Democratic values are completely submerged when power or authority is used more forcefully than is necessary and without regard for the needs or desires of marginalized segments of society or region.
However, regardless of what it appears to be, the state institution is self-contradictory in that it both produces and discourages. It draws attention because it represents the height of power and could both make and break lives. People in positions of great authority and influence seem to be chosen ones, reflecting either a heavenly presence or higher psychological forces that shape the path of events in this life.
If history is to be believed, then it is unequivocally demonstrated that most people have never been a member of the governmental system in any culture, but instead have always been in awe of it and have wished to be a part of it.
Over time, our society has come to be seen by the state as an unusual situation. Our ambivalence for the state has been absurdly obvious. We have a pathologic symptom of our collective psyche when we love to hate it and hate to love it. Everyone wants a government job, regardless of skill level; they just need to use fair and dirty tactics most foul. To feel secure is the goal, right? Yes, but it goes far deeper than that.
The main goal is to rise to a position of responsibility so that one can abuse it and benefit from the sometimes corrupt official procedures. Just have a peek at our work. Direct taxes, such as income taxes, are disliked by all. Despite the widespread belief that this government department intimidates and extorts citizens, nobody wants to work for it, even if every person wants to be employed by it. While no one enjoys being scared or extorted, everyone feels compelled to scare and extort others by associating with individuals in positions of power. The finest use of the authority is to enrich oneself at the cost of the public coffers certainly illegally.
We have a pathologic symptom of our collective psyche when we love to hate it and hate to love it.
The finest use of the authority is to enrich oneself at the cost of the public coffers certainly illegally. The department’s yearly revenue collection does not increase, but the pay of the people in charge of it does appear to be rising.
None of them wants to fly for Pakistan International Airline (PIA), the state-owned airline, but everyone wants a job there. Why? Uncertain flight schedule and poor service. The result of a management crisis is subpar service: professional and technical staff members who should not be there are employed by the company. The Pakistan Railways are in a comparable situation. No one wants to travel via the Pakistan Railways, yet everyone wants to work for them. They all want to be involved but reject the police officers. These are a few examples.
Every government department is impacted by this illness. Public employees are paid for conducting anything except accepting bribes to conduct their assigned tasks.
A few key factors are to blame for our never-ending disaster, which now seems like an avalanche waiting to submerge us with its frigid weight. But we must give them a very cursory look. 1. The nature of the state and its establishments. 2. Bureaucracy and the quickly collapsing standards within it. 3. Needless meddling in other departments’ business by strong but unrelated departments. 4. The nominations of members of the political elite to positions that serve political purposes.
In this case, the pre-and post-colonial states were repressive, extractive, and exploitative; in other words, they were predatory.
Whatever the shape of the pre-colonial state, a select few foreign extractions took control of the highest positions. Upon arriving in our country, a refugee or absconder from either Central Asia, Iran, or the Middle East would be denied comfortable employment that is reserved for locals.
The primary source of state revenue, the growers, and peasants, would not be given the slightest attention when the state leased the revenue collection to the highest bidder. To obtain the most in the least amount of time, the contractor would mercilessly squeeze the peasants. He would so reduce the peasants’ potential to produce better crops in the future. Increasing collection simply translates into a higher tax burden. The state was unaware of any alternative way to increase revenue creation. There was overt discrimination against the inhabitants, particularly against non-Muslims.
The state had a practice of accepting public benefit initiatives but making no financial or other investments in them. It was the strangest thing imaginable.
Even while the colonial state was distinct from the previous one, it yet had some of the same fundamental traits, like oppression and extraction. Although the extraction level was raised higher, neither was a qualitative change. It brought in the contemporary machine-based production method. As a result, there was a never-ending supply of carefully considered, methodically organized, and skillfully carried out public programs to raise output, stimulate the economy, and generate a large number of employment. On the surface, the formula seemed straightforward: higher output translates into higher income, which is a subtly disguised method of stealing more from the labour and blood of those who produced it.
It also produced circumstances in which people received more than they had before. As a result, the colonial state succeeded in being able to offer the populace immense hope and a sense of justice.
Even if colonialism brought forth the contemporary conception of the state and society, its primary goal was to enslave the populace and extract as much as possible from them by the harsh application of force and control. The maximal excess that our so-called post-colonial power inherited was appropriated through the implementation of an effective but rigid bureaucratic framework. Local bureaucrats received all the authority with the departure of their colonial masters, but they did not inherit the mindset and ethos that motivated preparations for the future of an independent state, because they had been in the habit of following their commands. They so turned into chubby, glossy parasites. The distinctions between various departments became less clear when the overlords left.
The concept of the separation of powers and competence would be mocked by a more powerful department encroaching on the territory of a weaker tone. A man of integrity who was trained to combat external foes would lead the Water and Power Authority. One lovely morning, a judge would get up and decide to build a dam. An individual skilled in upholding peace and order in urban areas would oversee the Railways. And the elite of politics? In addition to filling open positions in government agencies with their loyalists, it would also generate new openings that would be filled with their punters.
What could be how things turn out for us? Engaging toward what has turned into a habit with us; a lack of interest but engagement in opposition to the force of practice is the most challenging thing. Finalizing indifference to the requirements of radical revamp of the administration’s departments is having an exponential impact on the declining condition of our state.
The writer is a freelance columnist.