Pathetic reign of a decaying society – by Lal Khan

A majority right wing government is a provocation for the oppressed masses that are being tormented with this avalanche of socioeconomic onslaught 

The maiden speech by the third time prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, was no different from the ones we have heard from the rulers of this tragic land ever since its creation. Every time a prime minister or a dictator addresses the poor nation on assuming power, we are informed: the country is in danger, we are facing gigantic problems, the nation has to offer more sacrifices, we are passing through most critical phase of our national life/history, and we have to take painful decisions.

Nawaz Sharif’s speech on August 19 was hardly different in content. Perhaps the only difference was the degree of pessimism. His narrative was indeed gloomy. Lacking substance, it was a speech devoid of any promise.

Even when Sharif made hollow promises, conviction was lacking. Far from being an inspiration for the masses, it only added to their desperation and disillusionment. In analysing this speech a dialogue of Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to mind.

“Lord Polonius: What do you read, my Lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet: Between who?

Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter you read my Lord.”

This is the first regime that has been forced to skip its honeymoon. The jury is still out on the authenticity of the Sharif mandate but even those masses who voted for the PML-N did so out of utter despair and disillusionment with the other incumbent parties, in particular the Zardari outfit, rather than with any high hopes from this right wing party representing the corrupt and reactionary ruling classes of Pakistan. The crisis of the economy, price hike and terrorism of the past five years exacerbated rapidly in the first few weeks of the present regime. The price hikes of petroleum products, electricity and other basic necessities of life have been rising with excruciating rapidity. The budget presented just days after Sharif took power was unashamedly and outrageously anti-poor, with full benefits to corporate capital and the ruling elite. They are in such a grim state of crisis that this regime did not have any room for a mere small cosmetic measures such as reopening YouTube or installation of a 3G network.

The macroeconomic indicators have worsened and the depreciation of the rupee is sharply moving towards a free fall. All those boasts and proclamations of breaking the begging bowl and defying the IMF have proved to be quixotic gimmicks. The new loans of the imperialist institutions would only mount the burden of debt upon the shoulders of the toiling masses, further increasing the costs of debt and interest servicing, resulting in further reduction in expenditures on health, education and other basic needs. The recipes of the IMF such as privatisation, downsizing, liberalisation, restructuring and deregulation will be carried out with greater ferocity. However, it would not be possible to privatise large-scale state enterprises as a whole in a climate of world capitalist recession whose recovery is far fetched, to say the least. They will dissect these enterprises into various components in exactly the same manner as a butcher dissects a lamb or a cow in individual pieces and displays the best pieces by tying them up in his shop front. But this privatisation will end up throwing hundreds of thousands of workers on the scrapheap of already massive unemployment that is already perilously aggravating social tensions and turbulence in society. The obscene borrowing for circular debt has further added to the fiscal deficit. The economic default that has been delayed temporarily by the IMF tranche will boomerang catastrophically. The main corporate bosses are now sitting in the crucial meetings of the economic planners and the policy makers of this government with crucial powers of veto. Their borrowing for power and other enterprises is ending up in their coffers. The imperialist owners of the IPPs and other sectors where this money is being stashed are having their heyday.

The deafening mantra of Chinese investment to kick start the economy and develop the infrastructure is farcical. The current rulers in power in China are not here to solve the problems of Pakistan with their friendship ‘higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the deepest sea’. The foremost compulsion of the system whose path they have chosen is to prop up a dangerously floundering rate of growth. Moreover the Gawadar-Xinxiang railway line and the highway are a pipe dream. The path of these projects is riddled with terrorism, bloodshed, crime and proxy wars. The Chinese too are blundering into these projects for their lust for profits.

“Negotiations and use of force to combat terrorism.” Is this anything new? Has this not disastrously failed in the last decade? Whom and with which faction of the ‘terrorists’ are they going to negotiate and which ones would be destroyed with the use of force? What if this force is found complicit with those groupings that it is supposed to decimate? Terrorist attacks and violence have increased sharply since the inauguration of this government. The bloodshed and proxy wars in Balochistan have intensified. What administrative or state structural changes can end this harrowing conflagration? There is not much chance of reforming and improving the state institutions that have rotted to an irretrievable extent due to the crisis of the catastrophic socioeconomic system they were built to protect.

The reality is that there is not much room for even minimal reform that could benefit the masses. What they call reforms are ironically the policies devised to enhance the rates of profit for the capitalists and imperialist corporate capital. The rich will become richer with the further accumulation of obscene wealth, the black economy will spread its tentacles deeper and the already impoverished masses will be thrust further into the black pit of poverty, misery and deprivation. Crime and bloodshed will go on unabated. This right wing regime is destined to fail. But how and when is the question. Either the country will descend into an even greater chaos or the masses will arise for a revolutionary transformation of this rotten system. A majority right wing government is a provocation for the oppressed masses that are being tormented with this avalanche of socioeconomic onslaught. Now the barricades are drawn and the classes are confronting without the buffers of social democracy and reformism. This class war has to be fought to the finish. The victorious outcome for the toiling masses is the only salvation and emancipation of society.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]

Source :

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C08%5C25%5Cstory_25-8-2013_pg3_5

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