Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 29, 1429    

Elected government: A waking dream

Comment
Abdul Sattar
Editor, Foreign Affairs

Pakistanis are today in a state of hope which Aristotle defined as a waking dream. We are entitled to be optimistic that the consensus government formed after fair and free elections in February can and will address the multiple problems facing our nation.

Obviously elected leaders, too, are entitled to pride in their legitimacy and all of us who wish to see our state progress towards democracy wish the new leaders Godspeed. Not all the current problems are the creation of the predecessor regime though President Pervez Musharraf inflicted grave injuries on state institutions in pursuit of obsession with self-perpetuation especially after March 9.

Food and fuel crises for example are due to global factors. The power crisis could have been prevented but it partly due to failure to build new neglect reservoirs over four decades. Corruption and inefficiency are endemic to developing countries and past political governments have made a large contribution to deteriorationin Pakistan. Extrication from all these crises will require transformation of populist approaches, purposeful planning and reformation of administration and its personnel.

Formation of consensus government after fair and free elections is worthy of celebration in itself not only because it is rare in our history but also because it marks significant advance on the road towards the nation’s desired destination of a progressive, modern democratic state which contributes to improvement of economic and social life of all segments of our society.

Democracy has rightly come to be considered as the best form of government and this conclusion is vindicated by the failure of revolutionary ideologies and dictatorships which failed to deliver on their tall promises. Nevertheless a system is a means to ends, and only performance of elected leaders will determine whether hopes and expectations of the electorate are realistic. For that judgment we must wait with patience and prayer.

A mere month after new government’s entry into office it is too early by far to begin an assessment of its performance. Even for a preliminary assessment one should wait at least till the expiry of the hundred days for which the Prime Minister has announced his government’s action programme.

Even this timeframe is too short because like many other developing countries Pakistan faces multiple problems among which some have reached crisis proportions. Aiming at solving these crises in quick time would be impractical.

The best one can hope is that government will succeed in containing and alleviating hardships of the people groaning under unprecedented rise in prices of essential consumer goods. The question for the present is only whether the government has embarked on a promising plan and set up mechanisms to conceive and implement salutary strategies.

Salutary strategies. Good governance is more than ever necessary if only because unprecedented crises threaten mass suffering and anarchy. Food crisis, to take an example at once most elementary and soluble, can be defused by right policies and vigilant administration.

There is no logical reason why wheat farmers should be subjected to discrimination when those who produce rice, corn or soybeans can sell their harvests at prevailing international prices. Nor is there logic in artificially maintaining wheat flour price in Pakistan at fifteen or twenty rupees a kilo while the item sells at equivalent of forty-five rupees in Afghanistan and thirty rupees in India.

If this glaring anomaly which has created more problems than the government has a capacity to solve is rectified farmers can be confidently expected to respond to remunerative prices. No doubt higher prices of wheat flour add to hardships of poor and low-income people and therefore government has a duty to devise an efficient safety net. Other countries, both rich and poor, have done so and so too can Pakistan.

Meanwhile, government publicity organs should refrain from eulogizing performance of coalition leaders or their mentors. Propaganda hype projecting them as icons of model governance is neither credible nor in good taste. Popular memory may be proverbially short but the record of the decade of 1990s is still remembered by many and it wasn’t entirely unblemished. The National Reconciliation Ordinance cannot obliterate that record though it gave immunity from prosecution which, incidentally, is contrary to principles of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Hope springs eternal and popular mind appears to be ready to rise above past experience.

Instead people are inclined to hope for repentance and moral reform on part of sinners. Almighty Allah can change mindsets and guide those who deviated from sirat al mustaqeem in the past come back to the right path and earn a memorable record.

Also useful if not necessary would be philosophic introspection. Those who think only of advancing personal or family interests seek satisfaction in acquisition of wealth and power which are no doubt a source of pleasure, especially if derived by licit means but such pleasure do not – and cannot - yield inner satisfaction and happiness. According to religious beliefs salvation depends on observance of prescribed conduct.

Secular and utilitarian philosophies also agree that enduring happiness depends on rational social conduct that is mindful of consequences for society as a whole. Even Epicureans reject the view that conduct should be guided solely by calculus of pleasure and pain.

Humans are endowed with spiritual drive to seek higher ends than those of beasts. Their life has nobler purpose and for its fulfillment thinking persons have to contribute to humanity’s struggle for collective harmony and happiness.