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| May 27, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1427 |
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Drive against fake drugs
Connectivity problems
Improving the image abroad
IN a recent article, I had outlined a case for a new partnership between the peoples of the United States and Pakistan — one that is based on political realities and an understanding of each other’s interests and not on misperceptions created by short-term political actions.
THE foreign office has welcomed the Indian prime minister’s statement in Srinagar on Wednesday in which he asked Indian security forces not to commit human rights violations against the Kashmiri people. Dr Manmohan Singh’s instructions to the security forces amount to admitting the horrendous nature of rights’ abuses that have been taking place in the Kashmir valley since the outbreak of the insurgency in 1989. On Thursday, winding up his two-day visit to Srinagar, Dr Singh said his country desired to solve all disputes with Pakistan, including that of Jammu and Kashmir, and was willing to withdraw troops from Kashmir “if terrorist violence” ended. India, he said, was now waiting for Pakistan’s response to a number of suggestions he had made, without specifying what those proposals were, though he did speak of the treaty of peace, security and friendship he had earlier proposed to Pakistan.
A treaty of the kind proposed by Dr Singh is simply not possible without the elimination of the basic source of friction between Pakistan and India — Kashmir. This dispute has caused at least two wars and forced the two countries to spend more money on defence than would be justifiable, given the poverty of their peoples. Precisely at this moment, more than half a million of Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, and foreign agencies covering Dr Singh’s visit to Srinagar called it one of the world’s most militarised cities. While, as a result of the current detente, the two armies do not face each other along the common border, the fact is that 90 per cent of India’s armed forces have been poised in a way that constitutes a threat to Pakistan. At the same time, New Delhi has recently increased its military budget by 27 per cent, forcing Islamabad to raise its defence budget by another Rs 50 billion. Also, the 10th round of talks on Siachen ended in a deadlock in New Delhi on Wednesday because of differences over the details of withdrawal of Indian troops posted there. What is missing in all this is a political will on both sides to remove an unnecessary source of casualties caused by the harsh climate and to save the astronomical sums of money spent on keeping the troops supplied in what once was the world’s highest battleground.
The Indian prime minister left Kashmir a disappointed man, because even the moderate section of the Hurriyet conference refused to attend the round-table conference he had called. He should try to understand the reason why Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other Hurriyet leaders kept away from the RTC: obviously, they see a lack of sincerity on India’s part to seek a negotiated settlement to the Kashmir issue. Pakistan too has reasons to believe that no Indian government has shown a sincere desire to solve the Kashmir dispute. The Singh government, too, has not responded to the many proposals Islamabad has made in recent months for a solution of the conflict. Those proposals, including the one for self-governance for Kashmir, demilitarisation and a joint management of the territory, showed flexibility on Pakistan’s part and an earnest desire to seek a peaceful solution. In contrast, the Indian stance has been rigid which stands in the way of a solution. Against this background, a treaty of peace, security and friendship is merely an exercise in diplomacy. A treaty of that kind is conceivable only in an atmosphere of peace and goodwill which is possible only if the core issue between them is resolved.
A THREE-month campaign against counterfeit and substandard medicines, launched by the Punjab government in April, is beginning to yield results. The city district government, Lahore, has sealed 13 pharmacies for selling spurious and unregistered drugs, while many other drug outlets have been booked on medicine-related charges. The drug courts have pronounced verdicts in a number of cases. Moreover, a single raid by drug inspectors and law enforcement officials has led to the recovery of substandard drugs worth Rs 6 million. At this rate, by the time the campaign ends in mid-July, the Punjab health authorities should have much to be happy about. However, given the scale of the problem of counterfeit and substandard drugs in the province, as indeed in the rest of the country, it would be unrealistic on the part of the authorities to assume that a drive of such short duration can achieve long-lasting results.
According to one estimate, counterfeit drugs account for about 40 to 50 per cent of the total number of medicines on sale in the country. Even more alarming is the fact that, in the absence of an effective monitoring system, the manufacture and sale of these spurious drugs is on the rise. This is hardly surprising since most patients cannot afford the hefty cost of medicines manufactured under licence by pharmaceutical companies. This, coupled with the fact that doctors tend to over-prescribe medication, has led to a huge demand for cheaper drugs. Unscrupulous elements have sought to profit from the situation by supplying low-cost sub- standard drugs that are available in plenty everywhere although their manufacture and sale are illegal. In these circumstances, short-lived raids on pharmacies are not the answer. Although there is strict laws on the making and sale of spurious medicines, their enforcement is ineffective. Drug inspectors, too, are required to play a more effective role by evolving a monitoring system that can produce results. Finally, efforts must be made to educate the public about the serious risks to health posed by spurious medicines and the importance of reading medical labels to make sure that medicines are neither fake nor of outdated efficiency.
