Thriving on conspiracy

[Al Bhatti]

January 29, 2012

Thriving on conspiracy

Zardari government's promise to protect democracy makes no difference to the lives of struggling Pakistani people

Once again, a promise by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari last week to foil all conspiracies against democracy, carried a hollow ring. Speaking at a ceremony in southern Pakistan to create jobs for unemployed, young Pakistanis, Zardari was quoted in the Pakistani media as saying that if the ruling coalition government led by his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was allowed to complete its term, which is due to end in early 2013, the regime will change the fate of the people through its welfare programmes.

To begin with, Zardari has presided over one of the worst periods in Pakistan's history since he became the president in 2008. In addition to the accusations of corruption against senior figures in the ruling structure, the PPP-led government has also overseen a period of low economic growth, virtually dried up fresh investments and a dismal performance on matters that relate to the benefit of mainstream Pakistanis.

Coming out recently from what appeared to be a sharpening of Pakistan's civil-military divide, which prompted rumours of a likely coup, Zardari has chosen once again to promise to protect Pakistan's democracy.

Furthermore, he has linked the continuation of democracy to the welfare of mainstream Pakistanis. The reality however is that Pakistanis today are suffering even more than a few years ago, because of the government's failure to improve the country's economic outlook. Though Zardari's remarks came during a ceremony to launch a new plan for the unemployed, it is unclear if this scheme will join the long list of pipedreams.

With elections looming in the next year or so, Pakistan's president will likely rely even more on assertions surrounding the so called threats to democracy. Even the recent talk of an imminent coup was more a figment of the imagination of members of the ruling structure than one based on facts. On the face of it, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Dismal track record

Pakistan's army led by General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to upholding the country's democracy. Since Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani came to office in 2008, the Pakistan army has sought to give space to the civilian ruling structure in a reversal of its central position in Pakistan's decision-making structure. Yet, the country's elected politicians have failed to consolidate their own positions and lay the foundation of a government that can begin tackling some of Pakistan's most difficult challenges.

With this background, the chickens may well be coming home to roost for Pakistan's current rulers. As they head in to elections, it is likely that the fortunes of politicians like Zardari, Gilani and other PPP leaders will suffer.

Across Pakistan, widespread scepticism towards the government appears set to dictate the outcome of the next elections. With a history of performing dismally, Pakistan's rulers cannot expect to make major gains.

In the time that Zardari and Gilani have left on their side, repeated promises to protect Pakistan's democracy against real or imaginary conspiracies, will not work. Going forward, what will likely work will essentially be the government going over its own track record with more than a bit of soul- searching.

Convincing Pakistanis that the PPP and its allies can still make a difference in the lives of the country's mainstream population will probably be a far more effective tool for winning popular approval than the notion of protecting democracy.

However, it will be a difficult convincing act. For many Pakistanis, the widespread accounts of corruption will be far too much to swallow. While Zardari, Gilani and other key leaders continue to live their well-protected in their many palatial residences, a glimpse into the realities of Pakistan are found on the streets across the country.

At least one third of Pakistan's population of 180 million lives below the poverty line. This essentially means that at least 60 million or more Pakistanis go to bed every night without the bare minimum food needed for human survival, throughout the day. Sops such as the recently launched plan to help unemployed young men get jobs will simply not work any longer, especially given the scale of the challenge.

In this background, the widespread belief of a widening gap between the rich and the poor or indeed the rulers and the ruled, now appears almost impossible to be filled easily.



Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.

gulfnews : Thriving on conspiracy

 

[fatman17]

Uncertainty

Dr Farrukh Saleem

Sunday, January 29, 2012



The PPP, GHQ and the Supreme Court have turned Pakistan into a country where it is now “impossible to exactly describe either the existing state or a future outcome”. We don’t know what we are and we don’t know what is to become of us. The GHQ, the Supreme Court and the PPP have turned Pakistan into a terrain where “the order or nature of things is unknown; where the consequences, extent or magnitude of circumstances, conditions or events is unpredictable and where credible probabilities to possible outcomes cannot be assigned.” That’s extreme uncertainty.

The PPP, the Supreme Court and the GHQ have turned Pakistan into a borderland where the state no longer functions because of conflicting directions from the three power seekers. The PPP, the Supreme Court and the GHQ are infighting to gain control of the state and this infighting has created a situation in which nothing is moving and absolutely nothing is getting done. That’s gridlock par excellence.

The PPP, the Supreme Court and the GHQ have given Pakistan so many strokes and traumas that there is now a severe impairment of activity. The State of Pakistan is now completely unable to function. That’s paralysis.

Uncertainty, gridlock and paralysis. The PPP is bent upon preserving a ‘predatory state’ where there is rationalisation of theft, public policy is to benefit the rulers and there is massive under-investment in human capital as well as infrastructure.

In a predatory state, there are four visible phenomena. One; human life is “poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Two; citizens live in fear of each other. Three; individuals are free to “harm all who threaten their own self-preservation”. Four; there is an “endless war of all against all” (Thomas Hobbes).

The new Supreme Court is bent upon establishing a rule of law state. In a contractual state, that the Supreme Court seems to favor, there are at least three visible phenomena. One; the general will “decides what is good for society as a whole.” Two; a “neutral judge protects the lives, liberty and property of those who live within it” (John Locke). Three; individuals, “including the administrative head of state, who could be a monarch, must bow to the general will, or be forced to bow to it” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).

The GHQ is confused, indecisive and erratic-all at the same time. Should they be in the barracks or out fathering political parties? The GHQ’s messages to the PPP and the Supreme Court are ambiguous, dubious and inconclusive-all at the same time. Either effect a regime change or stop destabilising. It was Henry Miller, the American novelist and painter, who said, “Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.” Certainty and economic growth are first cousins. Uncertainty kills whatever comes its way. Uncertainty means unemployment, inflation, chaos, anarchy and turmoil-all at the same time. Uncertainty is killing me; And I’m certainly not asleep; Maybe I’ve gone far too deep; Maybe I’m just far too weak; And that’s the last place I want to be the last place.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com