Missed Opportunities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It may sound ludicrous, but one of the explanations making rounds of Islamabad after the 12th October happenings last year, spoke volumes about the prevailing situation and characters responsible for it. It narrated that after the true mind-set of the feudals, the ruling coterie had decided to dump the mess that they had created, in the lap of whoever was near. The basic approach is that if you start losing badly and consistently, and there is no hope of a turn-around, spoil the game thoroughly so that even others cannot play. They said that General Musharraf was the person on whom this burden was heaped upon – deliberately.

 

The second hypothesis was, that the number and sequence of mistakes being committed was so fast and so relentless that a major blunder was due anytime. The order to sack the army chief while he was abroad, without following the laid down procedure, and playing with the lives of hundreds of passengers thus creating apprehensions about safety aboard the national carrier, and the state of security in the country, show the state of mind of the ruling circles at that time, and what lengths they were prepared to go to extricate themselves from their follies, even if it involved a major upheaval in institutional set-up of the nation.

 

What triggered military intervention in the process of governing the country was important, but not historically momentous, especially in Pakistan, where military interventions had happened before. What really matters as an event of historical importance, is how a nation of 140 million persons, with claims of super-human courage and resourcefulness, allowed the perpetuation of misrule by a small crowd of selfish power mongers. Equally curious is the way that this ruling class came into power and what methods did it use to stay there and manage to change political labels, yet keeping alive the culture of corruption, injustice and tyranny. No doubt, the ills of the Pakistani society started soon after Independence, but the credit for making lawlessness a way of life lies squarely with our rulers during the last few years. However, the most amazing phenomenon is related to mental condition of a whole class of intelligent people who failed to see the consequences of their reckless ways, and acquire a numbness which made them oblivious of the dangers inherent in their attitudes and actions.

 

Many a person did foresee the events to come – which, either could not be envisaged by the government, or were simply ignored, considering them to be of no consequence, or taking them as unfounded fears suffered by the faint-hearted. On hindsight, one did not come across even an iota of remorse or an explanation for all that was happening or for the blunders that were being committed in spite of comments, appeals and warnings from different quarters. It was most evident in case of the economy. Starting in the first quarter of 1999, a whole lot of cloumn writers had been warning the government of problems facing the economy and serious consequences of government’s apathy in correcting various matters, and perpetuation of deliberate wrong actions in case of others. They included nearly every big name in the file of economics writers. But one must ‘marvel’ the audacity of the government which continued with its inclination towards knee jerk reactions, subjective analysis, instantaneous remedies and snap fool-hardy decisions.

 

The big blunders during the past years are well known. By now, even the motives behind them have been exposed. Neither, all wrong decisions were the product of knee jerk reactions nor all of them were the result of miscalculations or changes beyond government’s power. It is astonishing, how in almost every development scheme, an element of personal gain for government functionaries, members of the Party or their allies, was woven. These manipulations were widely suspected but not discussed for fear of reprisals. However, the press did alert the government about basic problems afflicting the nation like shortfalls in revenue, contraction of foreign trade, decline in demand for credit, mounting foreign and domestic debt, spending spree on non-essential goods, constantly inflexible non-development expenditure, increase in utility charges to support government spending, near collapse of financial institutions due to public sector and personal borrowing, declining growth of agriculture, fall in investment levels, stagnating rate of savings, ever expanding black economy, declining FE reserves, increase in foreign trade deficit, and falling exports especially of finished goods, and other indications of the economy falling apart.

 

