Having discussed other sectors in detail in the many previous columns in the past some months, it is worth revisiting the role of civil society in Pakistan and the kind of issues it faces. In some ways, the term ‘civil society’ is a misnomer as it is applied presently. The theoretical basis of the usage of ‘civil society’ is much wider than only referring to the work of NGOs.
The political economy literature traces the popularization of the term ‘civil society’ back to Gramsci who built it on the earlier conceptualization of Hegel and Marx. For Gramsci, ‘civil society’ in the private realm is distinct from ‘political society’ of government. The latter works through coercion and the former through consent. The state functions overall through the synthesis of ‘political society’ and ‘civil society’. In other words, the state works through inter linkage of the political, social, and economic relations and it is not simply about acting as an instrument of the capitalist class only. For Gramsci, the ‘civil society’ includes the trade unions, the religious organisations and the education sector in addition to the ‘organic intellectuals’. The state does not deal with political activities only; it also deals with the intellectual, social, and moral activities and dominates them through hegemony.
Before, we offer a critique of the way the civil society works in Pakistan, it is important to qualify that the civil society works no different in Pakistan than the way it works in any other part of the world. In other words, the issues that the civil society faces in Pakistan are in no way limited to Pakistan. Civil society functioning in other parts of the world, be it developing or developed countries, face similar challenges. The state institutions determine the way the civil society functions, similar to the trend in other countries in the world. The irony is that the civil society claims to work to promote progressive agenda including the protection of citizens’ rights, democracy, gender empowerment, poverty reduction, devolution, community development, education, health, labour rights, rights-based advocacy, amongst others. It claims to contest the state’s oppressive policies. However, in practice, it follows the dictates of the state institutions as much as any other sectors, despite its claims to do the contrary.
A few years ago, a discourse started on the shrinking space for the civil society. Space is shrinking for the civil society in many other countries of the world as well. However, the issue is not limited to the analysis of shrinking space. The issue is not only the financial corruption of the NGOs either. Unverified chatter about some NGOs having indulged in the financial embezzlement has been taking place. Without solid proof, one cannot comment on it. The issue is of the individuals and organizations associated with the civil society being influenced through coercion of the state institutions. This coercion takes places at many different levels and is effective in controlling the civil society. Some guarded criticism of the state institutions is allowed at the de jure level to claim authenticity; yet other dictates of the state institutions are followed at the de facto level.
According to Distinguished progressive historian Mubarak Ali, the colonial government used a two-pronged strategy of buying up the intellectuals and repressing them to neutralize any opposition. This colonial policy continues even today
Distinguished progressive historian Mubarak Ali in a newspaper interview (reprinted by the Fiction House in a book in 2004) linked the plight of intellectuals to the British colonial period. According to him, the colonial government used a two-pronged strategy of buying up the intellectuals and repressing them to neutralize any opposition. This colonial policy continues even today.
According to Mubarak Ali, “A similar policy has been adopted by successive governments here. Perhaps the roots of intellectualism in Pakistani society are not very deep. There are very few intellectuals and hence it is very easy to buy them or even suppress them. We’ve seen how successive governments have had no problems winning over intellectuals to their side”.
There are also the structural issues with the way the civil society works. For many NGOs, the chief executive officer (CEO) plays a key role in appointing the board of directors (BoG) for that organization. The selected BoG in turn often keeps on renewing the term of employment of the same CEO. It is a self-perpetuating cycle. The international donors are fully part of this. The donors want to show to their respective capitals in the developed world that they have spent x amount of money in the developing countries like Pakistan. The regard for financial or intellectual integrity might be displayed in documents, but often overlooked in practice, as long as the required spending targets have been met and their agendas fulfilled.
There are also issues with the way targets are set and claims are made to achieve those targets through indicators. Some NGOs doing political work for example place the better rating for Pakistan on Freedom in the World Index or Worldwide Governance Indicators as a yardstick of their success. It is often difficult to establish any causal link between the limited work of the concerned NGO and a significant increase in Pakistan’s rating on worldwide indicators. Even the way the success of projects established through evaluations often has issues. The evaluations are often not rigorous enough and consultants can also be co-opted/pressurized to give a favourable verdict.
Even the community-development driven NGOs work is levelled with criticism. They emulate to replace the state with their service delivery and often cannot match up to it. The micro-credit schemes end up burdening the women in the community as there is collective collateral. It leads to criticism of community development work of NGOs like AKRSP and NRSP, amongst others.
For the sake of honestly, it might be better if many NGOs and activists in the realm of civil society close shop if they cannot function truly independently due to the control of state institutions and join political parties, trade unions, newspapers, or simply write columns. They would make a much better contribution by doing so.
The writer is an Islamabad-based social scientist