Right after last week's title, this one probably is sufficient circumstantial evidence for many to argue that my loyalties reside with the Establishment. Albeit, the establishment is a concept which I, for one, have never been able to grasp; who is the Establishment, exactly, and what is its raison d'êtres? These are questions one has always struggled with. More to the point, the way the establishment is organised, if you believe that it does exist, its continuity and its vision and mission are something, perhaps, the business world could learn a lot from.
Wealth is the only logical Establishment.
Nonetheless, to clarify, I write for the fun of it and my opinions are based on personal ratiocination and are absolutely apolitical - although I am amenable to fruitful negotiations!
On the other hand, democracy is an illusion which somehow could never rope me in. The ruled electing who should rule them - and one vote making a difference - are constructs which defy logic completely. Think about it. And let there be no doubt, the Ruler by whatever name called - Prime Minister, President or Admiral General Aladeen - and however he may come to power, and for whatever time he is in power, is still a Ruler.
A friend recently sent a clip about the age old joke about the guy who was asked to choose between heaven and hell, and after visiting both places, the idiot chose the latter with the devil having the last laugh - then we were campaigning!
That perhaps aptly showcases democracy in Pakistan. Come election time there are promises galore, the kind which perhaps a science fiction writer may struggle to imagine; however, for the last 12 years, do a stock take- How many of these promises ever came to fruition?
Perhaps some would argue that impoverished is a strong word, and perhaps they are right - but let the Readers decide for themselves.
Let us start with agriculture. In the last 12 years, how much more land was brought under cultivation? How many more dams and irrigation systems were constructed or improved upon to tackle the water stress? What efforts were made to improve crop yields? In quantitative terms, how much more crops do we produce today compared with 12 years ago, considering that the population is rapidly increasing? And, my favourite, what exactly was done for land reforms and settling decade old property disputes? In a nutshell, without boring everyone with numbers and statistics, inflation, and the fact that we import more vegetables and fruits today than we used to 12 years ago, answers all these questions amicably.
What have we, in the last 12 years, done for industrialisation? How many import substitution industries were established and how many more jobs were created in the industrial space? Obsessing about LSM growth or decline really does not help, they are just statistics - where exactly have we increased our industrial capacity, and what new industries were established in so many years? The unfortunate answer is that to encourage competition and innovation, we are importing more!
Crazy!
Let's go smaller. In 12 years we have been unable to turnaround the National Airline - seriously, how difficult can it be! Even smaller, the Government for the past 12 years, despite being the biggest spender in the construction space - by far the biggest - has been unable to operate a steel mill. And by the same analogy, perhaps the single largest client for logistic services, the Government, has not been able to make Railways profitable. No point even pointing fingers at the mess power generation and distribution has become.
The objective is not to blame any specific government, but simply to point out that after 12 years of continuing democracy, we are worse off than before. And for my money, the blame solely vests with the system because of which each government and opposition have always remained busy fire fighting one political crisis after the other amongst a melee of nonissues, and not being able to focus on the one issue that matters - the economy.
Given the noise about the economy going down every day and then some, one would think they would start getting their act together - but perhaps some things are just not meant to be in a democracy. Apparently, who met who and why is more important!
What we have achieved in 12 years is an unassailable mountain of debt. According to State Bank of Pakistan, total debt and liabilities at the end of June 2020 stood at 44,563 billion- at end September it probably has grown by a few more billions. At the end of the same period our total external debt and liabilities stand at US$ 112.8 billion. How are we ever going to pay this back? If this is not impoverished, I don't know what is!
So how many more years do we need to decide that the system is just not working? Perhaps it is to do with each government focusing on short-term gains to prove performance in the next election, perhaps we lack political maturity, perhaps the system requires another 12 years to evolve - fine, but do we really have that much time?
No, I am not arguing for a martial law - pointing out that one is not working does not by default suggest support for the other. Perhaps the solution lies within. Whatever the case may be, sitting around and doing nothing is not really an option.
Any which way you may look, the pertinent question remains- have we been impoverished by democracy?
(The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. Email: [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are personal. The views are not necessarily those of the newspaper)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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