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| November 25, 2006 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 3, 1427 |
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The cost of mega projects
Curbing drug trade
Not too late yet to halt the drift
The mother of all threats
OUR rulers in Islamabad believe that they can continue to run the country with impunity because the opposition is fragmented and compromises political parties with reputations bruised by their poor track record in addressing our problems.
WHAT IF 12 asteroids were on collision courses with Earth? What if we could alter their trajectories and save our planet by the cumulative effect of our individual efforts? What if science and history proved that we were fully capable of such heroism? What would it take to get us started?
THE system of government functioning under the present dispensation is riddled with shortcomings and is treated with undisguised indifference by the rulers. But at least occasionally it provides a platform for the unveiling of many official irregularities, particularly through its watchdog bodies such as the public accounts committee. The committee has just helped by pointing out how proceeds from privatisation are being used for current expenditure. It has also carried out an investigation into the loans written off by the Zarai Taraqqiati Bank to well-to-do and influential people while ignoring the difficulties being faced in repayment by small farmers. The public accounts committee had earlier sought details of loans allegedly written off by the National Bank of Pakistan. On Thursday, according to newspaper reports, the committee was told that the Privatisation Commission kept its proceeds in a separate account and was using these for current expenditure rather than for debt retirement and poverty alleviation. This arrangement was said to violate both the Constitution and the privatisation policy. This seems to be just one of the many irregularities that appear to be taking place in the privatisation process: we all know how the Supreme Court had to pass strictures against the privatisation of the Steel Mills.
The whole thing boils down to the need for accountability and transparency on the part of the government. Our long periods of military and authoritarian civilian rule have bred in governments and officials an arrogant refusal to distinguish between right and wrong or to feel answerable for what they do or do not do. Public money and public trust are wantonly misused, and no one seems to be ready to shoulder the responsibility for what is going on. The parliamentary committees slog on and try as best as they can to underline misuse of authority and funds by government departments and corporations. But an improvement will come only when the president, prime minister and ministers feel obliged to respond to the points raised in committee hearings and tell us the truth of what is going on and what steps will be taken to correct the wrongs. Otherwise, the committees, like parliamentary debates, will continue to be cynically treated by the government as providing an outlet for blowing off steam by opposition legislators without doing any damage. Even small matters highlighted in the media, such as the absence of several ruling party MNAs from the voting on the women’s protection bill, elicit no reply or clarification.
The present government, to justify its hybrid and constitutionally fuzzy status, constantly blames the previous civilian governments of corruption and wrongdoing and has spent millions on setting the National Accountability Bureau on the track of opposition politicians. It presents itself as a clean government in contrast to the previous ones. It is, therefore, even more necessary for it to be responsive to the points raised about the implementation of its policies or the spending of funds in parliament or its committees or in the press. One hopes that the Musharraf-Shaukat Aziz combine is aware of the long standing joke in political circles that a government’s wrongdoing and financial scams get to be known only when it goes out of office. But given the greater media openness of the present times, some issues have already been raised that should be honestly addressed by the government to establish its credentials as an administration that values honesty and integrity.
THE city nazim has been speaking about his plans to make Karachi a “modern and developed megalopolis of the world”. According to him, this has helped the city attract businessmen and investors abroad. One would not disagree with Mr Mustafa Kamal’s contention that the infrastructure of this city of 15 million badly needs to be spruced up and developed. But at what cost this will be done is the big question. The authorities now speak of “aid” and “investment” without making it clear what exactly the implications are of the inflow of massive amounts into the national economy. The fact is that aid comprises preponderantly loans that have to be repaid and at a high rate of interest. It would thus clear the confusion if the city district government’s office clarifies the precise status of the aid and investment of $800 million the ADB has promised.
