Paris: the Accountant comes calling

Paris has become the destination of choice for the Accountant. Signing up for Open Government Partnership (OGP) has come on the heels of OECD convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on tax matters that he signed during his last Parisian escapade. For years it was London, to look after certain interests as well as to relive his Ilford days of article clerkship. But we are a suspicious lot and given all the palaver of Panama it is best to avoid London - and Dubai. Paris, under the cover of such lofty ideals as the OECD convention and OGP, also opens up the grandeur of Elyse Palace. Snooty London doesn't open the doors to Buckingham Palace.
In Paris the Accountant gave the heart-warming news that the Cabinet had ratified the OECD convention. It is good to know the cabinet meets and conducts serious business. What we do not know is the date on which the ratification instrument will be deposited, nor the date of enforcement that participating governments are required to give. If you do not give the enforcement date ratification is little more than a mere formality.
We are disappointed that the nation did not salute the OPG initiative. We of course did not expect any oil lamps to be lit in Lal Haveli but surely the member from Islamabad, who towers above his PTI colleagues, both literally and figuratively, should have had something to say about it. Come on Asad, you have always preached open government and citizen engagement. Say something - even if it is to say 'the taste of pudding lies in the eating thereof'.
It is characteristic of UN initiatives to be tall on promise and short on everything else. The MDGs (now recycled as SDGs), Johannesburg declaration on sustainable development, climate change, status of women come immediately to mind. Launched five years ago on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly OPG seeks collaboration between reformers inside and outside the government. The aims are to promote transparency, fight corruption, empower citizens, and harness technology to strengthen governance. These are laudable goals indeed and prerequisites to the implementation of post-2015 development agenda. Each member state is supposed to give its Country Action Plan, studded with firm commitments.
We are most curious to know what Pakistan's Country Action Plan would look like, and exactly how it is proposed to manage citizen participation. But, first, does this wonderful initiative have bi-partisan support? Or, is it the Accountant's solo flight, likely to crash-land when he parachutes out of the cockpit? We are not even sure if Cabinet approval was sought and obtained. Courtesy the 18th amendment it is the Provinces that are in the driving seat and before the Cabinet takes a decision in matters affecting the Provinces the participation and consent of the Chief Ministers has to be ensured. The pony-tailed Chairman of the Senate may even argue that it should have gone to the Council of Common Interests.
And why is the Finance Ministry piloting it? Unless the idea is to set a thief to catch a thief - Q block can be accused of many things but never of promoting open government - shouldn't it have been Cabinet Division or Law Division or Planning Division (claims to be the Ministry for reforms!) or even the Inter-provincial Co-ordination Ministry (yes, such a Ministry exists except we don't know what it does)?
Further, what kind of 'citizen engagement' was undertaken to arrive at the decision to join OGP and to put in place institutional arrangements to secure transparency and accountability and good governance? Citizen Shabir doesn't have a clue. What the good Accountant has done gnaws at the heart of open government: no public debate, no attempt to build a diverse coalition, no sign of a blue print for ambitious new reforms - under the watchful eyes of citizens - that OGP epitomises.
It is not that the governments do not know what to do. The Right to Information initiative was a step in the right direction, a sure way to unravel the mysterious ways of the government. Access to information is the foundation on which open government rests. What happened to it? Is it really working? Perhaps the ever-green Federal Ombudsman should take it upon himself to disseminate a monthly 'statement of compliance' of this law: requests made and information provided.
Right to Services is another way to make the governments responsible and responsive. Properly implemented it will make the bureaucracy actually work instead of merely pretending to. Sifarish has become a way of life for us because that's the only shorthand we know to secure basic services. You give us our rights as a matter of routine and the 'sifarish-brokers' will have to look for real work. We might even have a different kind of democracy where we choose people on the basis of who they are and not who they know.
We don't need to go to an international forum to learn good governance. Our problem is that bad governance is not penalised; and won't be until our sifarish-based system gets jettisoned. We keep voting for the perpetrators of bad governance because in a system that does not deliver you need the 'deliverers'; who can bend the law to get things done. That's what makes them 'electable'.
We are also a deeply divided society, where even the deliberations of the Council of Islamic Ideology become controversial, despite our being deeply religious. How are we going to bolt together diverse and strongly held opinions to manage a workable citizen engagement? And where does the parliament fit in? Will it see citizen empowerment as a threat or an opportunity?
What is wrong with our institutions responsible for a truly participatory government is well known. Before heading for Paris and the photo-ops a formal acceptance of the failure of our institutions, to be followed by a 'citizen-led' diagnostic study would have signalled government's seriousness.
OGP and the 'heavies' that constitute its membership cannot teach us how to govern better, or become more transparent and accountable. The lessons are at home. If we are serious let's start with the basics. First, strictly follow the dictates of the Constitution. Second, do not award tickets to those with skeletons, no matter how 'electable'. Third, snip the symbiotic cord between the bureaucracy and the politicians.
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