By Mowahid Hussain Shah
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” - William Shakespeare
The convictions of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari by a Swiss Court pursuant to charges of graft highlight the perception among the masses that politicians often use their power, perks, and privileges as a platform for getting rich quick. The military ethos, which reveres competence, daring and integrity - when confronted with evidence of civilian venality - then finds it easy to derisively dismiss the lot as “dirty politicians” and “bloody civilians”.
Undoubtedly, the temptations to those in power are seductive. However, what often is not mentioned is the influence on behavior of our increasingly money-worshipping and power-genuflecting culture.
Several times I have been admonished gently by well meaning individuals to display the ‘aura’ by dressing expensively and stylishly and by living in a big bungalow. The cultural pressure appears focused more on attaining high-living than on simple living and high-thinking. What is particularly disappointing is the expectation that politicians will and even should be engaged in lining their pockets and not in furthering the public weal.
Unsurprisingly, then, some of the top-flight Pakistani elites are, in
effect, banished abroad not because that they are guerillas a la Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, or George Habash, but because, in the final analysis, they preferred personal pecuniary gain over and above their fiduciary obligations to the public trust.
The other principal pattern in Pakistan’s polity is using political power to take revenge against rivals. While the nation has been awaiting the attacking of priority concerns like low-literacy rates, ill health, lack of sanitation, joblessness, declining law and order, and poor agricultural productivity, politicians are perceived, sometimes correctly, as preoccupied in vendettas, victimization and vengeance. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and trumped-up cases have squandered energies, which could have been better deployed for furthering Pakistan’s development. Perhaps more importantly, the sense of commitment to public service seems often to be bypassed or even lost in a culture obsessed with settling scores and getting even.
Curbing the culture of revenge and riches could be one significant beginning towards genuine nation building.
