| April 2, 2002 | Tuesday | Muharram 18,1423 |
Remembering Latif on a personal note
Palestine and the world conscience
I was once asked by a journalist friend to write the obituary of a famous artist. “But he is alive!” I said.
A POINT has reached whereby the wisdom of taking any further loan from international lending agencies ought to be seriously questioned and reconsidered. The reason is very simple: the fallout of the conditionalities attached to the loans is becoming too much of a burden on the average man, while the supposed economic and social benefits are nowhere in sight.
For a country like ours, where external revenue is hard to come by and which is getting harder by the day because we have done precious little to really develop and expand our export sector or to encourage direct foreign investment, it was but natural that repayment of foreign loans would have to be done by raising revenue domestically.
Hence, the 15 per cent GST imposition and withdrawal of government subsidies from a wide range of goods and services. Implemented together at the same time, both these policies of raising revenue internally are squeezing consumers dry to the bone as the prices of just about everything is rising and will probably rise further as the GST net widens and the subsidy net shrinks.
Those in government service have been compensated a little by being given a salary increase at the end of last year, but people in government service are only a small fraction of the population of the country. Majority of the people are hard hit by the price hike caused by imposition of GST and removal of government subsidies. Where is all this continued borrowing going to lead us to eventually?
A major rethinking is needed into the way the economy of the country is being managed. Loans are not going to help us out of the present financial rut. According to a World Bank study foreign aid works only in countries with good and right policies and strong institutions. We are grossly deficient on both counts.
We have to help ourselves. IMF and World Bank loans produce results only in those countries which are politically, economically and socially disciplined and wise enough to handle these loans. Otherwise, the country is prone to exploitation by the international lending agencies.
Did our policy-makers seriously consider the economic pros and cons before accepting the widely trumpeted $1.3 billion PRGF loan or political consideration was the only motive behind the decision? What would have been the economic consequences of not taking the loan? Wouldn’t bearing those economic consequences have been better for the country and the people in the long run rather than contracting new loans for which the people are now being squeezed to pay back for, without much hope of better days on the horizon?
Would it not have been economically wiser if, instead of taking more loans, the government would have sought more time to repay previous debts and at the same time try to improve the country’s internal and especially, external, revenue base? This route might also have necessitated a GST imposition but perhaps much less than the present 15 per cent.
What has helped many developing countries, like China, Singapore and Malaysia to name a few, to develop and increase economic welfare of its people is not foreign aid, but foreign investment and trade expansion. Governments in Islamabad, however, have never seriously directed their energy towards these goals. The reasons include political instability, weak institutions and poor policies.
The most important reason, however, seems to be domestic political pressure against foreign direct investment and foreign trade. Whether in the name of nationalism, fear of erosion of sovereignty and local culture, or protection of indigenous products and local industries, foreign direct investment and foreign trade in this country have not been encouraged in the manner that they have been in many other developing countries. Hence, we have practically been by-passed by the international surge in private capital flows to developing countries in the 1990s.
Those developing countries that are economically strong today are precisely those very countries that welcome foreign direct investment, e.g., China, Singapore and Malaysia, as opposed to say, Myanmar or the Democratic Republic of Korea. Such foreign direct investment is mostly in the manufacturing and services sector and it usually involves the transfer of valuable intangible assets like technology, organizational skills, and research and marketing knowledge, most of which often spills over from the foreign ventures to the local economy.
So far, we have merely been doing a lot of lip service to the need for foreign investment and foreign trade. The lack of foreign investment has been conveniently attributed to political instability and security problems while the lack of foreign trade has been largely attributed to the reluctance of western countries to open up their markets to our goods. The reality, however, is that we have neither adopted the policies nor developed the infrastructure required for actually attracting and welcoming foreign investment as well as for promoting foreign trade. Instead, our policies have only been encouraging and favouring the black economy.
We need to stop discouraging foreign direct investment and foreign trade on political grounds. We need to be prepared to take some painful risks associated with such policies, like the closure of uncompetitive firms and the transfer of resources to profitable sectors. The free flow of information and the opening of labour markets that accompany opening up may also disrupt social and political institutions. To minimize and successfully manage all these risks, we need to strengthen our policies and institutions.
Unless we open up the country to foreign investment and foreign trade, we will remain isolated from the global market, unable to meet the challenges of globalization, while our people in general will continue to be deprived of the economic and social benefits that many other developing countries, which have opened up their economies, are enjoying.
