Economic governance goes haywire

It makes depressing reading when the country is discussed by all and sundry in disparaging terms. The recent eruption between the existing Deputy Chairman and the former Adviser/Economist to the Musharraf government highlights the baron argument regarding poverty figures. The Musharraf figures were quoted as 17% and the current Deputy Chairman quizzed those figures.
The household income survey was used for the proxy measure. Whatever the figures it is obvious that poverty exists in whatever quantity it does. Its reduction is in no way an indication of economic management because I am aware how these figures were manipulated and how these figures are manipulated today. It is merely a change of face. The justification of poverty is unexplainable. It was first in 1977 that the book on the Assault on World Poverty Problems of Rural Development, Education and Health (World Bank) was purchased by me. Since then there have been so many stupid studies on poverty that it is mind boggling. The justification by both sides indicated the cultural attitude towards justification.
The current Deputy Chairman threw names of three economists who had never agreed to the figures. The Musharraf adviser threw the names of the international agencies the IMF, the WB and the ADB and wanted the Deputy Chairman to apologize to these institutions for what was thought to be termed derogatory to these institutions. Well I can only say that the Musharraf government was suffering from slavery concepts and traded independence to slave mentality. Not only were that government and its functionaries suffering from inferiority but were also probably inferior. That is one of the legacies of the military take-over of the time.
The others need not be recounted here but suffice it to say it led to a peculiar kind of lawlessness-and one has still to analyse the stupidities of the administrative reforms. The master and slave mentality was so prominent there that one wondered whether anyone here could be able to correct that mentality later. That is one of the enigmas of the developing countries that the army works under a strict control and command regime. If that is not followed the country will have a rogue army. However, the command structure is the one that has to have a culture of democracy when it comes to interacting with other democratic institutions. That is easily said but difficult to do.
Seek any newspaper and you will find that the country is up to its neck with all kinds of management hiccups. PIA has serious problems. The railways have them too. The over-bloated management and the pensioners at 25 are so many. The work ethics in both organisations are difficult to manage from a high perch and especially from a perch in Islamabad. The economic effects of these activities are multiple and complex.
Take for example the high cost of any purchase as an input and then see how the price of the product gallops. The trick is to see whether there is any alternative that is cheaper. With a price hike of 30% and another 5% coming up again the economics of comparative advantage is lost. What is the specific corporate solution? What is it elsewhere? Make the organisation lean and efficient instead of bloated and obese. The offices that I have seen in Islamabad are so extensively organised with land cruisers and high value transports while they are doing virtually nothing.
The minute that one has problem they start showing the holes in their socks and their inability to do anything. It seems that they are employed for once a month salary. The office is housed in an expensive one and it is being used as a rest-house for friends rather than as an office. Once comparative advantage is lost; if one works at 30% hike in price, then the productivity has to move in tandem by at least the same percentage points. No productive system can give that kind of increase.
The legislature headlines indicate that the rationale for a democratic government does not exist. The power structure in our country is such that they have minimal tolerance. If the political system is about adding resources through 'chits' then this is the normal and natural sequence. Send the ruddy poor out of the shacks and take over whatever you can. Feel great in the aftermath of one's glory obtained through graft of a higher and more criminal mind. The other day was a road opening ceremony - in fact, it was one of the caretaker PM's that was very keen on having his plate inserted even on a toilet that was made for public use.
The two projects were visited and the cost of both was exorbitant. Unlikely high cost was incurred on interventions that had no meaning parapets and retaining walls. The road itself was of very high and rich specifications. The other was where I found an elected representative lavishing praise on the PM and without realising that not an iota was true. He was messing up the personality of the person with the functions of governance. The scandals that I heard were different. Government land had been shown as personal property and hurriedly constructed shops were in hundreds in order to gain maximum compensation. If the powerful will do the lesser individuals will follow suit.
The cost naturally goes up and the loser is the public. In any case the wonder that I had seen in Sindh indicated that the misallocation of resources just does not pay. The current calamity is compounded by the engineer's lack of understanding of drainage requirements.
What you have a natural disaster that is not a natural disaster but a man compounded activity that is and will be disastrous in the future as well. Economics was ill served there because of the technical personals inabilities. Who will work out the real loss of the farmer? Who will determine the real living loss of the poor and the small farmer? Where and when is the genetic material of chillies going to be available?
The Mirza episode seems to create uncertainty and will continue with all kinds of cynical remarks and opinions by the dozens and when I ask the opinion givers whether they know Mirza the answer is a vehement no; so much for rationality in humans. The fourth is about the Balochistan Minister escaping a bomb attack. What can I say except that if you have people that seek to push their weight around that is not seen as reason per se then this is what is going to happen. I remember that the linkage with responsibility is more cumbersome for the powerful then for the ordinary criminal. No roadside bomber has ever been arrested so how will the police solve this blind case? The police is hopelessly out-numbered and out-manoeuvred.
New issues require new methods and more sophisticated training, not the recruitment and training procedures. The police have to be more responsive to societal requirements not to use methods that give rise to all kinds of innuendos and further the already unworthy image of the law and order agencies. The recruitment is politicised and when this happens one can be sure that the exclusion of fair and just social policies is the beginning of all kinds of inefficiencies.
So far as political responsibility is concerned, the last item (before I run out of space) is with regard to the resignation of the British Defence Minister Lion Fox. That is where the distinction between personal benefits and public responsibility is demonstrated and that is how democracy is strengthened? Democracy does demand a more censored self and a more equitable dealing between the public and the holders of public office. Yet we have scandals after scandals where personal choices have over-run public requirements.
The economic and social requirements of such actions will never be faith and confidence in the sector. The delays and the inefficiencies are such that they cannot be quantified yet we know that these are there. A linked and self justified bureaucracy whatever their level is a curse that ought to be curbed. The democratic element has much more to work on and that will determine the ultimate outcome of the nation's culture for work and honesty of purpose. There is no action that can be compartmentalised for all actions and activities are interlinked and the act has to be put together.
The decisions required are non-fiscal and lie in the minds of all those involved in governance. Words have meanings and if the deliverance of promises made is not there, then the credibility and ultimately end of matters is more than possible. The societal levels become worse and more crisis-ridden. Where political opposition is devastated then that opposition comes from within. Ultimately the heavy-handed political system weighs in on the weak and tottering economic systems. Mafias then abound and logic and rationality of public policy cannot be implemented. Colored glasses do not make for ideals of democracy and economic democracy is that much more to difficult to handle.