By Raza Rumi
(My op-ed first published here)
As I sipped the tenderly brewed coffee facing the lush green golf course of a relatively new Lahore Country Club, the new reality of Pakistan became a little clearer. The sprawling premises of the club were a preserve of the Railways Department until the inefficient Pakistan Railways could not manage it and doled it to the new, oligarchic big business of Pakistan. Much ado was made when the land owned by the Railways was privatised and questionable deals were transacted in that moderately unenlightened era. Nothing came out of the public questioning and today a lavish country club, far removed from its downmarket environs, has sprung out for the affluent and the upwardly-mobile classes of Lahore and Punjab.
The classic barriers to entry created by the cliques that lord over Pakistan’s elite clubs is being undone. Pay a handsome fee now (way over a million rupees) and you are a member to this new “club” built on the ashes of the Raj steelframe, albeit, reminding one of the nasty remarks of Churchill on how the brown, rapacious Rajas would appropriate the space created by the wise and just colonists. As my host elaborated on the entry procedures to Lahore’s richy-rich club, I could not help but remember the compensation to a suicide bomber that has also increased over the years and now hovers between one to two million rupees. A grossly-overlooked fact is that the grinding poverty in the pockets of Pakistan, seemingly unaffected by the consumerist prosperity, is the key to our current turmoil and violence.
At the end of the day, the ideological battles, the foreign interventions and incursions aside, it is all about inequality and the fact that the poverty is now a mushrooming social reality. Apathy to the shameful criminal inequities is another visible trend. Take the new avatars of Pakistan – the media hosts at the leading television channels: the rants and ramblings overly obsess with ideology, of myopia and inward looking gambles. Let Pakistan follow Iran without a drop of gasoline; or let it be a Vietnam in the making forgetting that Pakistan’s heterogeneity and complexity defies even the best of sociologists and policy experts. Nowhere is poverty, especially that of the tribal belt, given the importance that it should be.
And when the international do-gooders want to do something about poverty they come up with packages that have been tried and tested across the globe with dismal results. How can piecemeal advisory aid impact in a gnawing and in-your-face policy vacuum? What happened to the FATA electoral reforms; plans to introduce local self-governance in the tribal areas; and the correction of draconian legal regime meant to advance the great game and colonialism? Above all, the much touted second and now third prong of FATA policy, namely development, employment and economic opportunity. The dehumanising poverty that facilitates selling the lives of young men in the name of esoteric jihad is nothing but years and years of exploitation and now a manifestation of unbearable poverty.
The truth is that Pakistan’s elites – both the political and the unelected – and their purported watchdogs are fairly oblivious to the fundamental reality of how the consumerist culture and emergence of Richistans in a sea of squalor and violence are aggravating deprivation, dispossession and hunger.
Never before has a predominantly agricultural country sbeen food-deficient and a victim of blatant capitalist speculation. Monopolies are not new phenomenon; however, cartels control oil, cement and all other elements of economic activity and survival. Yet, these are issues skirted around and a hapless civilian government, a product and victim of both the powerful elites and their machinations is the prime target of media critique. The corporate media not unlike India and other iniquitous societies is by and large indifferent to such monopolies and the capitalist machinations; much of its solution for inflation is executive control of prices.
The emergence of such Richistans is not restricted to Pakistan alone. Globalisation has to sell fabulous, vulgar wealth as a spectator sport and the ultimate marker of achievement. And the world’s war and oil industry have to fuel this all-pervasive greed.
True, the skewed growth during the last eight years has enabled many people to gate-crash into the world of elitism and create newer island-Richistans. The question is, at what and whose expense? Income and resource distribution have worsened and without a plan for redistribution there is no way to achieve peace, security and sustained progress in Pakistan. Sooner or later, the surrounding pooristans, tribalistans, conflictistans, violenceistans will gobble up these Richistans.