But most harm to the nation, especially the economy, was caused by large scale default on payments of all descriptions – particularly the taxes and loans, astonishing incidence of embezzlement in public funds, and the volume of looted money smuggled abroad. This not only earned us the title of being one of the most corrupt countries of the World, but made lending institutions reluctant to extend assistance – or the investors to invest. The tendency to steal was accompanied by its natural corollary – reckless spending and vulgar ostentation. Since, these tendencies started with the elite, they permeated to every level of society, tendering governance practically impossible, with utter disregard for national interest and shifting the focus to personal ends of those in power, and their cronies. Even national honour, present and future prosperity, and security of the nation were put on the anvil in return for vanity, false grandeur and malignant covetousness. Civilized societies do not permit such aberrations. Their practice precipitated chaos which led to lack of direction and the emergence of a feeling that the entire country had been left to drift by whims of a very small group of closely knit group who were trying to run the country as a house inhabited by illiterate imbeciles. One could reckon the play of an arrogant and autocratic mind-set developed in imitation of feudal behaviour without having – even remotely – the plus points of in-breading. It has happened more than once in history, that incompetent and ill-intentioned persons managed to ruin their countries, and many times, create serious problems for the entire World. The hallmarks of our erstwhile ruling class were greed, caprice and indifference. Just to expose the tip of the iceberg of misdeeds, Pakistan was made to suffer a loss of $ 7 billion through curbs on foreign currency accounts, $ 1.5 billion on Islamabad-Lahore Motorway deal, $ 1.0 billion on the Yellow Cabs scheme, $ 1.0 billion on the purchase of only one item of defence equipment. More was to go down the drain through SMEDA, Mera Ghar, self-employment schemes etc. – in addition to what had already been sunk. Another pastime of the ruling classes was looting the banks – during 30 months of power, the banks had added Rs. 85 billion of bad debts to their liabilities. Rs. 120 billion of the total bad debt was in the name of 300 leading industrialists, politicians and traders. As another indicator of the economic situation, during the eighteen months between 1998 and September 1999, only one company was registered at the Karachi Stock Exchange. The shattered public confidence in the government led to a 30 per cent decline in remittances from abroad during 1998-99 alone, while the net private investment decreased by 50 per cent. Foreign exchange reserves had come down to a level that they could sustain only two weeks imports – despite curbs on foreign currency accounts!

 

Recounting the events of recent past may look futile. But one feels that the nation should remember them always, to guard against their repetition and to see the involved elements in their true colours. The recklessness that we were pursuing in managing the country had brought us to the very brink of disaster. It is a well calculated projection that restoring confidence in our governance capability and economic management will take at least a decade – if not more. Until that time, we will have to lie low and work hard to re-build our image, correct things on ground, re-construct tattered institutions – most of all, restore the morale of a disillusioned people.

 

This is a lengthy, and in many ways, a thankless job with few rewards for individuals bearing responsibility for the turn-around. That is why, I will not venture to judge the performance of the Musharraf government at this stage. They have tried to address all the problems that they have come across – and one is sure that they cannot be few. One is equally sure that none of the measures taken to correct things will ever be easy on anybody, especially since our society has gotten used to a free-for-all life style. But if the accountability process has started working, large-scale embezzlement and loot has been reduced to a trickle, defaulted loans and taxes are being recovered, fear of God has started to instill in the hearts of public servants, beginnings have been made to document the society, something has been achieved. The final choice, however, will be whether our image is that of a man in a Rolls Royee on the Motorway singing, ‘Na woh chand ho ga ‘, or men sitting with their families in their homes for a wholesome meal? If we are aiming for the latter, we are on the right track.

 

Drawing the Line

 

Knee-jerk reaction was recognized as the half-mark of the government of the Mr. Nawaz Sharif. The impulsiveness of the prime minister and his cronies is held to be responsible for some disastrous decisions like the freezing of the foreign currency accounts and the dash to Washington DC at the height of the Kargil episode. Equally bad was the mishandling of their explanation. Most of such actions stemmed from deeply rooted arrogance of power and a misplaced sense of security acquired from a facade of piety. However, we are learning through experience that reactionary impulses are not a monopoly of the young politicians’ domesticated courts; any body of men or women in power are liable to fall prey to this frailty in human nature.

 

The present government did something, which in spite of having a soft corner for the intentions of the leading lights of the regime, one was forced to count among the knee-jerk reactions – it was the promulgation of the Removal from Service (Special Powers) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001. One strongly suspects that this ordinance was meant to assure the complaining public that even the bureaucracy is being cleansed of corrupt and immoral public and corporate officials or those engaged in anti-state activities. There has been growing dissatisfaction with the accountability process and heaps of complaints about the corrupt elements walking around with impurity or winning their freedom after paying only a fraction of their ill-gotten money. The high point of disillusionment came with mysterious – and still unresolved – escape of the Sharif family. There is every probability that the present Ordinance is one of the visible acts to affirm government’s resolve to expel corrupt elements from the bureaucracy: To what extent it will punish the wrong–doers is to be seen.