TWO reports in the last few days from Karachi and Peshawar speak of the problem mobile phone users are experiencing in connectivity. Because mobile phone companies have in the past paid heavy fines for their poor services, one would have thought that the complaints of connectivity have largely ceased by now. Instead, in a bid to increase their profits, the companies are increasing their clientele at a rapid pace but without regard to the expansion of the basic networks or their efficient management and maintenance. As a result, consumers all over the country complain of not being able to get through to the numbers of their clients, relatives or friends in spite of repeated dialling. The problem is exasperating when mobile companies’ customer services fail to redress their grievances, in spite of repeated reminders. As a regulatory body, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority should be playing a more efficient role in ensuring that erring companies are taken to task for poor services, be they technological or any other. At times, the PTA has been accused of favouring certain companies or not working hard enough to ensure an efficient service in the telecom sector. It should regularly take note of consumers’ complaints and ask erring companies to address the problems.
The telecom sector is one of the fastest growing one in the country, whose achievements were internationally recognised with a prestigious award in February this year. It expanded its mobile subscriber base to 20 million in three years and hopes to enlarge that number to 50 million over the next few years. Thanks to the boom in the telecom sector, consumers can now switch to other and better networks — a fact not lost among the service providers. It makes it all the more important to ensure efficiency and reliability of the service.
In our case, we have to ask how one begins to develop a solid foundation for grassroots influence in America, in particular, and the West, in general. The answer lies in clearly understanding what the image and influence game is all about and how it can and must be played to our benefit.
The post-9/11 political environment in western capitals is best described by my ex-colleague, Dr David Ronfeldt at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. “It’s the battle of the story,” he said in the days and weeks after 9/11, “and the final victory will be based on who is able to win the war of ideas, not weapons.” While Ronfeldt was clearly referring to the US-led war on terror against the Al Qaeda, Pakistan’s war against its negative perception in the West is no different either. When perception becomes reality, then one has to fight valiantly to win the battle of ideas.
Substantive and sustained engagement at the people-to-people level is crucial to this battle as it can take a positive message directly to the American people. Is Pakistan winning the “battle of the story” in the world’s capitals? Is it even putting up a good fight? Are we investing in ideas? Even a cursory observer of Pakistan’s foreign policy thrusts, successes and failures over the years would conclude that we are not.
Clearly, Pakistan’s foreign policy establishment is clueless vis-a-vis the true nature of the influence game and is, instead, lurching from one public relations crisis to the next. In other words, we are doing the tactical at the expense of the strategic when it comes to marketing Pakistan’s image abroad. While the Pakistani American community has just begun to make some inroads into the influence game, their efforts are woefully inadequate, haphazard and under-resourced.
Developing grassroots support for Pakistan and repairing Pakistan’s image abroad would require sustained action at three different levels. First, at the level of individual Pakistanis we must present and radiate a positive message to the rest of the world. This does not mean that we are apologetic about or oblivious to Pakistan’s failings but that we, in our individual capacity, do not do anything to harm the country’s image. Pakistanis living abroad must act as the lone ambassadors of their country.
Many in the West only know Pakistan through a Pakistani individual whom they are acquainted with, and often their perception of Pakistan can be shaped by how that individual conducts himself or herself. There has been a tendency among Pakistanis after 9/11 to withdraw from the public eye, adopt a low-key profile and shy away from attracting too much attention. Alternatively, many Pakistanis have found themselves in a position of being too apologetic for the things that they, and the majority of other Pakistanis, have not even done. This can be counterproductive to Pakistan’s image and we must take steps to reach out to the Americans and show them the positive face of Pakistan as well.
As professionals too, our competence sends a message to our colleagues and superiors about Pakistan. Nothing has succeeded more in building India’s image than India Inc., and India Inc. did not succeed until Indians succeeded in the US. The same holds good for Pakistan and the Pakistanis. However, Pakistan Inc. will never come through if the majority of Pakistani businessmen and entrepreneurs prefer to “pass through” unnoticed.
