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| November 12, 2007 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 01, 1428 |
Regaling bitter sweet
Swat’s silent tragedy
Is socialism dead?
OTHER VOICES - Indian Press
IN the seventies I travelled across much of the USSR as a member of a World Health Organisation team. We started our journey from Moscow from where we went to Georgia and the Asian republics. Most of the travelling was done by road, and we were able to see the health facilities in the rural areas as well as in towns and cities.
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf’s announcement at a press conference yesterday to hold general elections before Jan 9 is welcome, much as his evasion of other critical issues is regrettable. The holding of elections under emergency rule, continued blackout of independent news channels, suspension of civil liberties, preclusion of reinstatement of an independent judiciary and the paranoia that certain elements are out to create anarchy are indeed worrisome signs. The planned dissolution of the assemblies upon completion of their respective terms and the formation of a caretaker government to oversee elections may sound good, but the two measures come drowned in the silence kept on the composition and character of the caretaker government. Will it be broad-based enough to win the confidence of the opposition parties to conduct free and fair elections, remains unsaid. The general’s address comes as a reality check for those who expected him to withdraw the Provisional Constitution Order, and his tone and tenor left the few of his supporters today disappointed – those who had hoped for better sense to prevail.
The press conference has added few and further refined the many new strokes put on the political canvas on Nov 3 with the heavy brush of the PCO, making it more abstract in the process. While political leaders held for breaching the queered law under emergency rule can now hope to be released, lawyers locked up in an apparent bid to settle scores with them for their activism have been made no such promises. Political parties, we are told, will be free to take part in electioneering as long as they do not create a law and order situation; the government alone will be the judge of the qualifying provision. These are not the right vibes put out by a leader who insists that the judiciary’s decision on his second term in office will decide when he will doff his army uniform. The assertion that the army will continue to back him even after he steps down as its commander-in-chief, too, tells of a sense of wonderment. For the elections to be acceptable, it is important that the playing field should be level and the election commission should not only be independent but seen to be independent. The new scheme as announced casts a doubt on the credibility of the forthcoming elections.
THE surge in sugar price is perplexing. Up by Rs100 per 100 kg bag last week in spite of carryover stocks of 480,000 tons for the current season and a record new cane crop of 62.3 million tons how does one explain this phenomenon. The average price hovers between Rs2,720-2,800 per ton ($446-459) while the international market has dropped to about $276 per ton at source because of a forecast of a surplus of over 10 million tons owing to glut production in India and Brazil. The increase in the price in the domestic market is said to be the result of an undue delay in the commencement of fresh crushing and the tenders issued by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan for procuring 50,000 tons of the sweetener from the mills. The TCP has already procured 25,000 ton sugar from the mills in order to replenish its strategic buffer stocks, which it intends to increase to 400,000 tons in view of an expected record production of 4.5 million tons during the next crushing season against the domestic requirement of about 3.9 million tons. The decision to create a buffer stock was taken by the government in September to provide some comfort to the sugar industry worried about the possible decline in price due to expected surplus production. But the growers complain that the government has done nothing to ensure that they also get a fair price — Rs60, Rs65 and Rs67 per 40kg in Punjab, the NWFP and Sindh, respectively. Consumers too are keeping their fingers crossed for a reduction in retail price. But will that happen?
The government says it will be a buyers’ market next season. That may be true, though it is less likely to defuse tension in the market. Pakistan’s sugar economy has always produced bitterness – both in times of plenty and shortages. Growers resent undue long delays in the commencement of cane crushing by the mills as it reduces the weight of their crop and results in substantial financial losses. They never get paid for their produce on time and have to wait for months. The millers are wary of the government’s unilateral determination of minimum cane support price and its unwanted intervention in the market to control the sweetener’s rates against the principles of free economy. Hapless consumers wonder as to why they have to pay a higher price for a product available at substantially lower rates in neighbouring India and other countries.
Successive governments have done little to settle the issues facing the sugar trade because of their political interests. At times when a government is in need of growers’ support, it moves in the market to the detriment of the industry. At other times when it is under pressure from the industry, it just turns away from the issue. It is believed, and for good reasons, that the continuing bitterness in the sugar market could be overcome if the government decided to sit across the table with the stakeholders and evolve a long-term policy that protects the interests of all involved.