Estimates suggest that food price inflation have led to significant increase in Pakistani poverty levels. 20 percent inflation in food prices theoretically results in an 8 percent increase in the poverty head count. And, the official estimates suggest that the galloping inflation is above 30 percent. We are heading towards a situation where 50 percent of the population will be poor. Needless to mention, this situation ought to be the foremost priority of the State and its international partners. Domestic rhetoric on ideology and the global rants on terror can only destabilise Pakistan further that is in no one’s interest. The ruling party needs to revisit its social agenda and reclaim its original redistributive ethos. This is the time for initiating land reform; of increasing access of the poor to productive resources and undoing the structural roots of poverty. These policy priorities must drive the stabilisation packages proposed by all and sundry. The urgency of the storm, which has brewed for long time, needs to be recognised. It is already thumping the fragile contours of Pakistani society.
19 Comments
October 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Wa kadal Faqr aiy yakuna kufraa….Alhadith
(Ghurbat kufar ki taraf ley jaati hai)
October 17, 2008 at 5:38 pm
raza, sometimes i think it’s a miracle pakistan has survived even sixty years, being so eminently balkanisable and all.
sometimes i think, often in fact, that hazrat douglas adams got it right, and that this more or less godforsaken (in the literal sense) planet is simply some kind of experiment. the creator is probably putting the finishing touches to another inhabitable planet as we speak. it too will not be perfect. but perhaps the almighty has fine-tuned the inner workings of the rational mind to reduce the rapacity that characterises earthman. baser instincts, however, will still exist in the new improved version of ashraf-ul-makhluqaat in whichever sector of the cosmos (you can’t have “higher” instincts without baser ones).
perhaps they won’t have wars on this new planet. or poverty. or conspicuous consumption. or prejudice. or bigotry. or hate. or cruelty.
perhaps they will achieve the holy grail of egalitarianism.
how much time do you think the maker will spend looking over us once he switches the power on over in gamma quadrant?
October 17, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Very good Raza, Today Asian development bank reported that every 3rd Pakistani is “Poor”. But our elites insist on free market economy, the economy which even European Right is now questioning.
Its not a debate of Kuffer and Iman. Its a simple fact. weather we want to stick to Liberal economics and global capitalism or we want to build a “fair economy”. Latin America is doing it. We still worshipping the system which has doomed USA and European monitory system
October 18, 2008 at 3:05 am
True, the skewed growth during the last eight……
It will be disappointing if it can be called even a skewed growth, where ‘Ashrafia’ is constituted by anybody and everybody with a few millions coming from sold-off agricultural land adjacent to any DHA. Yes, this is our new social circus.
Income and resource distribution have worsened and without a plan for redistribution there is no way to achieve peace, security and sustained progress in Pakistan……
Are not Income and resource distribution remains from the socialism? Socialism, no doubt, was intended to be humanistic. But was it catering human nature? We may not like to do our best if the reward will be equally shared by onlookers also. It simply turns ambitious people into mere working units. I would rather support equal access to opportunities to everyone.
The ruling party needs to revisit its social agenda and reclaim its original redistributive ethos. This is the time for initiating land reform; of increasing access of the poor to productive resources and undoing the structural roots of poverty…..
Again, my concern is about the redistribution thing. It did not do any good in the past, anywhere. In my limited understanding, religion also does not allow redistribution of assets or resources. I deserve only what I work towards; and not procured fortunes. On the same note, what belongs to me cannot be taken away by anyone; be it a piece of land or a textile industry. I would stress again on making sure that every citizen has similar access to the opportunities.
As for the social agenda of the ruling party, it did not prove to be more than a political slogan, atleat in their last two regimes. Even during the time of ZA Bhutto, the so-called social reforms pushed only the middle class down the slope; the priviliged club only climbed up a few rungs!
Worldwide, the food shortage situations have rarely been attributed to production incapacities. Decades ago, when the population size was not as big an issue as it is these days, the famine of Bengal (1944) resulted from poor political decisions taken by the British regarding the export of locally produced grain. It happened the same way with us last year when we exported our wheat without properly estimating the possible consumption. Do we really have the true population size of the nation available to our decision makers?
Next comes the misguided economic policies such as the price controls and inconsistent subsidies which discourage growth of grains. Last but not the least, add to it our ongoing political crisis, where we have a lot of government but no administration.