There are three aspects of the matter that are important. The government has been undertaking massive projects without putting a master plan in place. One is said to be in the works but to the best of one’s knowledge it has not been completed and has not been publicised either. It amounts to putting the cart before the horse to undertake mega projects and then seek to fit them into the master plan. But that is what appears to be happening. The second aspect that needs to be looked into carefully is the feasibility of all the projects that are planned. As a rule, environment impact assessments should be undertaken for all projects. There is also need for research on the economic and social feasibility of the schemes that are being undertaken. If these pre-construction studies have not been done, we could end up with failed projects on our hands like the Greater Karachi Sewerage Project that involved a debt of Rs42 billion for the KWSB without solving the city’s sewerage problem, as any one can see. The third matter calling for consideration is the repercussion the transfer of a large number of utilities to the private sector will have for their efficiency and pricing. The performance of the KESC has yet to vindicate the government’s decision to privatise it and now the KWSB and solid waste management have been put on the line. Will this approach work?
WHEN it comes to ingenuity, Pakistani drug smugglers seem to lead the way. This is evident from the customs’ drug enforcement cell’s seizure in Karachi on Thursday of heroin that was stuffed into dry fruit. There are, it seems, no limits to how far smugglers will go in their greedy pursuits. The parcel was being couriered to Australia and when it was checked by officials, heroin was found inside walnuts. While the bust is welcome, it is also a reminder of how much more needs to be done to deal with the scourge of drug trafficking. It is not just about worrying about drugs leaving the country. There are equal concerns about opium finding its way into Pakistan since poppy cultivation is back to an all-time high in Afghanistan. Authorities have to work hard to curb both the inflow and outflow of drugs, especially since there are said to be half a million heroin addicts and four million drug addicts in Pakistan. This will not be possible without stricter vigilance on the borders and other points of entry into the country. The illegal drug trade could not have flourished without the connivance of certain corrupt officials. They needed to be rooted out if the government is to make any headway in combating this menace. Until those breaking the law are taken to task for their crimes, more people will be lured into trafficking drugs, especially if they believe that they can get away with it.
One hopes that customs officials in Karachi will pursue the people involved in the aforementioned incident and bring them to justice. International agencies’ pledges to help Pakistan curb the drug trade need to be renewed. Mr Blair’s recent pledge to work with Pakistan to fight this scourge is just one example of how the war on drugs can be won.
There is strong support for the Pakistani brand of democracy and statecraft from George Bush partnership and because they have the wherewithal today to throw a lot of cheap money generated domestically and doled out by generous multilateral donors and bilaterals on mega projects.
To strengthen its position the regime has taken great pains to discredit grassroot political processes and actively promote political disenfranchisement. It has given the opposition parties, particularly the two mainstream liberal forces (which should be its natural allies, if its rhetoric on enlightened moderation is to be believed) a bad name, so that after the charade of the referendum and the 2002 elections and fraud committed in the 2005 local government elections, it has become patently clear that democratisation and installation of accountable governments is not possible while the self-appointed military chief is around.
National unity and the federation are now at stake, with the Baloch, and particularly their youth, angry and disgruntled, if not totally alienated, and unwilling to accept solutions within the ambit of Pakistan.
The latter is a subject that this writer has commented on in these columns and will return to it another day. Instead, this article comments on the inadequate attention being focused on the ground being lost rapidly by the liberal and secular schools of thought, and the Islamic revivalism and resurgence in the country (thanks partly to American policies in general and Islamabad’s willingness to do their bidding even though it requires carrying out extra-judicial killing of its own people- if we are to accept the government’s claim that the Bajaur massacre was conducted by the Pakistani army). The liberals are fast becoming a minority in the country and the battles of the minds, ideas and hearts has been all but lost.
The MMA and its allies have stolen all the slogans of an opposition. In particular they are viewed as the sole torch bearers of alternative thought and leaders of the widening anti-American feeling within the country. Moreover, successive governments run by the elite corrupt and hypocritical elite or the political parties they manage and control, have failed to provide almost half of the population with access to decent quality basic education, health, and skill development services and good governance that ensures a system based on merit, as opposed to the one founded on patronage so that the poor and the lower middle classes could have a stake in the process of economic growth and a fair share in the gains benefits flowing from development.
The elite has not ensured a fairer distribution of economic growth, even in its own enlightened self-interest, simply to be able to retain most of the privileges that it enjoys. The unemployed poor and the less affluent segments of the population do not have a stake in the entrenched order and state structure and find themselves abandoned by society and the rich whose accelerated progress in the last few years has sharpened the disparities in incomes and wealth. The country stands horribly polarised between the haves and the have-nots and between modernists and the traditionalists with fundamental views.