A SILENT but serious casualty of the war in Swat has been its forest wealth. It has now come to light that the timber mafia which has operated with impunity in the forested regions all over the country with the active connivance of forest department functionaries is now receiving a boost from the ongoing hostilities in Swat. The extremist militants who are spreading their tentacles in this scenic valley in the north have joined hands with the smugglers to earn easy money from their illegal trade. Trees are cut to sustain smuggling which is a thriving business in the province. In the process large areas in the NWFP — that had 1.33 million hectares of forests, we were told — have been denuded of trees and a study of the Provincial Forest Resource Inventory says that trees will become extinct in the Frontier by 2025.
This is a pity. As it is, Pakistan is not rich in forest resources, given its preponderantly barren soil and dry climate. Less than five per cent of the total area of the country is forested and a substantial proportion of this is in the NWFP. Grazing and the felling of trees to use as fuel has insidiously depleted the forest wealth of the province since the Afghan refugees began crossing the Durand Line into Pakistan. The timber mafia has also played havoc with this natural resource although the commercial cutting of trees has been prohibited since 1999. It is said the province is losing forest at the rate of one per cent per annum. The government at Peshawar also failed to recognise the importance of trees for climate, ecology, agriculture and the soil. For many years it failed to draw up rules to make the Forest Ordinance 2002 fully operational. Without the involvement of local communities in forest management — especially in the task of replanting saplings — no regeneration of forest resources can take place. All this is simply not possible when there are militants all over the place and a war is going on. One can only hope that the writ of the state will be restored fast so that this issue can be addressed in earnest.
The rural population was looked after by polyclinics which provided basic health needs and took part in the immunisation programme. For major diseases and operative procedures, patients were sent to hospitals in towns. We were very impressed by the mass vaccination programme which had controlled many childhood infectious diseases. It was refreshing to see that the majority of medical staff were females. Gender equality was perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet system.
After health, education was the next priority of the USSR. In this respect not just the white Russians but the whole of the Soviet Union benefited. When Tagore visited USSR in 1930 he wrote is his book, Letters from Russia, “In stepping on the soil of Russia, the first thing that caught my eye was that in education they had made such enormous progress in these few years that nothing comparable has happened in India in the last 150 years… The people here are not afraid of giving complete education even to Turkomans of distant Asia.”
These achievements aside, life in the USSR was harsh, and housing even in the major cities, was inadequate and of poor quality. Consumer goods, including food items, were in short supply and long queues could be seen in most department stores. Our interpreter was a very candid person and when I asked her about the crime rate in the USSR, she said, “What crime rate? There is nothing to steal!”
We got the impression from our Russian colleagues that expenditure on defence was the main culprit which kept the USSR in bad shape. Most of them were against the Cold War and yearned for freedom to travel. They would have preferred democratic socialism to communism.
Over the years, socialism has taken many forms with varying degrees of government involvement and control. I will briefly overview the situation as it exists in different countries.
Starting with Europe, the Party of European Socialists (PES) is a European political party comprising 33 national parties. Its members are social democrats, socialists and labour parties from every EU state and Norway. PES is currently the second largest grouping of its kind in the European parliament. At one time, it was the first largest group but recent victories of the right, based on racism and anti-immigration policies, pushed it into second place.
The prototype of European socialism are the Scandinavian countries. The October 2007 issue of the Reader’s Digest lists them and Austria as the most livable countries in the world. Stockholm and Oslo are listed as the most livable cities. Other surveys have put Vancouver as providing the best quality of life — remember that Canada, unlike its neighbour the US, is a welfare state with many similarities to the Scandinavian model.
In Asia, China has moved away from ‘command’ to a free economy but under the watchful eye of the government which decides on all major economic issues. The government calls it, ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’. The opening up of the economy resulted in an enormous inflow of capital and technology. Modernisation is now the main goal and scientific input from the developed countries is welcome.
The ruling communist party argues that the socialist principles are not incompatible with its economic policies and the gap between the urban and rural population will be reduced. Deng Xiaoping on June 30, 1984, said, “Socialism means elimination of poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism.”
The concoction of socialism and capitalism, which the Chinese have practised, has resulted in the most remarkable growth ever witnessed but with it has also come a higher crime rate and corruption. China has taken drastic measures to control corruption and it is the only country where corrupt officials can be executed.
In South Asia, the leftist parties in India were severely handicapped by the border war between India and China. Its effect still lingers on but the Left is relatively strong in Bengal, Kerala, Manipur and Tripura. On the national level, the Left supports the Indian National Congress but is against any military cooperation with the US. The communists have consistently won every election in Bengal since independence.