Pakistan is not the only agricultual country where you will see people fighting for a bag of flour. This is being experienced by all those countries who share horrors like corruption, uncontrolled population growth, unaccontability for any or all acts etc.
Considering these aspects, we certainly need some solid decision coming from a joint body of agrarians, scientists and economists. Of course from a larger perspective, it will increase our chances if we are also able to bring down the corruption surge and population growth rate.
October 18, 2008 at 4:37 am
I agree with Sherry: It seems that Pakistan had adopted the completest sense of capitalism–and reaps the darker (mis)rewards of it. What Pakistan is going through now, with regards to the economy, is like the history of the future for other countries who adopted such a system and haven’t gone through trouble of this magnitude.
October 18, 2008 at 5:48 am
The current situation in the west is aptly described by the Kondratiev cycle and theory.
In 1929, the commies were similarly thrilled and predicted the death of Western capitalism … along came Keynesian correction… And Capitalism survived and thrived.
A Soviet economist by the name of Kondratiev then presented his theory of Western Capitalism going through 60 to 70 year cycle … Flabbergasted the narrowminded Politburo sent the great man to the gallows.
October 18, 2008 at 5:55 am
The state bank of Pakistan has done the right thing …
This is cost push inflation not demand pull.
Secondly… the food inflation will slow down as the recession in the west has cut the oil prices by half almost ….and that would lower transportation costs once the same is tranferred to the consumer here.
Finally lower oil costs would mean lower import bill which is an automatic correction.
Capitalism is the only thing that works people. Let’s put our faith in the sarmayadari nizam and in our country and reject mullahs and commies.
October 18, 2008 at 5:58 am
Aish,
I am sorry but I don’t think you’ve bothered to understand our current crisis.
October 18, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Raza, Im awfully pleased to see you angry, you have raised all the questions and you seem to know all the answers in this mess and whenever i meet a thinking person i see the same restlessness, and we all have the same question same wish, what to do and how to do it?
YLH: Ughhhhhhhhh………….
October 18, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Ubaidullah Sindhi said Adopt four aspects of Western Systems…
1.Liberalism
2.Industrialism
3.Socialism
4.Militarism
Liberalism is needed for getting rid of religious conflicts…
Industrialism for growth and opportunities
Socialism for distribution of Resources…
Capitalism is as the Mullah say…
There should be poors in society…to let the prosperous to give Khairaat and Sadaqaat to them…and get heaven again after Death….
There should be poor localities in the cities to let the Ashrafiaa begamaat give then Sewing Machines and dowry for their daughters….
October 19, 2008 at 1:37 am
May I suggest RR that the guilt you feel and the ineluctable social condemnation following it in your article are not necessarily connected, either in Pakistan, or equally in similar circumstances, in India. Feudalism, capitalism, kleptocracies such as we have in both countries, and elsewhere in the third world explain only aspects of the problem. Take Malaysia: It is feudal, capitalistic (with cronyism) kleptocratic, and also practically, under one party rule. Yet it thrives.
October 20, 2008 at 7:21 am
The good news of course is that oil and food prices are falling internationally so no can blame poverty on a “small cartel manipulating oil and food prices”. The poverty in the subcontinent is more a case of bad socialist economic planning (esp in India) and poor investment in human and physical infrastructure. Look at the success stories of what constituted Third World Asia in 1945- Singapore, Taiwan and Korea, they have all followed capitalist routes to development.
Regards
October 20, 2008 at 6:22 pm
What is happening to the world financial system shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Crises are endemic to capitalism, in fact it thrives on crisis as Marx had argued long ago and capitalism itself has repeatedly demonstrated. Capitalism often has periods of dynamic growth, but every now and then these turn into crises of underconsumption or of overproduction because of the very processes that boost productivity and profit end up increasing the imbalance between what is produced and what consumers are able to buy.
Balances and equilibrium can never be achieved in a capitalist system because these fictional models of neoclassical economics are themselves borrowed from 19th century physics which physicists have even rejected. Thus the imbalance in the market is sought to remove by easy credit and for a while consumers are able to buy beyond their means and businesses are able to grow and produce more. This artificial balance is mismatch and results are replicated on larger scale and the whole edifice crumbles down.
