About "Weak Social Contract in Pakistan"

                                                                                           

Aslam Azhar was puffing cigarette and reading "Mutant Message from Forever" by  Marlo Morgan when we entered into his room. The warm welcome was followed by  knowing his thoughts about weak citizen-state relationship in Pakistan. He started sharing his thoughts that the total confidence in government  and its services are diminishing because the social services are not delivering well. They are not delivering because government is dysfunctional.

Bad functioning of government here is evident from the fact that when its own officers need jobs they look up to private sector themselves as they don't have any substantial role of decision making in these services.. Also a government officer is not open to citizen's accountability. Our political structure is very weak. The factors behind these weaknesses include  non-commitment of civil servants and very undisciplined civil services system. It's not only commitment and bad efficiency but also  the poor policies that lead to weak governance.

There is a great danger of anarchy in near future in Pakistan he said. It has already been started in bigger cities like Karachi, Lahore, etc. Failure of the social contract leads to strong consumer society but weaker civil society.  
Countries like Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Norway are successful examples of having strong citizen-state relationship because their workers are well trained, well educated and are having good education standards. Contrary to that in a country like USA there is a lot of chaos.

Upon asking from Aslam Azhar that how can we make our governance better? After a short pause he said; only when people come to feel that the situation is now intolerable and will move to change the government. There is a great need to revise the Constitution in its true sense in Pakistan. and to reassure the people that " Mullaism " (religious clergy) can never bring any change in this society. 

Talking about if there is any force that could bring positive political change in Pakistan he said that there are some groups in bigger cities like Lahore, Peshawar and Multan but groups don't bring change because they don't command electorate and don't have larger mobilized community. So i don't see anyone on that level. India has such successful groups but we don't have any in Pakistan because as long as religion is part of state affairs we must not expect any positive change. Indonesia and Malaysia are very  liberal countries and inspite of Muslim majority population they are are going good unlike Pakistan because of them being secular in their state affairs. I understand that Pakistan is going from bad towards worse situation until society will just simply collapse, which will lead to anarchy and ultimately a change that we want. In that anarchy "Mullaism " will be washed off forever.

He further added before going for sleep that inside our military system, there is a school of thought that is against intervention of military in politics. I foresee that the next phase we will go through as  a nation will be the phase of chaos ...long before the military rules once again in Pakistan !

November 2015

About "Consumer Society"

“We are living in a consumer society” Aslam Azhar said, sharing his thoughts at the start of an interesting discussion with him few days back.

“A consumer society is one in which the most important thing is to buy commodities and products beyond one’s needs. In layman language, we can say that if a society consumes beyond its basic needs like running a home and fulfilling the core material requirements necessary for life, it can be described as a consumer society.

“A consumer society is known by its own values and characteristics. Such a society thrives where there is cultural homogeneity. For instance, Pakistani society is divided into urban, rural and tribal systems and is therefore heterogeneous. Not all these systems here qualify for becoming a consumer society, although strong influences from urban areas and abroad are rapidly seeping into the whole country, giving rise to all kinds of problems.

“The other characteristic of this society is competitiveness and showing off what one has. People in developed and urban consumer set-ups are under constant pressure to prove themselves as better than their neighbours or fellows. People are never satisfied with what they have, and perhaps we can say that contentment and satisfaction are merely a kind of romanticism. It is discontentment that leads to development. Human competition too is a biological phenomenon, much like Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’.

It is the desire for betterment and having more that brings changes to lives. Wanting to have more can be, therefore, a positive factor because if it stops so does the process of change. However, the consumer society can expand only to the extent to which the local economic development permits. In Pakistan there are many far-flung areas where there has not been any notable development because of the lack of economic incentives and life has remained more or less stagnant.

The urge to 'want to have more” has driven man from the cave to the current world. Nothing endures but change, which cannot happen if the element of greed or “want to have more” is not there. At the same time, there is no limit to the human propensity for self-destruction. There is a mutual dependence of the three elements - need, greed and self-destruction that lead to social development. At every stage, the question of “rights” arises. The basic needs common to all human beings are, in fact, their basic rights and these should be enforced.

The current modern developments that we witness today, that leave us fascinated by the wonders they unravel, is just the beginning. It is only few thousand years ago that humans came down from the trees, and they are still learning to walk. The day humans learn to walk will lead to massive change and, perhaps even destruction, which can take us back to the Stone Age!


                                                                                                                                        October, 2015