They have always opposed the rightwing Hindu parties and have strongly condemned the recent killing of Muslims in Gujarat. The Left provides a secular alternative which is very important for multi-religious countries like India.
The only Maoist party of significance in South Asia is in Nepal. It appears that it controls most of the rural areas of that country and their peasant-led revolution is similar to what happened in China. They appear to be correct in their assertion that the zamindari system was so deeply entrenched in Nepal that there was no choice but to remove it by force. It is likely that they would also succeed in ending the monarchy and converting Nepal into a republic.
The rise of the Left in Latin America is the most remarkable development of this decade. At one time, Cuba was the only flag bearer of socialism. Now, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have left-leaning governments. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is the most popular leader of Latin America.Cuba has done reasonably well in looking after its people, particularly in the field of health and education. It has an infant mortality rate of six per 1,000 live births which is better than the US with 7.2 per 1,000 live births. For comparison, Pakistan’s infant mortality rate is 68.84 per 1,000 live births.
Coming back to whether socialism is dead, it is true that Soviet style communism — where the state owned all means of production and distribution of goods along with land and property — is dead. However, mixed economies with the involvement of the state in important spheres of human activity, such as education and health, are not only workable but highly desirable.
Public utilities also do well under state control, as is the case in Singapore. The Singapore government is involved in many business ventures which freely compete with the private sector. This belies the often quoted cliché, ‘It is not the government’s business to do business’. The key to the success of government enterprises is the absence of corruption and capable leadership.
Political ideology should not be treated as religion. It should be allowed to evolve with changing times and the prevailing circumstances. Soviet political institutions initially did well showing impressive economic growth but later became frozen, unyielding and unresponsive to the changing international situation and the needs of society. This resulted in the collapse of the system.
The basic aim of socialism, wherever it exists, is to build a more just and equal society. Ideally, it should be democratic in nature and people should have complete freedom of expression.
Darkness in Pakistan
THE imposition of an emergency and the suspension of the Constitution by President Pervez Musharraf, signalling a return to direct military rule has plunged Pakistan into one of its darkest phases ever.
The mass detentions of activists and lawyers, the clampdown on the Pakistani media, forbidden to express any opinion ‘prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan’ or its ‘integrity’, and the summary removal of the feisty Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Chaudhry who had been spiritedly resisting the attempts to curb the independence of the judiciary, are chilling signs that the dreaded days of military rule are back. The general has now been revealed in his true colours as a ruthless military dictator, in the mould of Ziaul Haq and all his dismal predecessors who had kept Pakistan in a state of permanent army rule.
Prominent figures in the movement for democracy were rounded up, such as the eminent lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, cricket hero and politician Imran Khan, human rights activist Asma Jehangir, and Javed Hashmi the acting head of Nawaz Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N). Another dictatorial act swiftly following the declaration of emergency…was the cancellation by the new Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Dogar, of all the cases being heard by the Supreme Court including the legal challenges to General Musharraf’s re-election in uniform.
The new martial law regime has placed seven of the Supreme Court judges, including Justice Chaudhry under house arrest, dealing a deathblow to Pakistan’s fragile institutional structure.
If there had been an attempt by General Musharraf to sugar-coat the intention underlying the October 1999 coup in claims such as that the overthrow of Nawaz Sharif’s civilian democratic government was only a precursor to installing ‘genuine democracy’, this time, the cold-blooded calculations are there for all to see. Pre-empting a possible refusal by the Supreme Court to validate the results of the evidently tainted presidential election which had given him an overwhelming victory and possibly apprehending the growing credibility of the movement for civilian democracy, especially since the return of the Pakistan People’s Party leader, Benazir Bhutto, General Musharraf decided this was the time to strike.
The general has attempted to justify his imposition of emergency by arguing that judicial intervention had led to a paralysis in civil administration even as Pakistan was “on the verge of destabilisation” because of rising militancy and extremism. Such excuses ring hollow especially when it is so powerfully evident that the restoration of democracy and civilian rule in Pakistan which is an urgent imperative in this moment of crisis would represent the best possible insurance against the forces of extremism and terrorism.
Ms Bhutto who has returned to Karachi now has a historic responsibility to lead the resistance to this sordid betrayal of her country by the deeply discredited general. There are heartening signs that the people of Pakistan are unwilling to be silenced by the guns of the martial law regime and it could well be that this is only a darkness before the dawn. — (Nov 5)