Our country desperately needs a leader of the stuff like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Deng Xiaoping or Mahathir Mohammed. All of them were responsible for turning their country’s economic fortunes around through sound, pragmatic policies and by opening up their country to foreign investment and foreign trade. Are we ready to do this?
“Indeed he is. But he is very ill. We generally keep obituaries of famous people ready just in case... you know what I mean... one should avoid last minute embarrassment....”
Getting a cue from the above and in a moment of light heartedness I suggested to my journalist friend: “You, Latif Kapadia and I are in the same age group and vulnerable in equal measure. What about our obituaries?”
“Good idea!” my friend said.
“But let’s not leave it to others. We can write our own obituaries, can’t we? I can write yours, you will perhaps write Latif’s.”
“Who will write mine?” I asked.
Needless to say, none of us took the matter seriously and forgot all about it.
Today, Friday, March 29 — Latif is the one to go first. Smart guy. He died early that morning. Only the previous evening, he was recording an Anwar Maqsood play on Ghalib. He lost his breath during the recording but refused to heed Anwar’s advice to go home and take rest. Instead, he asked Moin Akhtar to take him to Liaquat National Hospital across the road so that he may get himself “recharged” with some oxygen. At the hospital he was given oxygen and as soon as he had regained his breath he returned to the set to finish the scene.
I have just come back from Mewa Shah Qabristan after burying my friend. As the slabs were placed on the grave and Latif was never to be seen again by anyone except the angels, people present there were asked: “Aaeeaye hazraat, mitti deejiaye!” I too stepped forward and threw some earth on his grave, and as I wiped my hands with a handkerchief, I could hear Latif say: “Chalo, ye kaam bhi hua!”
He had his pet expression for every occasion and I am sure he always meant what he said. Raising his glass he would never forget to shout: “Hail Hitler! Jiye Bhutto!” His message to the world was clear: “Sanbhalnay ka hai. Jamana bara najuk hai, kya.” His affection for his children was reflected in the suffixes he added to their names: Jamila was Jamila Bano, Ruby was Ruby Jones, son Ahmad Husain was Qibla Ahmad Hussain Kapadia. His old friend Mushtaq Ali Khan was Barbad Ali Khan. (Incidentally, Mushtaq too passed away a month ago and informing me about his death, Latif said: “Yar, Barbad mar geya!”)
The Kapadia family is an unassuming and loving family. In this family there is no place for ego or hypocrisy — and the lack of craving for money and power makes them a delightful bunch of people. In some ways Latif was different from his eight brothers (four of them are no more in this world now) since no one could beat him in exuberance and an unending quest for excitement in life. Even as a small boy he would keep jumping and dancing on one leg, prompting his grandmother to remark to his father: “You will see he will work in a Natak company one day.” Prophetic words. Adventure ran in his blood. At the age of 14 he ran away with a friend to Lahore to join the filmi dunya. They called on Madame Noorjehan who discouraged the boys and advised them to return home at once.
My friendship with Latif goes back half a century. It was on the stairs of Aimai House on Victoria Road that we first met. I was with Barbad Ali Khan and Latif was with Safirullah Lehri. We became friends instantly. Those were carefree days. Lehri and Latif would present skits on stage and Latif would also sing the songs of Pankaj, Jugmohan and Hemant in his deep, melodious voice. He was a good singer but he never took his singing seriously.
The high points of a relationship spread over five decades can not be recalled coherently. It is 1980. After an exciting New Year in Bombay, Latif takes us to Abrahma, small village in Indian Gujrat where he was born. We take the train from Bombay and it is raining and Latif is singing: Jug mein chalay pawan ki chal. The four-hour journey takes us to Amalsad from where we ride a bus to Abrahma. Walking through the narrow lanes we pass by a lake. Latif’s wife Aman shows us the place by the bank where she along with her friends Ratna, Madhuri and Shanti used to go to wash clothes. She also points to the big banyan tree under which Latif’s mother is buried. “I am looking at this tree after 30 years,” says Latif. At home, Latif’s mother-in-law tells us: “They were kids when they got married and left for Pakistan.” The following day we leave for Krishnapur and are struck by the sight of the long line of village damsels in their multi-coloured saris and glittering brass vessels balancing on their heads, going to the river to fetch water.