Second, at the level of Pakistani-Americans, we must be agents of political change at home and abroad. While Pakistanis have begun to enter professions of influence — politics, the media, academia, and public policy — their numbers are small compared to the demands of the task at hand. Pakistanis need to do more and be more willing to pursue careers in professions of influence.
Traditionally, Pakistani Americans have also been very negative about their home country. For understandable reasons, mentioning Pakistan doesn’t quite excite the same kind of optimism and passion among Pakistani Americans that India excites among the non-resident Indians. While the Indians are proud of their identity and confident of their destiny in the world, the opposite holds true for Pakistanis.
In what is a catch-22 situation, we can’t realistically be hopeful of Pakistan’s future unless political, social, and economic affairs at home take a turn for the better. This will not happen until Pakistanis across the globe engage meaningfully with their country. We can’t hope to change Pakistan’s politics until educated people engage with Pakistan’s political scene en masse. Pakistanis living abroad are our key hope in that respect. However, they must move from being armchair strategists, commentators, and opportunists to becoming well-meaning political activists and agents of change. In short, they must learn to put their money where their mouth is.
The final actor in shaping the country’s image abroad is the Pakistan government itself. In many ways every sitting government has been a liability in that regard and one that has negatively shaped the perception and actions of Pakistanis and Pakistani Americans towards Pakistan. The current government is no exception. It can hardly be good news for Pakistan’s image abroad when governance and politics become a shameless power grab for a few and the collective sensibilities of the people are ruthlessly brushed aside in the process.
Similarly, when a country’s de facto political leader makes a ridiculously irresponsible statement that not only hurts the sensibilities and dignity of women in Pakistan but is also not representative of the Pakistani situation, the struggle for resurrecting Pakistan’s image becomes all the more difficult for the rest of us.
Not only must the government refrain from becoming a part of the problem, it must clean up its act and become a part of the solution. This requires understanding the dynamics of the influence game and investing wisely in Pakistan’s image abroad. A three-pronged strategy that successively addresses the key elements — the three Ms, namely, mind, media and money — of the ideas pipeline is likely to do the trick.
The battle for the heart and mind of the West begins with the war of ideas in the western mind. Anybody who has experienced the western intellectual scene can testify to the tremendous premium put on the battle of ideas. This battle is waged in hundreds of universities, non-profit organisations and think tanks around the United States and the rest of the world. People like Tom Friedman, Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington and Alvin Toffler and other intellectuals have done much to shape the westerners’ worldview. It is worth asking how well Pakistan engages with a similar breed of “image makers”.
Today, more than 20 Indians serve as deans at American colleges and universities and many more as professors and educators. How many Pakistanis are in the same positions? How much research do we fund in America that is likely to have a multiplier effect on what is being said and how much is being said about Pakistan? That’s where our image marketing efforts must start. Everything else is secondary.
Only when we have begun to generate enough intellectual capital to knock at the American mind should the media enter the picture. For long Pakistanis have been attempting to engage with the American media by sponsoring full-page advertisements and undertaking letter writing campaigns, etc. All that is good but it is not likely to work in an intellectual vacuum. We must be able to back our media effort by solid ideas that attract the American people. In fact, once a critical mass of ideas and those who champion these become available, the media automatically picks up on the debate and amplifies the effect. A targeted, well-thought-out, and well-resourced media strategy is important but it must have a solid intellectual foundation to build upon.
Finally, money is an important enabler if not a decider in this game of influence. Money’s influence can be indirect (e.g. bankrolling other aspects of the strategy) and direct (e.g. political contributions and lobbying fees). The Pakistan government’s strategy thus far has been to invest, albeit sparingly, in some political lobbying in the West but not in a systematic effort to develop grassroots support for the country. The government and the more prominent Pakistani Americans must invest in areas that are likely to deliver long-term and permanent benefits, such as in research, media and grassroots organisations.
Clearly, Pakistan has been attempting to engage with mind, media, and money in a marketing strategy of precisely the reverse order. No wonder that devoid of a solid intellectual foundation, our hardly glitzy media campaigns backfire and all lobbying efforts fall flat causing major embarrassment to Pakistanis abroad and at home.
I am confident that a comprehensive image strategy built along the lines suggested above and executed — with able hands on board — is likely to deliver the goods. Pakistanis are definitely up to the challenge. It is only a matter of putting our collective energies into the effort.
The writer is a public policy analyst based in Santa Monica, US.
Email: athar.osama@gmail.com