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Dear Rubina Sahiba,
You have received three letters from concerned Pakistanis, who are looking for
answers to their questions, the questions are related to Pakistan ’s insolvent
socio-economic condition and God forsaken political culture. The problems are of
course, quite obvious, the solutions may not be so clear. The implementation of
any proposed solution would indeed be quite difficult as the thugs in power
would not allow any development to take place that can put them out of business.
The first question from the first e-mail, in fact, is not a question, it is a
statement claiming that every one knows what the problems are. Well, in that
case, what are the problems? What is holding them back from coming up with the
solutions? Are they sure they really know what the problems are?
The second question is an inquiry to determine why the people of Pakistan are
avoiding the red revolution, perhaps referring to a bloody revolution. May they
are patient people, want to wait for a peaceful solution.
The third question is if the intellectuals have ever given it a thought as to
why the Pakistani people are getting worst off with the passage of time? The
things can only deteriorate in time when the country is being ruled by
incompetent people for decades in a row.
The fourth question: Has any one given it a thought as to why no leaders are
created in Pakistan ?
The second e-mail describes the story of political workers and politicians such
as Kaira and others. The related problems are nothing but typical tales of
Pakistani political culture that runs on deceit and sham. Their political
behaviors are interlinked; the origin of all of them is the same, which is,
personal greed, incompetence and sole interest of creating personal riches at
the cost of the country. They deliver nothing to the public, but create plenty
for their own pockets and their foreign bank accounts. There is no
accountability for the government officials and a system of check and balance
simply does not exists.
In my opinion, all questions and concerns are related to each other and same
causes are responsible for creating the problems and to sustain them.
Unwittingly, the people of Pakistan are, to some extent, part of the problem
although not consciously. Their fault is that they vote for same thugs for whom
they have voted in the past. Pakistanis must refrain from relying upon already
known incompetent and corrupt politicians. None of them is a leader of a caliber
of any significance and the public must not rely on their sales pitch. They will
be useless tomorrow as they were yesterday.
There are hundreds of problems but a single root cause for all of them - thieves
and thugs pose as leaders and politicians who have a monopoly on buying the
votes that leads to inadequate governance once they get into the office. In the
63 year history of Pakistan , the country has been ruled by both, the military
as well as the civilian rulers. Each one was as bad as the other, the present
ruling party is by far the worst in the history of Pakistan . The inept and
incompetent governments are the main root cause for all the problems of Pakistan
.
At a minimum, the executive running a country must have the following
attributes:
Intelligence,
Honesty,
Patriotism,
Education and experience of running business,
Passion for providing justice and equity for all,
Strong interest in, and respect for science and scientists, and
Robust plans to deploy the best technocrats to achieve self-sufficiency for the
country in all areas of science and technology.
Other than Jinnah , Pakistan never had a ruling individual or a party that
possessed the attributes, listed above. No wonder the country is in a miserable
state today. The present government is really digging the (economic) hole at a
rapid rate. If they manage to hang around for another three years, Pakistan may
never recover from its losses and its enemies may break it into several pieces
to fulfill their own geopolitical goals.
The poor governance has been the problem all along. But at present, there is
simply no governance at all. The rulers with fake degrees are busy in the loot
and pillage of the national assets. Their official salaries and frills are no
less than a loot when compared with the income of the average person; most of
whom have no clean drinking water, electricity for only 4-6 hours in every 24
hours and poor health and education system. The businesses and factories are
folding up due to electricity shortage.
Most of these problems have existed for decades, but now the magnitude of the
problems is much greater than ever before. The population is increasing rapidly
while the resources are dwindling at the same rate. The rulers fill their own
pockets and disappear from the scene. The next set of thugs move into the office
and repeat the process of plunder. In the end, the poor Pakistani public is left
behind holding an empty bag.
The real question here is what to do about the lack of governance and how to get
rid of the thugs?
There are solutions, but not easy to implement. No meaningful solution can be
implemented under the present system. In theory, the present system is supposed
to be a parliamentary democracy, in reality it is far from it, it is a farce. It
is a civilian dictatorship, a kind of oligarchy, whereby a small group of
individuals have all the powers like a dictator. All members of this group are
complicit in robbing the public in broad day light under the pretense of
democracy. The present day so called democracy was introduced via NRO. Since NRO
has been declared null and void, the voting system that brought the present
rulers in power should also be declared null and void and the public must demand
for new elections.
One man one vote only works if the voters are educated and knowledgeable about
the system and are in a position to assess and evaluate the political
candidates. Giving the voting rights to those who are totally illiterate, only
results in electing people like Jamshed Dasti with fake degrees and other
semiliterate, the parliament is full of them. With this level of intellect, they
cannot be expected to run a government for 170 million people in modern times.
The Pakistani voters must refuse to vote for any one who has been in politics
before and is known to be incompetent and corrupt. There is hardly any point in
trying them again. This goes for more or less all the major parties that exist
today. No one should vote for any individual who has been in power in the past
or at present. Their performance is known, why to repeat a mistake. There are
those who want to get into the PM office the third time. The public must refrain
from supporting them. If they bring them in power again, they will be as useless
in the future as they have been in the past.
A revolution is required to ban all the current politicians for life who are in
the parliament today. Perhaps a military dictator who possesses those
attributes, listed above can come in to set a new political direction and save
the country from a complete collapse which is imminent for Pakistan .
The bottom line is that one has to be either selective about the voters, or be
selective about the politicians running for public offices. The present feudal
system works only in favor of the feudal lords and does not serve the public. A
party where the leadership is inherited via a will is totally unacceptable and
dangerous for the country; the proof is in the pudding and Pakistanis are eating
that pudding right now. Pakistani public must refrain from supporting the family
dynasties posed as political parties.
There is no shortage of highly intelligent, educated, patriotic and competent
people in Pakistan . There is no shortage of leadership either, but the problem
is that the present feudal system will not allow any good man to rise and take
charge to turn around the fate of the nation. Imran Khan is perhaps the best
example. He will never get any where without being able to spend billions of
rupees to buy his political clout. The corrupt political old hands have already
stolen so much money over the years that they can afford to invest a small
portion of the loot to buy support, create their clout and pull in the votes
from the illiterate villagrs. Have you not noticed, it is mostly the same
handful of individuals who are in and out of the parliament? In most cases, the
business of the national loot has become a family dynasty and the public offices
are handed down from father to son as if the country is their personal property.
It is the responsibility of the Pakistani public to ensure that they do not
encourage the political parties to become family owned dynasties.
Pakistani public must think outside the box and devise a political democratic
method that can be operated independent of money. The system must allow ordinary
but highly educated people (non-feudal lords) to run without the need of buying
the political clout. The feudal lords and their army of paid help brings in
truck and bus loads of villagers and other illiterate cross-section of the
country and instruct them to deposit their ballet papers in a particular ballot
box. This is how the feudal system works and wins elections every time. The
feudal system works for rich political families only, certainly not for ordinary
Pakistanis. The feudal families need to be removed and banned from the political
system of Pakistan . They have destroyed the country, the country cannot afford
to allow them to pretend to be the national leaders, which of course they are
not.
Under the present and very unfortunate circumstances, it is highly desirable to
hope that a patriotic and an intelligent military dictator would come in and ban
all the current politicians and at the same time allow only those to vote who
are educated citizens. The system can revert to one man one vote, when every one
is educated to at least Grade 10 level; it may take another 100 years.
In future, the Pakistani public must refuse to vote for any one who has been a
politician in the current feudal system or any one who represents any of the
political parties currently in the parliament. These unscrupulous politicians
have been tried in the office, there is no point in bringing them back again.
Pakistanis keep putting the wolves in charge of the hen house. They must learn
from their mistakes – they must not vote for these people again.
Furthermore, Pakistani public must support the recent Supreme Court notice to
the president about the dual office which he is holding. The constitution
requires the president to be independent of all political parties and partisan
interests. Not only that he cannot be an office bearer of a political party, he
cannot even be a member and supporter of any. In a parliamentary system, the
positions of the president and the provincial governors are of non-political
nature. When is Pakistani public going to learn these important but subtle
points?
Remember, the Pakistani voters have put the clowns in offices where they do not
belong. It is the duty of the Pakistani public to remove them as early as
possible before the country is totally destroyed and they must never vote for
them again. This is how Pakistanis can help themselves and their country.
In case the army is unable to fix the political problems, as did Kamal Ataturk
in Turkey some 80 years ago, then the public must carry out peaceful
demonstrations in every city and demand for new elections to get rid of the
present NRO improvised government. They should be ready to go to the level of
civil disobedience until their demands are met and the present thugs are forced
to leave the high offices. It is worth repeating that any new election, whenever
held, will only bring useful results if the public refrains from voting for any
of the present day politicians, whether in the government or in the opposition.
Javed Chaudry |
