Modi, who thrives on confrontation and jingoism, has done us a favour. A fractious nation suddenly closed ranks to stand together. The joint session of parliament said it all: we can rise above internecine divides. Use of the term 'Establishment', our way of describing the Big Brother, zoomed out of public discourse. Pride in the armed forces has resurfaced, with a new vigour and respect.
Will it be a fleeting moment? With clouds dispersed would we be back to our old ways? Is the enemy 'within' more menacing than the one outside? That's the national challenge: how do we convert Pulwama and what followed into an opportunity that we can build on. We all need to do our bit, but none more than the Prime Minister.
The PM is a great admirer of Nelson Mandela. He should take a leaf out of his book. The moment for national reconciliation is here. He can either keep calling names, or he can stitch the wounds together. Gods are smiling on him. He can be our Mandela.
The political environment has to be made less toxic. Political differences are part of the democratic process but it is dismaying when in the name of policy debates 'leaders' hurl abuse at each other. It corrodes our faith in the system when the typical rejoinder to a charge of misdemeanor is 'you did it too'. It rattles our value system when invidious arguments are advanced to defend what is manifestly wrong.
We need a lot of 'peace gestures' to set the tone right. Government has to make the right overtures, within and outside the parliament. The PM made an inspiring speech upon election, only to ruin its impact in the maelstrom of brickbats in the first session of Assembly. Let his measured speech to the joint session be his standard from now on.
The dignity of his office demands remaining above the fray and reaching out to friends and foes alike. Reciprocity may not follow immediately but eventually will if the Treasury benches take the lead in demonstrating decency and in championing good reason, even if it comes from the other side of the aisle.
In the din of what passes for parliamentary debates the real issues get buried. Take the ruckus over PAC. The argument of PML-N not heading PAC would lose all relevance if we focus on the long time it takes for an audit observation to become the audit para that PAC considers.
By the time the matter gets to the PAC we have the farcical situation of the incumbent Principal Accounting Officer defending the sins of his long gone predecessor. To be meaningful Audit has to be current. That is what we should be addressing. This is the time to gain diplomatic salience. We may want to lean on the OIC resolution on Kashmir to declare victory but we can't fool ourselves into believing the world is with us. The current mood of solidarity provides a rare opportunity to set this right - "putting our house in order", to use a hackneyed cliché.
We will not be able to reset our relations with the outside world until we dispel the perception of our not being a responsible state. Arguing it as an unfounded perception will not wash. We have no idea of the extent of our control over organizations and individuals the world thinks we protect and promote. If they are deemed to be an 'asset' this is the time to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis. This is the time when tough decisions can be taken. This is the time when fallout effects can be contained.
Fortuitously, civ-mil tensions have abated. National interest can now be better defined, and the real sifted from the perceived. The current mood is conducive to facing inconvenient truths, even by those who have grown up living with them.
Getting blacklisted by the FATF may not be an unmitigated disaster - we have been there before - but its message will echo far beyond banking restrictions. UNSC (freezing and seizure) Order 2019, that enables implementation of Security Council sanctions against designated entities and individuals, is a step in the right direction. Let's now walk the talk.
We can't give diplomacy a chance if we persist in a state of denial. Our third head of the dragon is the economy. The PM's articulation may have been convoluted but he got the idea right: wealth creation and welfare. We need both, and not one at the cost of the other. The trouble is welfare is costly and 'trickle-down-effect' of wealth creation is hogwash. Social safety nets, multilateral donors' way of hooding the ugly face of raw capitalism, hardly scratch the surface. If we truly believe in human dignity, as enjoined by the Constitution, we can pursue 'welfare' of the people through universal basic income, progressive taxing of wealth, and job creation.
The first we can't afford, the second we should. For the last we need a confident and thriving private sector. Three things stand out about our employment numbers: they are understated, the number of educated unemployed is disturbing, and employment growth has been significantly short of GDP growth. The private sector is unlikely to step up to the plate in the current environment of intimidation. Unless that is corrected there will be little employment generation, nor any perking up of economic output and tax buoyancy.
What kind of message are we sending out when top industry leaders, the likes of Mian Mansha and Hussain Dawood, spend more time worrying 'what next?' than expanding their business?
Let's follow Mandela. Let's have reconciliation with the business community as well. Put a curtain on the past and ring-fence the future to make sure any transgressions hence forth will be acted upon immediately and with severity.
Risk-averse businessmen cannot help the economy. They need to have the confidence that a bad business decision will not draw out the sword of the State. Even in tax matters the government does not really gain; the lawyers do. All the FBR claims stuck up in the courts is evidence enough.
PM's meetings with the business leaders will be of little avail if the future is trapped in the past. We need a new 'contract' with business. Call it amnesty, if you must.
shabirahmed@yahoo.com