Human beings are the meanest of all animals inhabiting planet Earth. They inflict pain on and kill other animals. They make their own kind — weak human beings — prisoners and slaves, killing them at will. They do it to have material well being and sensual and sadistic pleasures. Yet, they are unique because they can combine various social groupings and convert them into societies and nations to manage them in an orderly way. This art of conversion and the use of order is what politics is all about. Malala Yousafzai’s choice of becoming a politician means that she knows, at the age of 14, what our bureaucrats, generals, judges and media lords do not understand during their lives.
Thanks to evolution and some major mutations for the extraordinary intellect that humans possess. Thanks to intellect for turning the wiser and caring ones into politicians. Thanks to politicians for managing states and bringing about modernisation, which has provided comfort to 10 percent of mankind presently, with 50 percent more standing in queue. The remaining 40 percent may remain comfort deprived for a long time — maybe even forever — due to suppression of intellect and politics. In this regard, Pakistan and countries like Pakistan are a relevant example.
Suppression of intellect, a state policy in Pakistan written by its unelected establishment, is not only depleting our comforts, it has also made us unsure of ourselves, making us a dysfunctional state. Whoever has the reach, authority and guns is grabbing whatever he can. This happens when common people are exploited to the extreme. This is slavery, and the way to keep slavery intact is to suppress intellect continuously; slaves do not think, do not resist and do not change. Our society remained reasonably intellectually oriented because of the country’s British legacy, which had its roots in modernisation. But this British legacy was intentionally replaced by age-old traditionalism based on fears and fantasies of religion. This deviation weakened our urge for awareness and progressive action, strengthening feudalism and tribalism, adding one more exploitative instrument to society: urban mafias. Continuity of the deviation from British legacy demanded continuity of the dictatorship of bureaucrats and generals.
A functional state has to fulfil its social responsibility. It has to be socialist at least when it comes to distributing wealth. Almost all developed states have become responsible states including the US, which is constantly modifying capitalism and coming closer to socialism at a slow pace. The Scandinavians, a century ago, and after World War II, devastated western Europe, evolved the democratic socialist methodology to run the affairs of state. India too treaded an almost similar course. The recent experiences of the US, and all major capitalist and liberal nations, have directed every state to have more control over economic affairs. Socialism in various forms initiated and consolidated the intellectual and socio-economic foundations of state. Once a reasonable relationship between intellect and comforts was achieved, socialist states turned towards the liberalisation of the economy but with maximisation of taxes and vigilant monitoring of economic activities. Where and when vigilance weakened, the dreadful face of capitalism appeared.
Pakistan’s equation includes the eradication of ‘mafiaisation’ first. Since mafias mostly control our economy, our bureaucracy has become a mafia in itself, our army has turned into an accountable-to-none commercial organisation and our political parties face suppression, leaving our state almost non-functional. Hence, sticking to our present economic policies will mean giving more space to mafias. Add to it our hopelessness and we are in a terrible mess. To generate hope we need more intellectual input and activity. And to convert hope into action and success, we must get rid of the present bureaucracy as fast as we can. Lowering the retirement age to 55 years is the first step — the next is to induct fresh officials who are aware of social responsibility. The new bureaucrats must be politically progressive, pro-modernisation and intellect friendly. The same is needed for the judiciary and military, which, despite using modern laws and weapons, are extremely conservative. Methodology demands the end of suppression of politics, formation of well-organised progressive political parties and a political procedure of social democracy to be followed and respected by all fixed organs of the state, bureaucracy, judiciary, military, central banks etc.
Presently, we cannot evolve the kind of proactive progressive political parties that can help cause a quick change. If this is tried, radicalised urbanites and Islamic militants will turn towards extreme ruthlessness to stop it. Even mildly progressive forces are facing terrible resistance. The Karsaz tragedy, in which 180 PPP workers were killed, the assassinations of Benazir Bhutto, Salmaan Taseer and hundreds of PPP and ANP workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the attack on Malala were no accidents — they were well-designed operations. Despite all this, the ANP and PPP are very much part of the battlefield. What these two parties need is the active support of the people who portray themselves as progressives. Progressive writing or talk has no impact unless it is connected to progressive actions. We need to be in the battlefield.
Even Arab states are, despite historical compulsions to remain conservative, striving hard to become modern. They have realised that unless they acquire the relationship between intellect and comfort, they will return to mud houses once their oil wells have been emptied. However, their method for creating this relationship is inadequate. They are, in fact, giving ‘westernisation’ space, while ignoring fundamental requisites for modernisation, which are industrialisation and democratisation. The Arabs have turned to some modern economic methods but they will not turn towards modern governance, which would mean intellectual freedom and an end to tribalism and religion based politics. This is a threat to the foundation of Arab autocracies.
Modern governance poses a threat to all undemocratic third world states including Muslim majority states. Pakistan still has a chance. Some of its positive colonial connections are still in place. It still has a very strong base for progressive political activism. The coming elections will see progressive forces taking the lead. This has happened previously and it will happen again. This is why President Zardari stresses on absolutely free elections. It is certain that the present set up will continue after the polls. What is not certain yet is how far it will go to bring about revolutionary changes in the present structure of the establishment, in foreign policies and in internal policies, particularly in the economy. While Mr Zardari is clear on what our foreign policy should be and how our unelected institutions need to function, he needs to know the definition of a real businessmen in a functional pro-people economy. If Mr Zardari fails to get the economy documented, Pakistanis will be the first to return to nature — to mud houses.
The writer is a freelance columnist