Imran has and is going to have a difficult time sifting the chamchas from the actual workers. There have been many ways that the chamchas slide up to and make it with the powerful. Calling them opportunists is not enough for they are like the worms and like the American sundi in a cotton bowl they make them abode in the mental minds of the politicians. There were people from Musharraf's regime and they openly changed sides not because of any convictions but merely to be on the winning side as a politician.
There are others who stayed with Musharraf and did their utmost to please him and his uncle based in Cambridge. At that time I had written that the resources of this country had been pilfered by the institutions that were built specifically for that purpose. Musharraf played in to the hands of a few coterie and look what happened to him. It is up to Imran to find out for himself and not be guided by any other persuasion but his own gut feeling. Team building in politics is different and there will be people that will stab him in the back. To that extent the track record of some of them is polluted.
The specific institutions that were created were so created as to be servile to the system and loyal to one man - the dictator himself. One of the planners was so given in to servility that the minute he saw the image of dictators (in whatever form - uniform or by name-dropping) everything was smothered by him and the work went ahead for approval - right or wrong. Imran would do well to check the credentials of those that are now playing his tune to ask what tune they played when Musharraf was in power. Check the planning commission and the projects that were approved and used for siphoning off resources that belonged to this country. Take any new organisation where Musharraf had an overwhelming influence and from where he cleverly ransacked resources. What is honesty to these people?
The other day, some one asked me about the knowledge economy. He quoted someone who had written a series article on this kind of economy. I enquired about the substance in the article and was told that the greats were at it again in respect of agriculture. Muslim science died with Ibne Sina died centuries ago. People who take such titles are in the realm of egonomics not agriculture. There is a serious case of egoistic element in the Pakistan scene. Why this fetish about agriculture when the modern version of IT was the forte of the person? I do not know neither do I care to know about it. The role of the agriculture is considered as a failure of extension and research. Well someone was asked to give a report on the future of agriculture and the powers that be commissioned a report under the HEC. They went in for the same sort of suggestion - redundant and obsolete interventions just as the present one. It is not understood how the taxing of the agriculture sector and then commissioning 30% of it to improve extension work would improve productivity. Money is not the essential item in the equation. I enquired for some more data about the author. It answered my question that the author was trying to curry favour as an intellectual. He may stay with his bit of knowledge without trying to maltreat the agriculture sector.
Some of the interventions are as obsolete as the world and the author himself. Agriculture has very little science in it. For it is art and the sooner we learn it the better. The gentleman, if he is one, does not have an idea as to what are the variables in agriculture. He talks of American influence in democracy and what have you and then goes back to the same obsolete model that was given to us by the Americans. The model has failed. So have their agriculture research - extension model become obsolete. Where assumptions are that the PhD has knowledge the matter comes to a standstill. These days in the institutions helped and created during Musharraf regime the degree is sold for two and half to three lakhs of rupees. The synopsis and the thesis are written by someone who is already under the influence of the director or dean. The money is divided. No questions asked. This is where our knowledge economy is at the moment - full of plagiarism and cut and paste system. Go to all the agriculture universities that were helped at that time and the sordid stories unfold. The representative from the agriculture university in the institution created is as old and obsolete as the policies that were articulated in the article.
Cotton and three other crops are mentioned and the use of water through dams is suggested. Well you need to state your sources of knowledge. I can understand the will to be in power. I cannot understand the way that is being done. Water efficiency is only 11% in this country. So why have dams and large ones at that? How about trying to improve water efficiency? How will one do it through Samsung technology? He used the obsolescence in the various institutions created by Musharraf to help himself to the resources and to create a system of misallocation of resources. It greatly helped the friends in the west. Time and again the question of research-extension has come up and time and again people have written against this simplified way of looking at agriculture. Resources were pilfered away from agriculture during the time of Musharraf. I wonder as to who was responsible for this kind of action. So is the case with inorganic fertiliser. Plagiarism of this kind would not help. Imran needs to have some one who can analyse all these petty articles and give them the lie that they deserve.
As I see the unfolding of the political scene the same sort of clever individuals are again raising their heads. And in fact Imran may already have committed himself to a series of actions that may be difficult to implement by these self-styled experts. Most of the people in the political system are full of activity and not much of action. If we divide the system in to doers, eaters and intriguers guess who will come on top. Do they distinguish between the Khalifa[s] who sit outside the akhara and tell the wrestler what to do? Yeh dow paich ka khail nahin (this is not a game of style). It requires men of courage to sit and do more than their bit for the country. Where will he have proper selfishness and where will he have the improperly selfish come from? We are in the benefit of the nation or our own.
If agriculture is to be the lead sector in the interventions that Imran has promised then the small farmer is to be dealt with fairly. And pray how will this be done? Those that are with agriculture are the ones that do not have any stake with the small farmers. Sure they are well-known in circles as they have taken and parasitically dealt with this sector. The agrarian system is not known to them. The will of the poor is not even within their information structure. There are people available but these guys that are strutting around Imran are not the ones that can deliver. The promise that Imran made is crucial to the nation and knowing him he will do or die with the kind of intervention he has promised. How and who will deliver? It is easier to say what can be done but it is very difficult to state how it will be done. Ideas created in to action require deftness. If these guys were so red hot why did Musharraf lose out to them? Many have perished on this road and many have not even understood the paradoxical aspects of the agriculture sector. The West has certainly used us and continues to do so through its FAOs and through its various international research agencies. These organisations are now geared to serving the needs of the west and to ensure that their demand structure is met.
The choice has to be Imran's and let no one mislead him. He carries that kind of ability where he will not be misled. They might do so for a while-I only hope it is for a while. Wisdom is not transactional and neither is policymaking. One has to live with it passionately. The alternatives in agriculture are more exciting then what you and I make out. The excitement of Karachi and the promises have to be fulfilled. May it be possible? Shall these be possible?