Adversarial or collaborative politics
At present our country, unfortunately, is in the grip of adversarial politics. Some leaders like Imran Khan of PTI and Sheikh Rashid of AML seem to be in a great hurry to put the country on fire through their brand of adversarial politics. Whether they admit it or not, their adversarial politics is doing no service to the economic growth and development of Pakistan. The amount of resources and human energy they had wasted in holding purposeless public meetings might not yield the expected outcome. If history were to be a teacher, it must be said that leaders who suffer from patience deficit are always the losers. A leader’s sense of timing is a key determinant of success or failure. The PTI leadership, for all intent and purposes, is doing the right thing at the wrong time. These leaders ought to realise that Pakistan today needs collaborative rather than adversarial politics. Why?
Pakistan has great potential to become a fast growing economy if our political leadership didn’t waste this opportunity in political squabbling. Jim O’ Neill of Goldman Sachs was the economist who coined the term BRICs.This acronym stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China. While using this term Jim had predicted that these countries would be on a high growth map. At the time, he also identified Pakistan as one of the next eleven countries that could be on the same growth map if it could improve its growth environment.
The two key variables that were considered critical for creating a conducive growth environment, are: the demographics and the power of productivity in a country. Looked at from a demographical perspective, the youth bulge in Pakistan could become its key advantage if employment opportunities were created through economic growth. Without this the youth could become a social problem.Misguided by its myopic political ambition. PTI by engaging the youth in its untimely public meetings is wasting this vast reservoir of human energy which could otherwise be used to enhance per capita productivity.
The power of productivity is considered another critical factor for achieving fast and high economic growth. If the workers in a country can produce more with smaller inputs in a given time, their economy will grow faster. To achieve this, the use of technology and technical skills are prerequisites. At least, in the case of Punjab a lot of stress is being placed in creating jobs through the use of ICT and vocational and technical education.Thus, Punjab will be in an advantageous position to realise enhanced per capita productivity which will put Punjab on a high growth map. But if we have political stability rather than confrontational politics, Pakistan could also achieve high economic growth and create jobs so essential to utilise the youth in economically productive tasks.
Pakistan could be on a high growth map if it were able to improve its present growth environment. What factors influence the growth environment of a country? At the macroeconomic level factors such as inflation, government deficit, external debt, investment spending and degree of openness are critical. At the microeconomic political stability, amongst others, is given high weightage.
Thus political stability through politics of collaboration could have put Pakistan on a high growth map. Alas, such an opportunity is being wasted by the intransigent attitude and unwarranted adversarial politics of the PTI leadership. For fighting poverty, unemployment and extremism Pakistan badly needs a detoxified political environment of cooperation. Let us assume for a minute that if IK’s claim of rigging in four constituencies was true, would it have made any difference in the present government set up? No. Then why this much noise? The noise is for no other reason than to advance a parochial personal political agenda.
Instead of pursuing a narrow political agenda, had PTI used the Parliament as a platform for achieving electoral reforms to plug any holes in rigging in the future, this approach could have been more favourable to improving Pakistan’s growth environment. Why did, then, PTI opt for out of Parliament adversarial politics instead of effective opposition? This is a question that IK need to answer.
Given the current degree of frustration in the PTI camp, its leadership seems to be running out of patience. Such an attitude is neither in the interest of PTI leadership nor is it in the growth of Pakistan’s economy. The PTI leadership is right on many political issues but with wrong sense of timing. Consequently, it has landed itself in an all lose and no win situation. Rigidity in politics only atrophies leaders instead of raising their stature. I wish the PTI leadership recognises this reality. PTI’s top leader had many times misquoted Britain as an example to justify his positions. In Britain no individual irrespective of his stature would be allowed to disrespect the rule of law. It can only happen in a country like Pakistan.
November 30 has just passed. PTI was able to organise an impressive show but short of the claim it had made to bring a million people. The participation from Punjab was not that encouraging. The show was primarily a KP show. Once again IK had unfurled his plan ‘C’. This plan aims to shut down Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi and then entire Pakistan. Was the government unfazed by this? I don’t think so, since this plan was expected.Who will benefit from this plan? Unfortunately, this plan will only please anti-development forces.
Where do we go from here? First, our politicians need to learn and learn quickly that adversarial and confrontational politics self-destruct and leave no room for reconstruction. Second, in politics, as well as in any negotiations, rigidity and an attitude of ‘win or lose’ results in no success and no victory. Third, while state institutions will never be perfect, instead of mud-slinging, constructive efforts be made to remove imperfections in their working. Fourth, in a democratic dispensation Parliament is the only forum to vent out all forms of frustration against the rulers. Fifth, while to protest is the democratic right of every human being, no one should take the law in his own hands since this will encourage street violence, ultimately leading to breakdown of rule of law. Such a situation couldn’t be in anyone’s interest. Last but not the least, all of us must recognise that today, more than ever before, Pakistan does need collaborative politics rather than adversarial politics to put Pakistan on a fast road to economic growth. The adversarial path will fragment an already deeply divided society.