Poverty has to do with incomes and incomes are hard to come by in contracting economies. It is assumed by all of us tacitly or otherwise, that the economic system will be in equilibrium by itself. That is not so. The growing dissatisfaction between the rich and the poor is a very understandable cause of dissatisfaction and criticism.
The explanations generally given are more or less in the realm of undergraduate economies and provided by some defunct economists or 'babus' in the public hierarchy. That has always been the case and one remembers the day that Musharraf went to Davos and tried to tell them what growth was and how it can be achieved. The public document was to say the least, poor work. The demand for greater social justice will always be there unless Pakistan does some self-corrections.
I may add that these self-corrections are not part of a self-act and not dependent on the aid or other negotiations that may take place with donor agencies. Pakistan seems to be stricken with issues, some of which are of one's own making, while others are caused by undue dependence on the wisdom of the west. The economic instability and mass unemployment will remain unless we take evasive action based on our own abilities of cause and effect.
The future solutions have to be better than the past solutions. Are we in Pakistan prepared for the solutions or are we going to be involved in a series of we were the best [when we were not]? The past is another world and the grave diggers need not say what they have been up to and how well they performed. Societies perform well when the works of their maestros are accepted by the nation and not by any self-acclaim that is exaggerated. The problem and the issues have been complicated by the stagnant minds based in Islamabad. The issues and demands on the limited resources will always be less until we understand as a nation that the ego has to be controlled by the assets that one earns as against assets that are taken away by the rich at throw-away prices. The effort will be to try and identify the causes of the problem and at some later point in time, work out the solution.
The economic order of all countries comes out of a seemingly chaotic situation, but then that is regulated by institutions that are in the public or private sector. The chaos that one has to deal with means that there has to be a continuous involvement with adaptations and policy flexibility. The disturbances may become so extensive that it may impair the entire economic system and that is how we are at the moment. The point one is making is that there will have to be continuous monitoring and evaluation of the economic situation[s]. The basic tenet has to be with the productivity in all sectors including the public bureaucracy. The production system [agriculture and industry] is not the only one limiting the productivity factor but the whole gambit of government actions. The fore-production and the end production have to be kept in mind. Indirect detouring has a time-effect on decisions and is a cost factor that has never been understood by the regulators who relish the idea of making money by any means. This affects the reputation of the nation, especially if this is a negotiated matter in the international arena. In the production systems, the division of labour is not the major cause of lack of productivity but the lack of decent and meaningful education of the poor people of this country, be it in the rural areas or in the urban areas, by allowing the mass privatisation of education, the investment was made as if this is a money-making sector. This is and will ever remain a knowledge creating sector. By allowing the private sector into the education sector, the issues have been complicated and compounded. All these chains of schools employing teachers that have third rate attitudes and values and the lack of parental guidance have made sure that the future generations will be at odds in the economic system.
The problem of equilibrium disturbances is not only based on agriculture and industry but also on the social side and we have seen how disturbed the entire system is due to the fight on terrorism, the social inequities between provinces, optimum and pessimism, trust and mistrust, decision-making and the lack of it. In fact, if the disturbances in the Arab world are taken seriously then the IT revolution will take us to more social revolutions.
How are these disturbances to be resolved for they are beyond the realm of the particular ministries and I may add beyond the management of the entire public sector? It calls for flexibility in the public sector and it calls for the policymakers to be above board and it also means that indecision has to be countered by the political system.
These indecisions flow from the bureaucracy that has lost its vibrancy and its spine and has become subservient to the political system - whatever that may be democratic or tyrannical. That probably is the best way to explain what the acts of commission by the Musharraf government have done to the decision-making process?
The monkeys on top of the political order at that time made sure that they brought in from the west lesser monkeys to do the biddings of other governments than their own. They were paid huge amounts and an aura of invincibility was created about their expertise. Home-grown knowledge, without any intentional guilt about it, is better than ay amount of Socratic thought that the emissaries of the west can give. These monkeys from the banking system were less aware of the doings of their left hand than the knowledge about the rural and urban economy[s].
Whatever the nature of these disturbances the adaptation that is required is different for each kind of disturbance. In that sense the death of a gentleman minister belonging to the minorities sends a message about this country that is despicable and that ought to lead to some soul-searching. The entire minority sector is shaken by this. Someone lost a son, a brother and the entire relationships have been sent in to turmoil. Does it have economic consequences? It does.
Pakistan is in no economic system and I may be wrong in my assessment for after all this country is somehow evolving. The evolvement may not be the way we like but nevertheless it is there. The Nizam-i-Hasti to which we generally allude to ensures that something has to go on. We are in a different kind of command economy than the collective economy of the socialist order. Here the command is governed by self-interest and asset collection[s]. The order is disturbed and I used to say that the leaking system has to be corrected but instead the leaking system has no bottom any more. It is one system without bottom, where there is no way that haemorrhaging can be stopped. The leaks of the banking systems where reforms were brought in, the leaks in the over-invoicing system, where capital goods were brought in at exorbitant prices and then equity and extra money were siphoned off.
These are pointers that have to be sorted out. Why are the poultry prices where they are? Why should a few hold all the tricks against the social order? The matter would be difficult to explain by those that have purposely created a monopoly in the poultry industry. At one time, the Commerce Ministry brought in the summary to the ECC when it was not their responsibility and one enquired of the committee whether the chicken of the commerce ministry were producing mangoes [it was August] and the Secretary Commerce bless his soul understood what was being said and agreed that they had been sent loads of mangoes to bring this summary to the ECC. Graft and mindsets are made of different kind of fag behaviour.
Such clever manipulations do not help the nation and the economy that suffers from large scale disequilibrium. We have had PM's in the tyrannical system that never had any knowledge of the rural areas and then provided subsidy to the poultry industry based on the fact that a relative of his was in that industry. He could be identified by the number of congratulatory banners that he set up for the Musharraf-Aziz regime. Where does all the money go - it goes to dacoits and to thieves and that is exactly what happens in an economy that does not reward hard work? Next time the Ministry of food and agriculture will be in analysis to show how they perverted the economic system[s].