is less a state than a criminal enterprise.
To right the mess, mere tinkering with the current value system, a reordering of priorities, a tack here and a stitch there and slight adjustments to our present way of life, living and governance accompanied by dollops of patience will not do. From the evolutionary point of view, the system has stopped moving. About the only thing happening are ingenious tricks to reconcile the irreconcilable and to explore new ways of increasing efficiency to loot. Frankly, we have reached the end of our tether.
Already, the privileged and the people form two nations within Pakistan. The former fattened on commissions, kickbacks, plots, licences, jobs, sinecures, access, postings, travel, upgrades, front seats, etc and, uniquely in Pakistan, of never to be repaid bank loans. The other live on the hope that God cannot be mocked forever and that the people will at last come into their own.
Or, perhaps, that if we hold firm to the present system, repeated elections will wash away the flotsam that dictatorships invariably throw up and that, given time, Pakistan will emerge stronger for the experience. However, it is time what we do not seem to have. A handful of wars and operations loom on the horizon. The economy is barely above water. Without emergency foreign assistance it would be in a free fall. Inflation has steadied but at an unaffordable 13 percent and joblessness is rife. Besides, the nations unity is fraying.
Clearly, we have to do something we have not done before in terms of civil-military relations and of bringing the mainstream parties and the military on the same platform in some creative, innovative way. And to fashion a government that will work with reasonable competence and sensitivity in order to save this nation from itself. Or else we will create a situation so desperate that the people will clamour for yet another military takeover.
With the way things are going, we stand to lose everything, perhaps even our existence as a nation. Thus far we have been our own worst enemy and perhaps the time has come to get the best out of those on whom we must depend and who, in the final analysis, will determine our fate, and this lot happen to be ourselves.
The writer is a former ambassador. He can be reached at charles123it@hotmail.com
