Social
media has now become an integral part of politics and a medium of spreading of
facts or misinformation. This tool is sometimes being misused in many ways like
creation of hypes and propagandas. Tabdeeli is also a part of hype created in
media and it has highly raised the expectations of people. The projection given
to Tabdeeli stands tied with our day-to-day social life. The jokes ridiculing
Tabdeeli are not appreciable. The change/ Tabdeeli is not new for the people of
Pakistan as this word has been used in different ways by many successive
governments.
The very first time I heard this word “Change” was from Thailand when I had been in the country as guest of the then prime minister of Thailand during my exile time. In fact this was the beginning of yellow-shirt movement by Thai pressure groups/protestors against Thailand’s prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that resulted in 2006 military coup in September. In fact, yellow shirt was termed as symbol of Tabdeeli.
The
theory of “Change “originated in the mid-1990s as a way of analysing the
theories motivating programmes and initiatives working for social and political
change through certain well organised movements. In 1990, it emerged at Aspen
Institute Roundtable on Community Change as a means to model and evaluates
comprehensive community initiatives. Huey Chen, Peter Rossi, Michael Quinn
Patton, and Carol Weiss were the main theorists and practitioners who worked on
the idea and applied development in the evaluation field. The idea of Tabdeeli
existed but there has to be a proper course of action for Tabdeeli through
structural and legal reforms.
The Slogan of Tabdeeli is not new in Pakistan but it is a slogan advocated many time in the past. This idea of Tabdeeli inspired by Thailand was presented by a political party as a slogan of their election through both social and electronic media.
Let
us see the previous slogans of the political parties, which were used in the
previous elections time to time but no considerable change was noticed and it
remained as slogans only:
1.
Slogan to change education system but no change/reforms. 2. Slogan of
Ehtesab/End of corruption but No Tabdeeli — no change. 3. We changed system
from president to parliamentary system but no Tabdeeli. 4.We brought 18th Amendment
without any Tabdeeli.
5.
We shifted from cars - to cycles but no Tabdeeli. 6. We changed from 1600 cc
cars to Suzuki 800cc but no Tabdeeli. 7.We sold all government luxury cars but
no Tabdeeli. 8. We launched too many TV channels with freedom of speech but No
Tabdeeli.
The
political parties in the past played to gallery and unfortunately instead of
promoting the system and institutions we fell into individualism and ignored
the institutions rather used them to remain glued to the power. We politicians
do everything to stay in power. I have closely witnessed many transitions of
the governments and I found them getting crippled in the hands of bureaucracy.
We get united to grab the power in order to hit our mutual political opponents
but we never got together for the collective response required for our national
interests and unity. We need to change and reform the laws and policies to
bring about real change in the country.
I
personally know Imran Khan as well meaning and literate person and let us hope
that he comes up to the expectations and high hopes already arisen in the
public mind. I pray and hope that he performs right according to the
expectations of a common man.
The
high hopes from public may meet the same fate as of the past if this subject is
not handled by bringing in the required reforms; hence he needs to move with
good advisers and with collective efforts. The present government is expected
to devise a programme to bring meaningful change to improve the life of the
common man. He needs to improve the governance by implementing proper rule of
law. He should use accountability as yardstick for effective governance as per
the given principles of effective governance by Ibne Khaldoon.
I
remember the words of Abraham Lincoln who stated on change: “The best way to
predict the future is to create it”.
Our religion has also given teachings on “change” and according to Islam; it can be brought at three different levels: the individual, social and political. As per Islam’s idea of change, the change comes from the “inside” and not from outside by doing cosmetic changes. In Quran Allah says: “Verily, Allah will not change the (good) condition of a people as long as they do not change their state (of goodness).
Hence,
change can never be brought until we work on our inner selves so that it is
there forever and not for a specified amount of time. For instance, the
cosmetic changes are always temporary as even cosmetic surgery of face is not a
permanent Tabdeeli in the face. The states need continued reforms and to avoid
ad hoc changes in the system.
Let
us go for real changes and not the cosmetic options. The change is required
immediately in the following main areas in Pakistan:
Economy,
foreign relations, national security, education, electoral system, political system
and devaluation of rupee.
Mr prime minister, if you bring qualitative reforms in the above-mentioned areas, the people will start feeling the Tabdeeli. I propose the following to be done:Economic reforms: For economic reforms and debt retiring programme, use the Turkish economic model as the Turkish economy has been defined by the IMF as an emerging market economy as well as one of the world's newly industrialised countries.
The
model Tayyip Erdogan used to boost the economy of Turkey must be followed as,
in his first year of government, he ended "State of Emergency"
(Olaganustu Hal) in East of Turkey in 2001. This increased the investments to
the East, inflation rate decreased to around 7-10% that decreased interest
rates and this boosted consumption in all manners and credit cards and consumer
loans became available for the masses. Long term credits like mortgage and
mortgage system became available after 2005-2006 and this helped people to
build better houses, accumulations in treasury (dollar, gold) increased by 4
times. Long-term international credits became available, as before Erdogan
Turkey was craving IMF for 1-2 billion dollar with high interest rates. Today,
Turkey can borrow money for 30 years of payback. IMF offered 40 billion dollars
in 2011 but Turkey rejected it.
Effective
Governance and police system: For effective governance and appropriate police
reforms, our government needs to follow partly Singaporean model of governance
and police system. The most effective system of policing and governance is of
Singapore where the crime rate is almost zero. We can pick the best part of it.
We need extra ordinary police reforms for better rule of law.
Health
care: For improvement in health and care, the government must use UK’s model of
National Health services. It is a state-funded system called the National
Health Service, or NHS, which guarantees care and services for all patients,
whether rich or poor. That means everything free from ambulance rides to
emergency room visits to long hospital stays, complex surgery, radiation and
chemotherapy. In addition, any medication you get during a hospital stay is
free, and the costs of most prescription drugs at a pharmacy are cheap.
Agriculture
and farming: To make Pakistan green our government must use Philippine’s model
of agriculture and farming. Women’s participation in agriculture and farming,
like in Philippines, would help boosting women’s potential of farming and
agriculture. We can copy their canal irrigation system.
Education:
For quality education and increasing literacy rate in all four provinces of the
country, the government must follow the Australian system of education as it is
considered the best in the world. The cost of transport, living and tuition
expenses is comparatively low in Australia than US and UK, which makes it
easier for students to get higher education and become graduates.
Energy
production: We have rich resources of water and we can opt for hydropower and
production model of Tajikistan. Tajikistan is producing maximum power from a
single river by constructing multiple hydro power stations. It will be cheaper
to produce. Small dams with mini hydro plants are other option.
The government needs to bring well-drafted foreign policy to the joint Parliament session. The government also needs to bring well-drafted National Security Plan with the help of provincial governments to the joint Parliament session.
Industrialization:
Government must follow Chinese model of Industrialisation. China achieved its
spectacular economic growth with massive government spending in industrial
sector. The Chinese government ownership allowed China to direct the companies
to high-priority projects. The other major factor of Chinese industrial growth
is that The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, tightly controls
the Yuan to dollar value. It does this to manage the prices of exports to the
United States. It wants Chinese products to be a little cheaper than those
produced in America.
The
government must expand tax base by more easy and doable tax reforms, which
should be pragmatic.
A
task force consisting of all the chief ministers headed by PM for
implementation of above reforms should be formed, as the major implementation
of law & order and development is the responsibility of provincial government.
My
final advice is to bring desired national reforms for a common man and Tabdeeli
will automatically find its way in the public.
The Article has been Published in
‘’The News’’ on August 29th, 2018
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