Daily Times

Perhaps a better title might have been ‘Paradise lost’ but, unfortunately, that one was taken way back in the 17th century and that too ironically for poetry. And while some might suggest dystopia as another title for today’s article, which is a rather frightening state, realistically neither is befitting since the objective is not to define where we are today but to ask a vital question: where do we want to go eventually?

Manifestly, the end state or objective needs to be clearly identified before the simplest of projects or even the most infinitesimal task can be undertaken. If the intent is to set up a cement factory, gaining infinite knowledge of wheat production would be imbecilic. On the other hand, not knowing what the project is in the first place, gaining any knowledge about anything can easily be categorised as the height of imbecilic. Without knowing a destination, any journey will be all over the place without ever getting anywhere.

Quaid-e-Azam and the founders of Pakistan knew where they were going and what they wanted, and hence succeeded; we have Pakistan. And let us not get into the useless debate over what the nation achieved or could not achieve over the next almost seven decades, which is history, and until and unless someone invents a time machine, cannot be changed. Frankly, with all our ups and downs we have done pretty well till this point; we are proud members of the nuclear club and baring the energy deficit, largely self-sufficient materialistically speaking. On the other hand, arguably, the societal, political and economic graph is downward sloping.

Having hopefully and convincingly argued the need and importance of clearly identifying what the future of Pakistan should look like, let us move out of abstractions, virtual models and visions, and shop around in the real world for the desired state. There are sufficient countries in the world on various levels of economic, societal and political development to choose from and arrive at the best option. Once we agree on which country Pakistan should emulate, the journey can begin on the right path, at least in theory.

However, while choosing an idol, realism should be the guiding principle. For instance, unless Pakistan strikes huge oil reserves, most of the oil rich states of the world can be eliminated from the list. Albeit, considering what is currently being orchestrated in the Middle East, none of the oil rich kingdoms should be amongst the top choices anyway. We definitely should not want to be like the US since it would be too controversial to idolise a country that every Pakistani either loves to hate or hates to love. Unsentimentally, the US is perhaps also not a pragmatic choice, since that journey involves winning a world war and setting up a financial system that eventually ensures that the rupee, hypothetically speaking, becomes the international medium of exchange; fat chance of accomplishing that in the foreseeable future. And, finally, on a societal level, even after centuries, black Americans still get shot in the street by the police.

We are also no longer going to be fooled by fancy acronyms resembling construction materials; perhaps next time they could try immortals from Greek mythology when dreaming up fancy names. Remove Brazil and add say Uganda and you get CRIUS instead of BRICS, and maybe things might have worked out. Conversely, as The Economist points out that Brazil is tethering, the Indian economy is not in the best of states and, as far as Russia is concerned, it falls into the oil rich category anyway, and who knows what South Africa is about, other than diamonds.

Germany and Japan are out because, to become them, as the joke goes, we have to declare war on the US and lose! On the other hand, that might not be a bad idea considering that the duo is amongst the leading economies of the world today. Additional comfort can be drawn up from the fact that even South Korea and Vietnam are doing pretty well economically and they both have had the privilege of engaging the US in a war. On the other hand, examples from recent times are not encouraging because lately the countries that have been invaded by the Americans are in pretty bad shape. Another theory down the drain!

At this point a clarification is in order. While it is important to consider all aspects, including societal and political, when choosing an ideal country, for obvious reasons economic stability is a condition precedent. After all, high per capita coupled with an efficient Gini coefficient is desirable, and this is not the genie of the lamp, albeit that might just be what is needed to achieve the desired state once the choice is made. Accordingly, almost all of Africa is out, since most of it is worse off than us, even when they have oil.

Rather than shuffling country by country, perhaps it is better to go through the various rankings relating to everything from the economy to corruption all the way through to child morality. It will also be rational to ignore western countries since their demographics are materially different from us and it would be absurd to choose an unachievable ideal in any case. Albeit that does restrict our choices since in the Best Countries’ Ranking officially unveiled in Davos very recently, the top 10 are all from the west. Germany tops the list. Nonetheless, this very same argument is relevant for Utopia, Plato’s or any other such ideal state, since there are no practical examples of countries having achieved or benefitted from such a form of the republic.

So, having eliminated the impossible, borrowing from Arthur Conan Doyle and brilliantly quoted by Mr Spock, whichever countries remain, however improbable, are the possible choices. Coming down to the nitty-gritty, four probable choices now need to be considered: China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Grievously, we have painted ourselves into a corner. In the case of all the four possible candidates, their journey involved a strong, benevolent or otherwise, dictator taking control of and ruling the respective country for decades. The only thing that comes out of this effort then is that perhaps our flirtation with dictatorship was not for the right duration. Obviously, this is not the result we wanted, therefore the entire exercise was a pointless endeavour.

Left with no other option, we shall continue with the west’s prescribed solution of democracy, not knowing when and how we will get to a desired state that in itself remains undistinguishable for now. Here we are wandering around in search of wonderland!

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant