COMMENT: Democracy, not machinations, please —Shahab Usto - Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Source : http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\10\26\story_26-10-2010_pg3_4

The decades-old elitist machinations and opportunism have sapped the foundations of the state, germinating far deeper existential threats to it and to the citizens. Therefore, it is time to detach the state from the elitist clutches; let it breed a democratic culture that evolves a new grassroots leadership, modern social and political institutions, and a renaissance of peace and liberties

“Thank God the Supreme Court averted the grand finale with the government,” said a TV commentator reacting to the Supreme Court’s interim decision on the 18th Amendment. But when asked if it would guarantee smooth sailing between the two institutions, he could not answer. No one can, looking at the contentious issues, including that of presidential immunity, awaiting adjudication. So, one can only keep one’s fingers crossed wishing the country to steer out of the storms, the existing and the ones brewing in the boilers of national politics.

But for how long could a country of 18 million people keep its fingers crossed? Why can it not find lasting solutions to its recurring problems, learning from its own mistakes and others’ successes? And having seen numerous civilian governments being toppled by equally inept generals, in collusion with opportunistic politicians and compliant judges, on charges of corruption and misgovernance, why does its people/leaders not delve into the deeper aetiology of its malaise to find the right remedy?

These are the questions that wreck every mind whenever an elected government is faced with déjà vu — imminent dismissal on the same old corruption and inefficiency charges. And yet, neither the fellow politicians nor the dismissed rulers engage in serious introspection. Instead, soon they engage in Machiavellian conspiracies to dislodge the next government, in connivance with the same forces who sent them home or to jail.

And thus goes on the game of musical chairs in Islamabad, at the cost of stability and commonweal of the people. No one acknowledges and deals with the fact that all the elected governments have been caught in the same entrapments: myriad socio-political problems, perennial institutional disharmony, and unbearable external pressures.

The matrix of the current threats to the government remains the same.

Just look at the breadth of the current and the carried-forward socio-political issues: reconstructing one-fifth of the country’s infrastructure and rehabilitating 20 million flood affectees requiring around $ 30 billion as per the World Bank-Asian Development Bank report; reaccelerating the economy and stemming the rising tide of social and political discontent; enhancing governance and minimising corruption in the public sector (and the cabinets); protecting the people from the seemingly unstoppable countrywide terrorism and targeted killings in the country’s financial hub, Karachi; dealing with an eight-year-old insurgency in Balochistan; convincing the US, the mainstay of our economic and defence assistance, to stop the drone attacks on our soil; keeping the powerful establishment from derailing/weakening democracy; and last but not the least, maintaining a rickety coalition government alive in a political culture steeped in opportunism and corruption.

Also, count the rounds of institutional disharmony that have repeatedly sent the system into a tizzy. Leaving aside the traditional now-open-now-covert civil-military power struggle, the Supreme Court’s recent ‘restraining order’ passed on the unconfirmed media reports clearly points to the judiciary-government distrust that will further play out when the court’s obsessive pursuit of the Swiss cases reaches a logical end: adjudication on presidential immunity under Article 248. Would it not be a replay if this government/president were also sent home thanks to the strict ‘application’ of the law?

Likewise, the external pressures, as ever, continue to dominate the political system. The US is virtually sustaining the present setup and the fragile economy. Recently, President Obama patted the government’s back but also demanded action against the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. The US has also threatened to destroy “150 terrorist centres located in Pakistan” if it was attacked by terrorists traced to the country, which is another Damocles sword hanging over our heads. Taking the cue, the Indian prime minister has also called for a new defence strategy to fight the non-state actors who “enjoy patronage and sanctuaries”, an obvious reference to Pakistan.

Therefore, the omens are not good for internal order and regional peace. The expenditure on defence and law and order is bound to increase exponentially at the cost of the social sector. Already, 65 percent of tax revenue is spent on defence and yet last year Rs 200 billion were diverted from the development budget to military operations in Malakand. Which raises the question: with the economy already burdened with the enormous expenditure on the post-flood rehabilitation, who will pay the mounting security bill? The message from the US, the EU, and the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) is clear: first, tax your own affluent classes and then ask the foreign taxpayers to help Pakistan.

Will our powerful elite pay their due share of taxes? Never.

Instead, the rural, urban and state elites would assign the same old recipe: seeking more loans, foreign and local, and thus shifting the burden of repayment to the common man who is already afflicted with high inflation and static wages. No wonder external debt and liabilities have phenomenally increased from $ 35.4 billion in 2005 to $ 40.3 billion in 2007 to the current $ 55.4 billion; and the bowl keeps going around. But, on the other hand, the tax-to-GDP ratio has dismally declined from 14 percent in the mid-1990s to the current nine percent.

Still, the elites are not ready to put the public finances in order and remove the myriad structural and policy ills that have kept all civilian governments, howsoever tainted and weak, inherently unstable and hence more prone to being decapitated or unseated. A host of civilian governments were dismissed during the 1950s and the 1990s. But the state never changed its nature and role as a vehicle of the oligarchic and autocratic interests, underpinned by dogmatism, coercion and fraud.

The decades-old elitist machinations and opportunism have sapped the foundations of the state, germinating far deeper existential threats to it and to the citizens. Therefore, it is time to detach the state from the elitist clutches; let it breed a democratic culture that evolves a new grassroots leadership, modern social and political institutions, and a renaissance of peace and liberties. To wit, get rid of all the wasteful conflicts, internal and external, jealously guard democracy regardless of the rulers’ failings, and institute an accountable, small but smart government.

Only then would the distracting debate on personal ethics that muffles the real issues of democracy, justice and peace become redundant and no intruder, inept or corrupt, can creep into the system through the bullet or Machiavellian brains.

The writer is a lawyer and academic. He can be reached at shahabusto@hotmail.com

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