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Cosmic strings of time are continuous without any knots or numerical
markers as reference points but we humans have invented chronological
milestones for our convenience. There is no denying that timescales
have astronomical genesis. We can't have a 10 month year or a 10 hour
day or 100 minute hour - why not if you come to think of it; it would
be so much more convenient like metric scales - but rotation of the
planets has little to do with everyday life unless one happens to
be a horoscope junkie. Anyhow, apart from closing books of accounts
and government's budget, change of the year has a strong social significance.
For individuals, birthdays are milestones of life's journey to pace
oneself with. Similarly end of the year is a universally festive occasion
where virtually everyone rejoices the advent of the New Year.
As I sit by the window watching the last, soggy (like our spirits)
twilight of 2004 fade out, I am thinking of a New Year's resolution.
This is another one of those illogical quirks of our minds. Why make
a resolution to do something, or more likely to stop doing something,
on the New Year, why not anytime of the year if it is a good change
we wish to make. I suppose it's the ceremonious element that makes
a resolution that much more likely to be binding, whereas invariably
New Year resolutions just about last the first week. Last year I made
a resolution, "no procrastination" - I have a habit of putting
things off out of sheer laziness. I am procrastinating on the resolution
a year later. There we are, and this time I am thinking of a resolution
again.
What if there are communal resolutions instead of individual ones?
Let us think of some interesting ones. For the whole society, there
could be resolution of not living in the past and coming to terms
with contemporary realities. It would mean re-writing history without
chauvinistic delusions and acceptance of some bitter realities that
historians have sugar coated for us and put in the school textbooks.
It would put an end to 'ancestor worship' that debilitates the creative
faculties of the youth. It may even enable us to start thinking of
the future, once in a while. We may start planning infrastructure
- roads, power, communications etc - for the next 15 years instead
of the past 10 years, as we do normally.
We could also seriously think about not blaming others for all our
woes. We could stop worrying about India conquering us physically
- intellectually it is gaining fast but we don't see it. We could
stop blaming degenerate western culture for erosion of moral values
in our society. After all, bribery, nepotism, crony economics and
skimming public sector spending is something we have invented and
fine tuned to an art form. It is not a product of western intellectual
coercion even if other beliefs may be. We could begin to see that
deviation from the Shariah is not preventing dispensation of justice
in the society. We could perceive that sinful leakages in power transmission
are not because of the chicanery of IPPs, World Bank or IMF. These
were general resolutions that can be adopted collectively by the nation.
There are specific ones that emanate out of these general ones.
Military, which is the alter ego of the nation, could make some useful
resolutions too. It has already recanted on some previous follies
but it could resolve as a matter of principle not to embark on ill-thought
adventures as it did in 1965, 1971 and 1999. With the dearth of strategic
think-tanks in civilian domain, the military could develop its in-house
expertise in strategic analysis and coordination between military
action and diplomatic support. Also, since the military has proven
to be efficient in almost all areas of civilian expertise - economic
growth, discipline, rule of law, good governance etc - it can consider
absorbing the civilian spheres in its folds rather than encroaching
upon civilian domains as outsiders. We could expand the military to
include as much of the populace as possible for their economic wellbeing
and poverty alleviation. All businesses, services and administration
could be taken over the military and the civilians employed therein.
Military managed businesses, real estate and services are doing such
a wonderful job with high growth levels. I am sure not many civilians
would mind being a part of the gravy train. The military would do
an equally good job of building the country as it has done of defending
it; and poverty would be no more!
In matters of foreign policy we could consider a paradigm shift towards
India: we could start a spirit of competitive cooperation with India
instead of colliding with it. We could ask the die-hard hawks of special
agencies to shelve the dream of dismantling India through the same
tactics that we think we successfully deployed against the Russian
Empire in Afghanistan. Like the rooster who thinks it makes the sun
rise when it crows, some of our visionaries think they can really
do so. They should look at the numbers of defence expenditures: In
1989 India was spending three times as much on defence as Pakistan;
in 2001 it spent six times more. The differential is going on an exponential
curve. While Pakistan's economy runs out of steam - like the Russian
Empire did - India's economic miracle enables it to sustain such spending.
Pakistan is being sucked into an arms race that it can not afford
or sustain. Anyhow this vision will naturally arise out of the first
resolution - not to live in the past and look at contemporary realities.
Our politicians, God bless them for their dogged tenacity, may like
to admit that despite their valiant sacrifices parliamentary democracy
has not taken roots in the society. They could resolve to stop blaming
others (second proposed resolution) for its failure. If they had true
representation, all it would take is 10 percent of the country's population
to respond to their call and just come out and stand on the pavements
peacefully in protest. Any government, leave alone a U.S backed military
regime, would collapse by the evening. The problem is that they become
parties to the chicanery of power haggling and shed their own credibility.
Here is a resolution for the politicians on all sides of all divides:
we will seriously begin to consider alternative forms of democracy;
this parliamentary charade is not working.
The civil services, as custodians of administrative machinery, could
resolve to review their role in the political economy. They are trained
to sit as watch dogs on a morass of redundant rules of conducting
government functions. With the discretionary powers bestowed upon
them and the hapless inability of the public (including politicians)
to understand the complexity of rules, they rule the roost and impede
productive activity partly for avarice and partly out of habit. They
soon come to realise that this habit is lucrative and the rest we
all know. Bureaucracy may consider changing from 'controllers' to
'enablers' of productive activities with an enlightened self-interest.
A well regulated and efficiently supported industry and trade can
unleash the country's immense productive talents and give a rocket
boost to the economy. As the economy booms they can appropriate a
fair share of remuneration like private sector executives and live
happily without fears of mid-night knocks that invariably do come
from time to time. Clean assets will breed clean minds, straight generations
and a clean and competitive society. Our dear bureaucracy could think
about it; it is not too hard to envisage for sharp minds like theirs;
after all they are the intellectual cream of the society. Well?
We could go for minor ones like resolving to obey traffic laws at
all times irrespective of the colour of the number plate on our vehicles
or even to stop ogling unabashedly in public and private. I have given
a fair sized menu; New Year's resolution anyone? For a week at least.
Iqbal Mustafa
1320 word
01 January 2005
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