A matter of outlook and orientation

President Pervez Musharraf's speech at a gathering of intellectuals from the Muslim world in Islamabad on Tuesday deserves to be taken seriously. His criticism of Muslim societies is well deserved and his recipe not without merit.

The theme of his speech was the predicament of the Islamic fraternity in a world in which it is incapable of meeting the multiple challenges it faces. The world, especially the West, perceives their religion as one of violence, though the irony is, as the general put it, that both the perpetrators and the victims of terrorism are mostly Muslims.

In analyzing the relationship between the Muslims and the rest of the world what strikes one is the former's powerlessness. This is largely rooted in their technological backwardness, lack of economic power - not to be confused with financial power - and the consequent absence of a military muscle.

The result has been humiliation, repeated military debacles, and unsolved problems such as Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. To these unsolved disputes must be added the tragedies of Bosnia and Kosovo, the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat, and now the current occupation of Iraq with attending humiliations such as the prisoner abuse and the plundering of Iraq's cultural treasures.

In presenting his ideas on how to contain the anti-Muslim wave sweeping through the West in the wake of 9/11, the president spoke of two "prongs" - one from the Muslims in the form of a renunciation of militancy and extremism, and the other from the West in the form of a solution of all political disputes.

The second "prong" is questionable, for the West has no reasons to have such issues as Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya solved as a gesture of goodwill for the Muslim world.

The western colonial powers did not "grant" freedom to Afro-Asia; it was wrested from them by the subjugated peoples. Consequently, if such issues as Kashmir and Palestine are to be solved, the Muslims must be able to do so on their own.

The question is: how? As the president pointed out, a confrontationist approach would boomerang. The Muslims, he said, should shun extremism and militancy and must drag themselves "out of the pit we find ourselves in". This is sound advice, but this is not something that can be easily achieved.

The truth is that the Islamic world today consists of utterly backward societies where political dissent and a spirit of inquiry are looked down upon. Most Muslim countries are ruled by military dictators, absolute monarchs, and civilian despots.

Some Muslim countries have the trappings of democracy but without its substance. Some countries in the Islamic heartland are even without rubber-stamp parliaments and lack even a modicum of representative rule.

Absent in most Muslim countries is "enlightened moderation" to which the president refers time and again. Essentially, if "enlightened moderation" has to have any meaning, it must provide for accommodation of dissent within the system and acceptance of political opposition and cultural pluralism.

Stability does not come out of a political order imposed by dictatorial means but is the outcome of a free play of democratic norms and principles. Militarism is the anti-thesis of democracy, and thus of moderation which is one of the latter's essential concomitants.

The other concomitants are fair elections, an independent judiciary, a free press, a higher standard of literacy, and a well-informed public opinion, with watchdog bodies to point out denial of rights to women and children and to cultural and religious minorities. Regrettably, most Muslim countries are way behind the modern world in these respects.

Religious and political extremism, intolerance and bigotry unleash divisive tendencies and weaken societies and states. Conversely, it is societies based on the rule of law, political freedoms and an acceptance of cultural pluralism that are healthy and stable and are, thus, able to face up to internal and external challenges.

Besides reorientation on these lines, the Muslim world needs leaders - in government as well as in opposition - who should channel their people's attention and energies into constructive thinking and efforts.

In specific terms, this means developing a thrust towards the acquisition of science and technology, releasing the people's energies by liberating them from the yoke of poverty and hunger, and creating egalitarian societies by abolishing feudalism and tribalism.

It is well-contented societies - which are at peace with themselves - which can face external challenges and earn respect from the outside world. The truth is that with the exception of a few, most Muslim leaders have not chosen to follow this course of action.

They have kept their own peoples in chains and their societies backward. 'Enlightened moderation' has to begin at home.

PSDP: poor utilization

The government's decision to allocate Rs202 billion to the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the coming budget is encouraging. Keeping in mind the pressing need for reducing poverty, ensuring good governance, generating employment and raising the quality of social services, the higher allocation promised for these tasks will help achieve the targets set for the coming year.

The government has been able to allocate much needed funds in critical areas like education, health, water, power and infrastructure. This will go a long way to ensure timely completion of vital projects that the country needs for its growth and prosperity.

Till now, many of these areas have been neglected in previous budgets. One hopes that with enhanced allocations in the coming budget, vital social sector projects will be taken up for implementation and those incomplete will be carried forward to provide benefits to the common man so that more opportunities for employment are created and serious efforts are made to contain the rising incidence of poverty.

However, what is disappointing is the poor track record in utilizing the funds allocated under the PSDP. The report that about one-third of the development budget for the current year will lapse for slow fund utilization is a case in point.

Out of a total of Rs160 billion allocated for the PSDP for this year, Rs78 billion was utilized in the first nine months. This may increase to some extent by the end of the year, but there will still be a large gap between what was allocated and what was actually used.

The non-utilization is routinely blamed on low disbursements of the foreign aid component of funding. But little has been done to address this problem. As a result, a number of development projects would see their progress halted for lack of funds which are technically still there.

This is most unfortunate, as most of these projects would have helped in bettering the lives of people in different parts of the country if completed on time.

What is ironic is that while the money for these projects was made available by the government, the usual bureaucratic red-tapism came in the way of its release on time.

In such a situation, higher allocations promised for public sector development would be of no consequence unless the utilization capacity of the federal and provincial governments is improved.

While the government did try to address this problem with a decision in March that development funds would not be allowed to lapse for three years, it is now apparent that the implementation of this decision is being hindered by legal and technical difficulties.

The government needs to come up with some solution to this problem at the earliest. At stake are the billions of rupees badly needed for poverty alleviation and employment generation.