We want Pakistan to deliver. It needs to deliver both at home and in international affairs. There are numerous players in the field to accomplish that task. These players at times compete with each other but theoretically they coordinate to produce quality results. The degree of economic and social development is dependent on how the game is played and of course on the choice of the game.
Space is required for every sector of the economy and for the administrative system to give their best. There is a dire need for all systems and all sectors of economy to deliver and give their best but such deliverance must not be at the cost of running down or moving in to close space for others to perform. That is where self-restraint may help to perform better. Nation building is not the task of any one individual or one set of people. A large number of likeminded persons act as the ‘critical mass’ to help unleash the real potential of people in a society.
In the information revolution anyone sitting in the remotest part of the country may learn to act and respond meaningfully to national and international challenges. All great leadership is intrinsically equipped to perform and respond creatively to the events as they happen.
We need space for the industrialist and the trader, the farmer and the market-dealer, the bureaucratic officer and the civil society, the political and the political constituents, the military hierarchy and the common man, to perform and participate in the multidimensional scenario of nation building in these post-modern times. The smaller communities require resources and venture capital to stay in the market. Mega projects like building infrastructure and large water reservoirs are the task of governing institutions.
In these days of climate change, of heavy monsoons, of water shortages and of long periods of drought, no one can just languish and wait. Even the construction and building of Basha Dam, consensus for which has been achieved, has not begun. In the recent past, take the case of Swat valley where matters were allowed to deteriorate when all semblances of civilised existence were being obliterated one by one. An analysis of the events of those times would obviously reveal that there was a communication gap between persons or institutions responsible for the task.
Traditionally the executive, the legislature and the judiciary are considered the pillars of a state. However, for quite some time now, media has been considered as another important constituent to a democracy. The post-modern society has entered in to complex mode of inter-linkages of a vast number of variables.
The ideas converging in to the marketplace of these linkages begin to produce meaningful narratives describing possible routes to comprehending the destiny of a nation.
Violent revolutions are normally the result of not paying heed to signs of the time. That is when the process of evolution is somehow halted or not allowed to perform its due rule in giving impetus to human consciousness and its ability to take on challenges. The socio-economic, the socio-political and the socio-scientific evolutions gradually and rather imperceptibly march with the times and help to enhance creativity and mature perception of things.
The challenge in these fast-changing times is to deal with the international phenomenon of the age. The endeavour of every society, for every group of people, on every continent, is to salvage the traditions and values that are required to be protected. In the context of a particular economy, an ideal balance between the private and the public sector is required. Similarly, ineconomic and social terms each nation is experimenting with the ideal mix of post-modernism influx and the traditions needed to be followed. We know there are traditions that remained intact even in the modern times of the last century. Success shall depend on achieving the right balance.
The writer has served as consultant to the United Nations and other developing economies on issues of trade & development and can be reached at [email protected]
