Nothing wakes up the dead. So is the case with a living people with a dead conscience. A dead conscience can only be woken up if one accepts faults and shortcomings with a realization to correct those. However, being the 117th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perception Index, we have become used to deceit, lies and corruption which has become the wool and thread of our societal fabric. Thus, anybody who tries to indicate these culpabilities is grilled, insulted, and shooed away. Readers might relate my statement to the recent incident where a religious preacher had to say sorry on mainstream media for exposing our national character but I made above statement to indicate the state of our denial which is stopping us from correcting ourselves. However, I do believe whatsoever the preacher said was true. Is this not true that as a nation we love corruption and have been following such leaders and electing such head of the governments, who were declared ineligible to hold office for life by the Courts due to their sordid accounts of corruption? We don’t even spare the holiest of the months like Ramzan to make money. From extorting the illegal payouts from travel agents involved in fleecing Hajj pilgrims to capitalizing on drug and pharmacy products, we do not let go any opportunity to make some money through corruption. So, nothing wrong in declaring and accepting our shortcomings if it is intended to mend ourselves as a nation.
Living is getting harder these days. The middle class no longer exists which has now merged with the poor rather the ultra-poor. It has become difficult for families to earn a single stomach-full meal. Government is struggling hard with whatever resources it has. Philanthropic organizations are trying to support the people but filling huge socio-economic gaps created in the society, is getting hard to be plugged in. While this goes on the rich enterprises and corporate owners are hardly anywhere to be seen. The NGOs and charity organizations are doing a great job and despite lack of funding owing to the worldwide pandemic effect, yet these organizations are spending whatever penny they are left with. Despite this, everything done to relieve the affected, seems too little too less. But why the majority of rich are not forthcoming to help the government and the fellow citizens in distress? Why the majority of this class is getting so mean?
Given that a major part of the country’s population lives in multidimensional poverty, local philanthropy offers enormous opportunities to supplement state-sponsored programs to reach out to the under-served areas
While research conducted at the University of Toronto confirms that the rich are less generous than the poor, I call it the “Rich Syndrome”. In other words, it is a serious infection of “still feeling unfulfilled” which unfortunately has infected if not all then a majority in this privileged class. One main reason for this is the social distance that separates the rich and poor. Since rich live with the rich they seldom see poor around them. Rich live in DHAs and Bahrias while poor live in shantytowns and slums. There is hardly an occasion when the rich and poor come close together. Even their children are not mingling with each other. Their school system has created a big divide between the two. Thus, this blindness to the suffering of others has become a psychological adaptation for the rich who no longer feel the discomfort caused by extreme disparities in society. Rich in our country also believe that they have worked too hard for too long but they’re still not where they think they need to be. They will attend to others once they reach their marked destination. I can only wish if the futility of their situation ever dawns on them. Without a fundamental change in this way of approach to their lives, they’ll never reach their fellow beings since their ever-receding goals are always a priority for them. For rich in Pakistan, money does not come easily as substantial amounts have to be fed to the corrupt system to earn something in return. Probably this is the reason that unlike the west, money does not invoke a sense of responsibility in the rich. In our society, the belief that great power or riches come with great responsibility has faded away a long time ago. It was only the middle class that donated and donated open-heartedly. Since the middle class no longer exists, the donations have substantially fallen.
Charity in our society is largely impelled by religious reasons, where faith supplements conventional ideas of accountability or transparency. A study conducted by Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy shows that our countrymen donate around more than $2 billion annually to charity. The same report indicates that about 98 per cent of people in the country give in one form or another-if not with cash, then with in-kind donations or by volunteering for needy causes. Fuelling this culture of generosity is the Islamic emphasis on giving-in the form of Zakat, Sadaqa, and Fitrana-as well as other moral and social factors and a deeply rooted sense of compassion toward community members. It also remains a fact on record that people preferred to donate to individuals and not to organizations. They found it easy as well as satisfying. Probably this is the reason that donations requested by local madrassas and seminaries got the major chunk of the donations. The trend of giving donations towards development organizations could not be encouraged due to the absence of a conducive policy environment which could help harness philanthropic giving towards development organizations.
Given that a major part of the country’s population lives in multidimensional poverty, local philanthropy offers enormous opportunities to supplement state-sponsored programs to reach out to the under-served areas. Government should see the Civil Society and Non-government sector as a partner, instead of pursuing vindictive campaigns against NGOs and accusing them of working on foreign agendas. Regulatory regimes are must, but the government should understand that policies are made to facilitate a system and not to obstruct it. Government needs to focus on the above-identified issues, which can help local development organizations overcome their dependence on foreign donors and help them secure more indigenous sources of funds.
The writer is a versatile analyst