Candid Corner
What is required is a change of mindset. Nothing less will do
“Dad?” she said. “Do you want some coffee,” he asked? “Are you okay?” She shook her head. No. “There are only so many hours you can sleep in a stranded vehicle.” He glanced at the dashboard of her car, then at the untouched receipt – her receipt, sticking out of the machine a few feet away like a white tongue. “There are only so many times you can try to resurrect the dead. You can sit there all you want, but you are not going anywhere. And stuck as you are, you’ll be forced to think about it, forced t,o wake up at some point, forced to depart or die here.”
Angela Panayotopulos: ‘The Wake Up’
What is going on around us does not appear real. A pernicious sentiment appears to be driving the narrative.
On the one side, the government comes across as struggling on some fronts, but it is also making earnest efforts to incorporate reform and mitigate the sufferings of the poor, be it in its endeavours to bring down the cost of the essential commodities, or providing support for sustenance by enhancing the quantum of help and expanding the network of beneficiaries. The effort may still be wanting in certain respects, but the sentiment is genuine. Unfortunately, this does not resonate with the parties which constitute what we refer to as the opposition and their support network.
For them, every effort that the government makes is fallacious and fake. They consider it a fabrication of the establishment (read military) which has just about failed, and holding another election has become essential. Even its significant achievements which were never even thought of by the former rulers, including initiatives for providing relief to the poorest segments of the society, are brashly rubbished.
These are the two opposites that we are squeezed between: the government which is trying to make a difference, and the opposition which insists that the incumbent is not capable of running the country and must quit forthwith. Neither of these positions is based entirely on substantive logic and rationale. More appropriately, they reflect the respective bucket lists.
The Prime Minister’s heart is in the right place. He also remains committed to his original agenda. But he cannot do it alone. He needs a team of the very best. They are available. He should look afresh at his choices with a flexible mind and make the changes which have been long overdue
But, the head-on does not appear to be subsiding. This is also understandable because it is a different kind of battle that is waging. It is not like the good old times of sharing the spoils of power by taking turns. Hidden behind a fake appearance of confrontation, the two leading parties would continue to collaborate to their individual and combined benefit. This approach resided in keeping the institutions weak and subservient to the diktat of the executive so that they could not pose a challenge to the despotic dispensation of the oligarchs and clean up the enormous mess that had piled up over decades of corruption and misrule.
On the other hand, the incumbent government secured power on the promise of invoking transparency and accountability. While it may have been successful in creating a relatively conducive environment for the former, it needed institutional support for tackling the second challenge. That it did not have, and will not have in the immediate future, because creating institutions is a time-consuming process. The performance of the NAB is a classic case. Instead of helping the government clean up the mess, it has become an embarrassment. There is not a single conviction it has been able to secure in mega corruption cases except that weakling one about Nawaz Sharif. All they are interested in is to arrest the accused, keep them incarcerated for prolonged periods of time and negotiate plea bargains with them so that they could pocket their share of the bargain.
Just when the government appeared to be enjoying a breather from the ceaseless clamour of the opposition, there is NAB again with its ill-conceived plans– this time by arresting a media mogul in a 34-year old case. It is already being (wrongly) painted as an act of political vendetta, but that’s how every such action would be projected by an increasingly beleaguered opposition and media. In the end, it would accrue further embarrassment for the government.
Other institutions of the state have fared no better, including the FBR and the BOI – two key ones in the context of taking the country forward. Individuals of dubious merit were posted who were later relieved of their charge when they were found unable to deliver. The question is why due diligence is not carried out before making these appointments. If competent and capable individuals are selected in the first place, it would save the government a lot of mortification and help it take its developmental agenda forward at a quick pace.
And this developmental agenda is also the government’s key strength. If it has to bring any transformative change, it need to have a team of qualified and competent people as in-charge of various institutions so that they are able to knit together in drafting a progressive work plan and putting together effective and transparent implementation mechanisms to move into the future.
Now is the best time to do that because the opposition is in utter disarray. There are wide cracks appearing within the PML-N and some of its legislators are openly raising a voice against the myriad misdemeanours of their leaders who have yet again decamped leaving them to suffer the consequences and shame of their illicit deeds. Meetings of its parliamentary party present the sight of a battleground as factions have emerged, each carrying its own bag of grievances. Nawaz Sharif is history, Shahbaz Sharif is fast becoming so and Maryam Safdar was a non-starter. The likeliest scenario is that the party may break up into fragments with a bulk switching over to the PTI.
The other so-called mainstream party, the PPP, is only a humiliating shadow of its past self. This bit, too, is fast dissolving into the poisonous juices of its corruption and incompetence. The province that it has ruled for most of the past 50 years is a living example of their vile apathy and criminal indulgences to the deprivation of the poor and the needy. There does not appear a chance in hell that this would improve even marginally in the days to come. In fact, their very existence as a political party may be gravely imperilled.
The government’s woes revolve around the people it has as part of its team. This has generated a trust deficit. It is time for Prime Minister Imran Khan to get cracking on selecting the best to take forward the core of his developmental agenda. Obviously, some heads will roll, but that is a small price to pay for the resurgence of a party which is still associated with change. Mistakes made with no ulterior motives are quickly forgotten. The leader and his assemblage of people will be remembered for irreversibly transforming the fate of the impoverished millions of the country who survive on the throw-away morsels of the beneficiary elite.
I know that the Prime Minister’s heart is in the right place. He also remains committed to his original agenda. But he cannot do it alone. He needs a team of the very best. They are available. He should look afresh at his choices with a flexible mind and make the changes which have been long overdue.
Now is the time to deliver.