One had thought that democratic principles would enhance the governance of the state, but alas the fiction of good governance is coming forth more acutely now that the panic buttons have started. Governance requires the essence of self-restriction and a self-censorship system. That means that when decisions are taken in public interest, they ought to be in the public interest.
Crude economics is never a part of academic work but rather the work of the uninitiated and the coarse kind of individual still living in the cages. That they have amassed wealth is neither here nor there. Money is more always with the oldest profession with persons of easy virtue. In economics, virtue and ethics play a significant part between good and bad governance.
I have stated elsewhere that modern economics has more to do with the intangibles of the collective psyche than the quantum kind of economics that was talked of before. Adam Smith is old-fashioned as the expletives that ought to be used for the current private sector belies his faith in the private sector. The bubbles have started bursting and the bursts are in all directions.
Ethical norms have been disturbed, making a mockery of the subject that is supposed to make us a welfare state. That is a far cry and one should forget. The responsibility on the economists for not understanding the nature of the disease in each of the developing country is their limitation and their inability to link cause and effect in a meaningful manner.
Take the recent case of employment's that have been provided to the relatives and the rationale given for employing nephews and nieces. The same had been taken up for the research organisation based in Karachi where a sitting public representative has his son employed and God knows what all in an unholy joiner of minds between him and a previous boss of his. How does economics work out when sinecure jobs are provided to senile relatives?
Is it the responsibility of the state to provide jobs for such individuals? Is it indeed the taxpayer's will to pay for such positions? Is it the responsibility to sanction such an action and to accept what has been done so blatantly? I would not have known this but for the fact that I had been vilified on the behest of the public representative in the press. It forced me to think as to what was done wrongly by the recruiting procedure.
Was it wise to advertise and not to accommodate the relative[s] of the boss or was the lot wiser to act in the public interest? Can research have the seemingly difficult task to develop aspects for the continued growth in the agriculture sector? As one pondered over these and such questions of public interest, it was realised that by doing these and such inordinate criminal activities we have played into the hands of the economic warlords-the IMF and the WB/ADB.
What happens is a despicably low level of responsibility and the organisation falls down the lowest common denominator in terms of work abilities and work ethics. The organisation that has to work in the public interest has to safeguard many things and many actions. In order to be a citizen of the state and not the government, one has to graduate from a different base to a higher echelon of living. That is not possible if you are and continue to be a citizen of say Wazirabad and if you firmly believe in the caste system and if you firmly believe to siphon off riches from the already over exploited resources of the country.
Who will guard the resources if those very incumbents, charged with the safety, start taking advantage of the situation? What kind of rationalisation is this that the recruited are my relatives and relatives of all and sundry but they are not Indians and, therefore, we have not done anything against the state?
The debate was fascinating on a TV channel and one looked for the report in a national Urdu newspaper, which led to all this heated rational from the panel that was there. I then checked up with the some of the Directors as to whether what had been stated in the press was correct.
The reply was an affirmative and a resounding yes and not only that they again mentioned that the directors were called and requested to siphon off resources for the boss by coming to terms with the employers, reducing demand and sharing the loot so constituted. The question is, was the Shajra of the person so appointed checked and if it was, why was he removed from his last position. The EOBI has had a hat trick of tricksters as bosses and all of them have siphoned off resources in the name of public interest. So this is how governance gets into hot spots.
Are the economics of the world different from ours? You bet that is the case. Consider what our friends and allies are doing with us. I asked one of them what he was doing here asking about cotton. He did not have an answer and then after some discussion he accepted the fact that he was here to oversee the interests of the cotton farmers of the US and to ensure that their quality of living was not disturbed.
Then came another under the KL bill and he has been seen around filming everything and trying to see where Pakistan can be hit economically. When asked, the goons from the recently recruited, were unaware of what had happened. Simply stated they had been recruited for the purpose of taking a salary irrespective of whether they were in any way responsible for what was going on.
There is another flip side to this kind of recruitment and that has to do with the impact on the very political economy that was their responsibility. The people who were unable to get a job would be much more than those relatives that have been accommodated. I asked one of my former minister and currently MNA Talpur as to why he did not as my minister in 1994 to 1996, never make such a request?
He gave a hearty laugh. He, in fact, said that this is ridiculous and we should allow everyone access to the job market and that is how fair play can be established. That for every one job he was not going to take abuse of any kind. I tried to play the devil's advocate and said at least your relatives would get a job. He countered it by saying for how long will that be. It would also ensure that the next elections would be lost.
My friends and colleagues keep on doing funny things. Recently one of them posed as an unemployed person and sought a job with one of the ministers entourage [no name please]. He tried to bribe his way but the local staff was very honest about all the procedures and gave some names that would provide jobs of the kind. He was asked whether he could fire a weapon.
In western economic thought, labour costs lead to inflation as industrial society has a union system. In our society, it not only raises macro issues but also adds to inefficiency; inefficiency that cannot be measured. In the industrial sector, it has led to capital intensity in agriculture, it has made this society look ridiculous.
The living aspect of life in Pakistan is agriculture and if one plays turkey with this system, the end game is not far to see. The macro effect is in financial terms, but in human terms much gives way and the sinecure jobs provided to senile people lead to snitchers-people always carrying tales and taking people to the hanging block. They are the ones that are immune to any work-ethic. People that have snatched resources for their personal benefits do not fit into any economic theory that I know of.
Caste system and ethnicity will take a long time. Can ministers and public representatives behave!!! The political system has to call the shots. According to one such person what will happen next and who knows so that it is better for me to amass whatever one can. Good; the nouveau riche at the expense of the taxpayer. How can the deficit go away when the thinking is the way it is where renters are created in a society and where the ethics is to get rich without working?