Daily Times

I am an inqilabi (revolutionary). I am a hari kissan (tenant farmer) in the fields, a labourer in industrial plants, a railway man, a postal worker, a schoolteacher, an office clerk, a chowkidar (guard), a police constable, a clerk in a court of law and in uncounted large number of other jobs.

I work in a factory in Dera Ghazi Khan. The owner of the factory is among the top richest men in the continent. I do not understand why he wants to be among the top richest men in the continent. Why is he not satisfied to be the richest man in Pakistan or the Punjab province or even the district Dera Ghazi Khan? I am concerned because he has become rich by paying me the lowest possible wage. His cost of production is much lower than the money he makes by selling the product I make for him. He usurps for himself and his partners the surplus and becomes richer and richer. I resent it but then I realise what else can he do? Indeed, he deserves to be congratulated for being the one of the most efficient operators of the unjust economic system we have in the country.

Because I am poor, I have to go before a rich person to get a job or work. The zamindar (landlord) allows me to work on a piece of his land on the condition that I give him the maximum possible share of the produce, which means I keep the lowest possible share for myself and my family. In other words, I remain as poor as possible, barely enough to eat with no money left for the education of my children, their healthcare expenses and for other essential requirements of life.

Government, the courts, industrialists, businessmen, in fact, all employers of poor men and women in Pakistan have established an unjust labour market to ensure the supply of poor men and women at the lowest possible rates. The blackmailing of the poor people, forcing them to work for the lowest possible wage, or starve, guarantees that the poor in Pakistan shall remain poor forever while the rich will become richer.

As the lowest paid working inqilabi, under duress I have often pondered what stands in the way of the poor becoming rich or at least half as rich as our middle-income classes. I have come to the conclusion that it is the state of Pakistan that stands in my way to earn a decent living. Whenever my colleagues and I gather and demonstrate before a factory to secure an increase in wages, the police come out to beat us up. If we resist the police, it fires tear gas shells and brings water cannons to drive us away and during the night arrests our leaders. And more, who can forget how Ziaul Haq’s police opened fire and killed 17 workers in a factory at Multan. Now that is not fair. Does the government exist only to favour the rich?

The answer is, yes. We are told that government forces perpetrate violence on us because we act against the law. Therefore, it is clear that government has made no law against the rich becoming richer and has made no law to prevent the employer to make us live an inhuman life by not paying us more. The perpetuation of unjust inequality between the rich and the poor by legal means sounds peculiar until you consider who makes the laws.

Our law-making legislatures are overcrowded by the rich. A few months ago, Pildat released a report saying that the average wealth of a member of parliament is $ 1,000,000, nearly Rs 100,000,000. I cannot possibly expect from our legislature that it would make laws to make the rich less rich and the poor less poor. I am destined to remain poor as my father and grandfather were destined as long as the legislatures stay as they are, full of the rich, my exploiters, the looters of the wealth I produce for them.

As a poor inqilabi worker, I have no means to overthrow the unjust order. I am too poor to build organisations. As I see things, my oppressor is powerful beyond imagination. He has organised bands of law enforcers with guns, tear gas, intelligence networks and communication facilities. Thus, I use the only weapon I have. Going slow is my policy, my weapon. On a job, I produce as little as possible to make vacancies for others like me. All my colleagues do the same. Do not I know that the more we produce for our employer the more rich and powerful he would become? All of us go slow — the police, the tax collector, and the courts. By not working hard during the last 65 years, we have succeeded in tearing down the state structure. I am proud of my achievement. No more is there a government in Pakistan with enough authority to enforce its writ. I am freer today than ever before to live as I want to without caring for the law or rules. I am grateful and thank all intellectuals and educated people who unendingly write and speak about my plight and wrangle theories about poverty. I know that a small number of them work for the intelligence community or American and other imperialists and work against my interests, but I am convinced that a large number is genuinely devoted to the cause of the poor. I fervently hope that one day they will come out on the street to organise and lead the poor and the downtrodden into a force capable of changing the system in favour of the poor and against the rich and powerful.

The writer can be reached at mh1@lhr.comsats.net.pk