We reach Dharampur in the evening and hire a bullock cart to go to Jharia, a small village in the jungle. We are greeted by the 80-year-old housekeeper, Rahmli Bai who walks briskly in front of us holding a lantern, showing us the way to the house that is surrounded by jungles. A bonfire is lit in the courtyard and the village people are gathered around the fire, and the young girls and boys begin to dance and Latif joins them and keeps a sprightly rhythm till everyone is exhausted...
And I am thinking of those music parties in our Gulshan-i- Iqbal home...and his late night visits with Masood Haider and Zafar Masood and Kamal Ahmad Rizvi... Latif had never learnt music formally but his sensitivity for it and understanding of the subject was remarkable.
Time may be a great healer but it inflicts more wounds than it can heal. In the last few years Latif was no more the youthful, smart, mercurial man that he was. He had become a museum of illness and had surrounded himself with all kinds of medicines — unani, homeopathic and what not. While he was very particular about visiting his doctors, he was not ready to alter his lifestyle. His indulgences remained unchanged and at times I could notice a suicidal streak in his behaviour. Being an optimist he still talked of celebrating his 70th birthday, or 52nd wedding anniversary, but the way he bowed out of the stage this morning makes me think that he had decided it was time to call it a day... and I can hear him say: Chalo bhai chalo, buhut ho geya!
LAMENTING of Israeli siege of President Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, Ibrat writes that after the rise in massacre of Palestinians, one is tempted to ask if the oppressed cannot get justice through the United Nations then which platform is left to settle international disputes ? Under these circumstances, won’t those suffering repression and exploitation fall prey to desperation which pushes the hapless to the point of extremism. Israel has been attacking Palestinians for the last 18 months but their recent assault on the headquarters of Yasir Arafat is an all-out war against Palestinian.
The international community, including Russia, China and France, has condemned the Israeli attack but the so-called champion of human rights, the USA, has opined that Israel has the right to retaliate. On the one hand, the US has destroyed whole of the countries on the pretext of combating terrorism and on the other it continues to support the biggest terrorist state of the world — Israel. This proves that the major reasons behind the increasing lawlessness in the world are America and Israel themselves. If it were not true, the Israeli prime minister, after the support of the UN for the proposed Palestinian state and the Arab League’s demand to stop Israeli attacks, would not have had the nerve to declare Arafat the enemy of his country and his determination to isolate the Palestinian leader.
The life of every human being is precious but there are some individuals the future of whose nations are linked with their lives. For the civilised world, the protection of such persons’ lives is equal to protecting universal human values. Presently Arafat’s life is in danger and it is the responsibility of the UN and the world community to protect him. At the same time they should ask the US to which direction it is leading the world by declaring that Israel has the right to retaliate. Similarly the world conscience can be asked that when will it awaken from its slumber.
Kawish points out that these days the teaching community of Sindh is protesting against the privatization of the nationalized educational institutions, withdrawal of test for BEd/MEd increments, reinstatement of the sacked teachers of Sukkur, etc. After the beginning of their protest three months ago, negotiations were held between the representatives of provincial education department and those of the teachers in which some of their demands were accepted in principle.
However, this acceptance did not materialize and instead seven leaders of teachers from Sukkur were sacked and show-cause notices were issued to hundreds others which prompted the latest wave of the protest. The daily insists that the teachers’ demands should be accepted to rescue the already collapsing educational system of the province.
Commenting on the transfer of Hyderabad DCO after a tug of war between him and the district Nazim, Tameer-i- Sindh emphasizes the need of creating a balance between the powers of district Nazims and DCOs. This incident can become the beginning of a deplorable tradition of transferring government officials on the insistence of district Nazims as a situation similar to that of Hyderabad has also appeared in Badin and Larkana. If Nazims keep on succeeding in getting their favourites appointed on important government posts, it will set up same sort of negative trends which the devolution of power aims at curbing. The Sindh government before taking such decision should consider different aspects of it and create a balance of power between the elected representatives and government officials.
Deploring the imposition of GST on drugs, Sindhu writes that the poor people of the country are already finding it difficult to make both ends meet and the rise in the prices of medicines after the imposition of 15 per cent tax will add to their miseries. Though the government has withdrawn GST on life-saving drugs but it should be withdrawn from other drugs also.