Crises is the tool that capitalism uses to renew and reinvent itself, it thrives on crisis and sometimes has to create it in order to sustain itself. What we are witnessing is indeed not the collapse of capitalism but a disintegration of the illusion that capitalism is about unlimited and unconfined free market. The developments over the last few weeks only underscore the point that the State, far from being exterior to capital, is a vital element of stabilization which prevents capitalism from accelerating to the point of self-destruction.
This is not the triumph of socialism; it is the triumph of neoliberal dominance of the State. The neoliberal gimmick of the market as a regulatory mechanism for everything has turned out to be dystopian ideal which doesn’t really work out in practice. This is the reason why it needs to be supplemented by State and by neo-conservatism of all shapes and sizes with its harshly repressive morality. For capitalism at its core is schizophrenic, it leads a double life in order not to bring about its own destruction. Because it is interested in profit it must subvert and invert all social groupings, such as religion, family and State in order to create a romantic creative individual who mindlessly pursues his desires. At the same time it relies on and re-enforces social groups and ordering such as family values, religious revivalism, community first etc. in order to function smoothly. This is the schizophrenic nature of capitalism where the most ancient traditions can co-exist with the ultramodern.
The neoliberal capitalism is superimposing and much more effective, as it can turn anything into a commodity than to ban it or censor it. Anything can be commodified, and by that fact alone what has thus been package and offered for sale is deprived of any radical efficacy, any potential for a real change — dissent can easily be commercialised– The difference of the future from the past or what is called the creative advancement of humanity is neutralised by being drawn into the structures of the market.
Capitalism had delivered the death of God but itself has become a truly divine force; it suffuses itself into everything and it subsumes everything. Capitalism expropriates everything, not just economic goods but cultural and affective life, leisure time as well as work time, the domestic sphere of a house-wife to labour in a factory. Yet capitalism is still a contingent, historical process, one that could have been otherwise .It has not existed forever, and it need not last forever. Yet the ‘revolutionary path’ is not be found in mournful retrenchment, a projected return to communist dialectics or Jehadists pre-capital territorialities, their solution is as bad or worse than the problem.
October 21, 2008 at 3:39 am
so naseeb networks goons are so powerful that they force RR to delete my post?
RR where is your so called lectures on freedom of speech which you preach on different news papers and on your blogs?
What was offensive in my post that you removed it(offcourse YLH would have forced you or his wife?).
Since Yasser is talking about capitalism and praising it so I am just telling the reason that it’s due to capitalism we have credit cards which are used by several thousands members of Naseeb networks to fill pockets of the group. Whats wrong it?
Don’t try to be a hypocrite my son. Let others know about every thing.
October 21, 2008 at 4:06 am
Yogi or whoever you are…. I don’t know anything about your post and no one I know has pressured anyone here.
I don’t know why you people have a certain measure of self importance which no one else is willing to grant you?
October 21, 2008 at 4:11 am
Yogi…
I haven’t read your post and neither has anyone else. Nor have we pressured anyone.
As for credit cards… not that I am a spokesman for Naseeb Networks as I have nothing to do with the group … the Naseeb.com service was for Muslims in North America… not for Pakistanis. The credit cards in Pakistan are exploitative and are not based on solid capitalistic principles.
I am not sure how you wish to relate that to the discussion at hand.
October 27, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@RR
no one is deserved to get his offensive post published in a way by challenging your ideas of freedom of thought…It is not a cultured way to say someone or his wife has forced U….
October 27, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Ali bhai: thanks for coming to my rescue.
Yogi (?) – no one forced me to remove the comment. It was in BAD taste and that is different from freedom of speech. In fact I will also remove your comment where you are individualising the issues and targetting an author and being abusive about his family.
Bad show, my friend..
October 27, 2008 at 9:03 pm
@ Ali Zain
I must say it was a very impressive comment. Its lovely really
Deleuze study of capitalism with regards to an immanent ontology of is also worth consideration.
though i disagree with conclusion to an extant, but it was really a treat to read ur view