PM Khan’s container-like speeches and the ensuing actions by NAB against politicians and politically connected persons have led many to believe that corruption is the country’s biggest problem. But is it really the biggest issue, one that demands the PM to focus mostly, if not entirely, on corruption, every time he speaks to the public?
There is no doubt that corruption is a big issue. But it’s not a new one. None other than Mohammad Ali Jinnah labeled corruption a curse. “Corruption is a curse in India and amongst Muslims, especially the so-called educated and intelligentsia. Unfortunately, it is this class that is selfish and morally and intellectually corrupt. No doubt this disease is common, but amongst this particular class of Muslims it is rampant,” he had said.
The question, however, is, as Princeton economist Atif Mian posted on Twitter earlier this year: between corruption and incompetence, which one is the bigger problem for developing countries?
Those who maintain that corruption is the biggest problem argue that once corruption is substantially reduced, merit will surface up as a natural consequence because the motivation to deliver top-quality public or private goods will drive up the demand for competence, assuming that in a corruption-free system rewards will be linked to performance. By extension, they maintain that it is corruption which gives birth to incompetence, and not vice versa.
That argument is nice in theory, and one that might have worked in the last century. But it is not much applicable, if at all, in the complex realities of 2019. Whether corruption gave birth to incompetence or vice versa is like that ‘chicken or the egg’ question one can debate for long hours without any convincing conclusion.
In practice, even if one assumes that corruption is the biggest problem, the government has to take a wide range of actions and devise specific rules of the game to reduce corruption – including the fixing the system of markets and governance. To devise these rules of the game in a manner that does not strangle honest people, and to ensure that people follow those rules of the game, one needs competence. (Read BR Research’s “Corruption: thinking beyond NAB & politicians,” published Aug 1, 2019).
The absence of a dream-team of professionals that PM Khan had promised, the clouds of uncertainty that had descended upon Pakistan in the first nine months, the delay in appointing the right man as chairman FBR, and the still-pending decisions to appoint to chief economist Planning Commission and the head of Planning Commission’s think tank, the lack of macroeconomists and debt market experts at finance ministry, the shortage of trade economists, demographers, dairy specialists etc. – these are just few of the many examples to show that one needs competence to take out Pakistan from the mess it is in. Goodwill, of being corruption-free, alone cannot fix the system. (Read also “‘PhD scholars’ and a ‘talented’ nation,” published Sep 11, 2018)
In graphical terms, imagine there are two extremes. The worse situation is point ‘w’ on the graph that exhibits rampant corruption, and zero competence, whereas the ideal situation is point ‘i’ on the graph that exhibits top competence and zero corruption. Assuming that Pakistan is near point ‘w’, the best scenario that an anti-corruption and pro-competence government would aim for is to journey along the slope ‘m’, with incremental progress on both counts leading to a gradual trek towards the ideal destination ‘i’.
However, PM Khan’s excessive focus on corruption and none on competence suggests he is happy taking the country to point ‘a’ before even thinking about point ‘i’. As a consequence of his government’s strong anti-corruption bias competent and bold individuals are already shying from immediately taking up roles in the public sector.
Since there is a limit to which imported technocrats or donor-drafted policies can deliver in the absence of a deep domestic pool of competence across the ecosystem, PM Khan needs to start giving due focus on incompetence and other constraints faced by the economy and the society at large.
Ideas matter. Ideas of influential public leaders matter even more because the power of influence comes with responsibility. Excessive focus on corruption without adequate focus on competence and other constraints that a nation needs to address is poor statesmanship. Even the Quaid-e-Azam, who had thought corruption was “rampant”, didn’t harp about corruption every time he spoke, because he knew well that public leaders ought to set a wider agenda than taking away air-conditioning from jailed politicians.
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