A tale of two horses

Unfortunately, the exact quote, which by the way succinctly brings out the message, cannot be published - blame it on the censor board. Be that as it may, the more refined version comes out thusly: you cannot ride two horses with one behind.
For those who are interested, substitute behind for a synonym of a donkey.
Anyways, if any nation on this globe takes the cake for doing the impossible - riding two horses with one donkey - it has to be us.
And perhaps that is the reason we struggle to get anywhere!
Whilst I am not an expert on international affairs, for as long as I can remember we have been trying to ride the two horses called Sam and Red, and have still not decided which to place our bet on. And why is it important that we decide? Well, simply, because Sam and Red are battling it out in the final lap to win the Kentucky Derby, and we still keep jumping from one to the other - at some point one of them is going to get pretty upset about our indecisiveness.
"If two powerful neighbours of yours come to blows, either they are such that if one of them wins, you will have to fear the victor, or you will not. In either of these two cases, it will be more useful for you to declare yourself and wage an honest war." Machiavelli. While Sam and Red are both not our neighbours in the classical sense, the term neighbours has a different meaning in the modern world compared with that in the sixteenth century. And they are definitely warring at this point in time. For now it might just be a trade war, but if you look at international news, things are definitely getting colder - and the prize is the King of the Seven Kingdoms.
Let's move on to the Virus Wars - we are probably the only Islamic nation which observed full party time during Eid celebrations; did we think Corona would be on a holiday too? We seem to be riding two horses called Fear and Ignorance at the same time, rapidly shuffling between lockdown and no lockdown. There are rumours that we will be moving towards a full lockdown again in the coming week because the numbers are going up rapidly; let us pray that these are just rumours. The loss of even one life is a tragedy, and life should always be priceless irrespective of what economic decisions warrant.
But let's now turn to the crux of the matter. As far as the economy goes, for years we have been riding two horses called Privatisation and Nationalisation, and doing a fairly horrible job with either. We have not yet decided whether we are a free market or a State controlled economy. While my vote, Pakistan being a developing nation, is on a planned economy until we join the club of developed nations, I would settle for a clear decision on either course of action. Being wrong is not as bad as doing nothing; in the case of the latter, you are directionless. Driving in the middle, as my better half repeatedly points out, gets you nowhere!
Recall that just a few months ago, just before the beginning of the Virus Wars, all the celebrity economic pundits were harping against State Owned Enterprises and their losses burdening the exchequer with trillions - the solution was to privatise them. Suddenly, we are jumping off the horse called privatisation because we fear that it is racing towards elite capture.
What did we believe in the first instance? That privateers were honest folk!
Okay privateer may be a strong word, but when did we forget the "Greed is good" motto?
Why do we believe that a private enterprise would be concerned about the best interest of the nation, or work for anything other than profit? Greed, more profit, is the sole motivation for efficiency and innovation; and new ways to cheat, not morality, is a form of innovation!
A few weeks ago, I penned an article broadly pointing out that in almost all cases, private ventures operating in successful business sectors were piggybacking on government regulations - evidently the textile sector can only compete internationally on the back of government incentives. Is that not elite capture? And if so, why is that okay?
Less taxes for any sector means more taxes for the rest of us, so how is that better than a higher price of sugar? Is it only because the former is an unseen consequence? Diesel and motor spirit are more expensive since government is giving all sorts of incentives to industry and certain businesses and therefore has to collect taxes elsewhere, so how that is kosher?
The Sugar Commission Report and the Power Sector Inquiry Report have recently been doing the rounds and creating a lot of ruckus. In summary, as per media analysis, which admittedly may or may not be entirely correct, a lot of money was made by businessmen, likely through corrupt practises. Duh! So what did we expect the private sector to do? Be moral and not make money?
Height of naivety!
Whilst I must confess that I have yet to read either of the two reports - the number of pages makes me shy away every time - yet to my knowledge both the sectors are highly regulated; you cannot set up either business without a Government permission or a license, and there are price controls. So what went wrong? Were the regulations inefficient or is it because we were not sure which horse we were riding in the case of these sectors?
The answer to this question may well be the bitter truth we keep ignoring; two horses.
Unfortunately, there's not enough space left for the punch line this week, and we hence will have to continue from here next week, In Shaa Allah. And perhaps I might have read the two reports before the conclusion of the Tale of Two Horses!
(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)