 

However, what this Ordinance has already done is discernible. One wishes that somebody would have foreseen the aftermath of such a legislation and build in it measures that would allay the apprehension of public officials. It is perhaps too late to suggest that simultaneous legislative steps should have been announced for all categories of public officials. The argument, that each service has its own set of anti-corruption laws does not cut any ice because the civilian government services also have such laws. If it is said that the civil servants manage to delay action against themselves and their colleagues or influence a decision, then who is immune to pressure in the corrupt atmosphere that we are living in – in case of uncertainty, one may refer to the Sunday Times tapes!

 

One is amazed at the single-minded vengeance with which every government gets after the public servants. Starting with the first list of officials compiled by general Ayub’s government to the inventories tossed about by Mr. Saif ur Rehman and now the present outfits, the heat is exclusively reserved for the public servants. Perhaps, because their details are readily available and they cannot be vocal due to their service rules – or may be that they can be intimidated by a regime to carry out its agenda at the threat of dismissal from service, confiscation of property or simple loss of honor and reputation.

 

What happens, as a result of such service-threatening acts is a bigger disaster than all the corruption taking place in the public offices: The civil servants become apprehensive of their superiors, colleagues, and even the subordinates. A superior, tomorrow, might indict a subordinate and become the inquiry officer, and then the competent authority to dismiss them. The colleagues might become wary of each other as they could indulge in intrigues or could usurp one’s powers. The worst, that subordinates, and the personal staff could be suspected of spying over their superiors on behalf of monitoring and intelligence agencies. These scenarios have been witnessed every time, that witch hunting was started. And every time, the performance suffered after the initial state of alertness of a few weeks was over. The most serious consequence of threats is the chasm that is created between employees and the government. One has never seen the mistrust thus produced turn into goodwill again, at least during the tenure of that government.

 

One will not claim that all civil or corporate sector employees are angels. Nor one would assert that there is no law-breaking and regulation-distorting in the public offices. But creating an atmosphere of mistrust, suspicion and fear is hardly what is required in an office. Neither, is it desirable to have conspiratorial air in the offices, as it plunges the whole organization into the haze of insecurity. The staff, in such a situation, becomes slow, indecisive and timid. We have suffered this state for many years as everybody came out with a tally of corrupt officials – our own agencies, foreign governments the NGO’s, and even the IFI’s. It looks as if everybody sitting in a public office in Pakistan were a thief. This is not only highly unfair but is very demoralizing. The governments should have caught the corrupt and the law-breakers in one sweep rather than allowing them the time to manipulate their defenses and keeping the whole system hostage, and engaged in guessing. One does not condone the wrong practices adopted by some public servants, but will emphatically stress the need of sparing hundreds of thousands of honest people, the agony of apprehension and insecurity due to the fault of a few.

 

The problem of corruption and unlawful behavior in public sector establishment is very much there, and its intensity during the past few years point to the cause of its aggravation. The traditional civil servant – as left by the British – was generally authoritarian (like a colonial officer) yet upright and honest. His pride rested with his performance at work rather than acquisition of wealth and vulgar display of riches. This all started changing at certain point of time which happened to coincide with the rise of mercenary politicians who’s rise was through spending money on election, and who’s basic agenda after getting into power was to make money to recover the expenses incurred on the process of rising to power, and saving for the next elections, besides having the time of one’s life. The civil servants being essential conduit to money making, were brought in the process through befriending, lust of money, promotions and transfers, and arm-twisting. The rag-to-riches stories galore and demonstration of wealth set new goals for the erstwhile honest and austere public official. The tone set by the new elite polluted the entire society; the public servants might be reluctant partners, in the beginning, but some of them were bound to be affected by the plague sweeping through the entire society. I will not defend them. But it does not justify the castigation of all and sundry.

 

What should really be done, to wrap up the imbroglio is to quickly process the cases which are complete so that the remaining officials can live in peace – hopefully to concentrate on the discharge of their duties. One admits, that the real and hardened law-breakers do not leave many traces behind. Yet they could be singled out, isolated socially, stripped of privileges and  perks so that others feel vindicated – as such secure and proud of their uprightness. Indicted people seen in official functions or entertaining officials abroad do not generate confidence in the accountability process. If corridors of public offices are to be cleansed, a clear difference will have to be established between the honest and the dishonest, incorruptible and the corrupt, and the upright and the depraved, and enable the conscientious walk with their heads high. We should also remember that one’s crimes are not washed away by returning the riches accumulated through dishonest acts! A criminal remains a criminal unless punished, and should be prevented to have another opportunity of repeating the offence.

 (News February 22 / 2001)