The growth of madressahs and the gains in strength of the Islamists can be largely explained by these outcomes. Not only do the madressahs endow those enrolled in these institutions with some education, they also provide food and shelter and cater to their spiritual needs. Moreover, for politically ambitious graduates from humbler social backgrounds the parties comprising the MMA have both members and leadership from similar socio-economic backgrounds.
These parties provide such young political entrants opportunities to aspire for leadership roles that would not be open to them in the mainstream political parties. Furthermore, in this highly charged environment of anti-West feelings they can exploit the weaknesses of the two large parties, especially considering the general perception and caricature that they look to western leadership for direction and support.
One believes that there is only a small window of opportunity that is open, and that too for a short while, to halt and reverse the process of this shift to the right by holding free and fair elections, giving room to the two large parties to change themselves in terms of policy prescriptions and a free hand to take on the MMA. Further delay will merely work to the advantage of the mullahs as social mores change in their favour, and more and more people on the fringes find it convenient and simpler to take the easy option and join the mobs.
The writer is a former finance minister of Punjab.
John Schellnhuber, distinguished science advisor at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Britain, has identified 12 global warming tipping points, such as the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest or the melting of the west Antarctic ice sheet. Any of these, if triggered, would probably initiate sudden changes across the planet as cataclysmic as any asteroid strike.
So what will it take to trigger what we might call the 13th tipping point, the shift from personal denial to personal responsibility? What will tip us toward addressing global warming with the urgency it deserves, as the mother of all threats to homeland security?
A 2005 study on Americans’ perceptions of global warming found that most are moderately concerned, but 68 per cent believe that the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature — a dangerous and delusional misperception. Only 13 per cent perceive risk to themselves, their families or their communities.
Many secretly perceive global warming to be an insoluble problem and respond by circling the family wagons and turning inward. Yet human beings are born with powerful tools for solving this quandary. We have the genetic smarts and the cultural smarts. We have the technological know-how. We even have the inclination.
The truth is, we can change ourselves with breathtaking speed, sculpting even “immutable” human nature. Forty years ago, many believed human nature mandated that blacks and whites live in segregation; 30 years ago human nature divided men and women into separate economies; 20 years ago human nature prevented us from defusing a global nuclear standoff. Nowadays we blame human nature for the insolvable hazards of global warming.
Research out of the Max Planck Institute in Germany suggests how we might help ourselves evolve. Using a variation on game theory, researchers found that almost no one would donate money anonymously, but that the few who did were the ones who knew most about the issue at hand. So we would be inclined to behave as better environmental citizens when we are educated and our individual actions are visible to those around us — a phenomenon known as “social facilitation.”
Perhaps if we’re vigorously informed about how global warming endangers our neighbourhoods, we’ll individually forgo the McMansions and the Hummers and make sustainable choices. Anything less compromises our children’s future.
Until then, our denial facilitates “social loafing” — the tendency of individuals to slack when work is shared and individual performance is not assessed. There’s no better example than Congress, where members cloak their lethargy regarding global warming behind the stultifying inactivity of their fellows. And why not? After all, who’s watching?
Not the media, which habitually squelch new science stories on global warming by rationalising that we’ve heard that before — though they would never ignore another round of Middle East bloodletting. The growing body of scientific knowledge on climate change gains heft and power as it accumulates, but the public rarely hears about it, reinforcing our loafing.
Scientists don’t help when they react to the terrifying dimensions of public ignorance by sheltering inside hallowed halls. At a recent meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, 70 per cent of members argued in favour of advocating real solutions to environmental problems directly to lethargic policymakers and the media. Yet very few have stepped out into the public arena at a time when we need their knowledge and expertise as never before.
The nature of tipping points is that they happen dizzyingly fast. The good news is that history proves we’re capable of keeping up. Social scientists once believed that it would take decades of government pressure and education for Americans to choose smaller families because the desire to procreate is an absolute part of the human animal, or so they thought. Yet population growth radically declined over only three years in the 1970s — one woman at a time, without an ounce of government involvement.—Dawn/Los Angeles Times Service