Does the Guiness Book of Records have a category for the stupidest person/people on earth? If it does, we would like to enter a bunch of Federal cabinet members and another bunch of jokers of the Ministry of Water and Power who are the only people in Pakistan who believe energy conservation can be achieved by advancing the clock by one hour.
The Guiness record keepers should however be warned they will have a tough time choosing between the cabinet and the ministry; each lot is trying to outdo the other in stupidity. On April 6 the Ministry of Water and Power sent an energy conservation plan to the cabinet, which included the proposal to advance the clock by an hour for three months from 1st May and to determine business hours for commercial centres.
The cabinet could not wait-till May 1 to torture the public. It decided on April 8 to advance the clock by one hour (GMT+6)from April 15. The cabinet members are the only people in the country to believe the tall story of the Ministry of Water and Power that last year's exercise in Daylight Saving Time (DST) saved 250 megawatts of electricity a day.
Last year's exercise in DST proved that no energy was conserved. There was greater loadshedding and power outage through the year, including in the months of winter when power guzzlers, the fans and air conditioners were not in operation.
Last year there was not such a huge public reaction against DST but this year everyone is revolted. Newspapers in all languages are full of letters to the editor pleading against the imposition, yes, imposition, of DST. The letter writers have given rational arguments against time change.
One pious, angry neighbour seriously told me that DST was against Islamic norms. He did not explain how DST was against Islam, may be he was using the popular ploy: whenever a pious person declares something is against Islam, people promptly pull up their socks. My neighbour was probably hoping to frighten the cabinet and ministry to give up this foolish exercise.
Why do people evoke Islam to right a wrong, why don't they evoke Democracy? Our government and institutions are supposed to be run on democratic lines.
The most democratic practice is to take the public into confidence whenever there is to be a change that directly affects them. It is not enough to present a proposal such as the DST to the elected cabinet and assume that, since the cabinet comprises elected representatives of the public, the will and wish of the public has been respected through the cabinet decision.
Even in Communist countries, which are generally believed to have the most authoritarian governments, the people are made aware of the benefits of some project long before it is implemented. A Pakistani journalist who was posted in China for a decade, lived in Beijing with his wife and children.
His wife one day told me that long before the massive three Gorges Dam was to be built, there would be daily propaganda about it, telling people that so many of them will be displaced, what arrangements would be made to relocate people, what were the benefits of the three Gorges Dam for the Chinese nation and so fourth. There were also public debates and fears and objections were conveyed to the authorities. Thus it was with the consent of the people of China that the project was finally launched.
In Pakistan the public is treated as a herd of cattle to be pushed around, and if they refuse to be pushed, to be beaten and forced to fall in line. There is not a sane person in the country who wants the DST exercise, but do those in authority care what the public thinks? The capricious and whimsical manner in which the DST has been imposed is not democratic.
This will be the third exercise in DST. The first was in 2002. It is astonishing that DST has been imposed by an elected government.
The imposition is more in the style of dictatorships, but, significantly, the military government did not repeat the stupid exercise. The military, for all its highhandedness is a clever cookie. There could be a psychological reason why, despite zero conservation of energy, DST has been re-imposed this year.
The Ministry of Water and Power as well as the Federal cabinet must be fascinated by the fact that DST is the only decision that was implemented without a hitch last year.
The airline, government and commercial offices, schools and colleges, shops and hospitals and, of course, the business of turning the street lights off and on functioned according to DST. They could not make any other decision stick like DST. People tore their utility bills when tariff was increased and refused to pay. People agitated with the lawyers to restore deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chawdhry, which the cabinet was reluctant to do. But DST, everyone obeyed even if they moaned and groaned and grumbled about it.
The champions of Daylight Saving Time look at its practice in Europe and America. They should look at its failure in Asia where Pakistan is geographically (if not otherwise) located. Major countries in the region like India, China and Japan do not apply time change. India tried, about two decades ago, and abandoned the time change within three weeks as impractical, unworkable and economically unfeasible.
The first DST exercise in 2002 was not repeated by the Musharraf regime. The then Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the time change caused an increase in consumption of energy instead of saving it. This remains a fact judging from the 2008 exercise. Here is a small piece of evidence: Street lights are turned on at a fixed time and not when it is actually evening.
The time is 6.30 pm. According to DST 6.30 pm will be an hour earlier, that is, the sun will be shining bright. What a waste of energy. We witnessed this last year, we will see it again this year.
And that is just the wastage in the public sector. Since children and office-goers will return home an hour earlier, the TV, the fan or AC will be operating an hour extra, too. So will the internet and other gadgets which consume electricity. Actually what happens is that we consume one extra hour of energy because of the time change. You and I comprehend this but the cloud heads in government don't. Whats to be done? Must we always agitate on the streets to get what we want?