Strange Values

SEPTEMBER 1999 - There is very little good that we can associate with any of the governments we have had over the last fifty years. Somehow and with alarming increase, the governments have come and gone leaving larger debts and more disorder by the day. Any hopes that we might have had of things getting better, have been laid to rest swiftly. All that is regressive and hypocritical has instead become totally synonymous with our governments. The people have learnt the hard way, finding solutions to each and every problem that has fallen on their luckless heads. They have understood that none of their elected leaders are ever going to do anything for them. Reality has taken over and dreams have long fled.

When you come to think of it, most of us don’t want all that much. The average person wants to go about his business with the least hassle from any one, as long as he is doing his business and not causing hardship or suffering to others. This is simply not possible. Every hurdle is created in his ordinary way. For everything that he wants to do, there are hundreds of reasons that prevent it. Getting a telephone fixed is almost a life achievement miracle. Crossing a road without getting fractured in fifty five places, is nothing short of divine intervention. The simplest paper cannot be obtained without knowing the highest in the land and all their assorted uncles. As minor an act as cleaning the roads or removing rubbish has long since been given up by the ‘civic’ authorities. They have left it to nature, the next person and perhaps some enterprising body which then moves in and does what the government should have been doing all along and for which it collects exorbitant taxes without shame.

Those who believed that it was the responsibility of their leaders to provide them with security of life and property have learnt the opposite at considerable cost. Thus, the police regularly robs the people whose very taxes provide them their salaries. The numerous government servants, a misnomer if ever there was one, fleece everyone who falls into their well-extended traps. Between corrupt officers and money-minting lower flunkies, the citizens of this land are tossed about from desk to desk and office to office, paying through the nose to obtain what is theirs by right. You would think that the gods would rain down bolts of lightning to pick off the scum of the earth who have broken every commitment without a blush, but such is life that if the bolts fall, they fall on the poor wretches who least deserve it. The scum bags move on in glory.

Amongst the many gifts that have been showered on the people a special mention must be made for education. As standards have plummeted to amazing depths, the wails of sermons and glorious resolves have risen higher and higher. Each government has encouraged every possible malpractice to ensure that generation after generation of illiterates are mass produced and thrust into the national mainstream where they have swiftly polluted whatever little was left. Grants have continued to dry up and the funds have vanished. The outlays for this sector have fallen to a point where it is embarrassing to admit the figure. Useless and quickly forgotten schemes have instead been thrust upon the people and institution after institution has been brought down. The few Pakistanis who have still placed their faith in a solid education for their children have been deprived of choices. The factories of mass ignorance have thrived and prospered.

When private schools first began in real earnest, there were very few who were willing to take the risk. Led mostly by enterprising and dedicated women who had experienced in the better days a quality education themselves, these schools and colleges have filled the vacuum that one irresponsible government after another left around. Some started with a few rooms and basic furniture. Some with even less, but a determination to succeed. Good education costs but parents today have choices of giving their children a good start. However, the lopsided systems that now run the country have caused these schools and colleges to face hostility from self-seeking neighbors and delinquent government departments. Many oppose the opening of such institutions in residential areas. It is quite revealing to see that those who oppose schools in residential areas raised no fuss when their children were attending similar schools and their wives teaching there. In most cases, it is the ‘posh’ areas which feel threatened. The city’s leading lights have no concern should a school open in a ‘non-posh’ area. That, you understand, is someone else’s problem. Yet they open lucrative offices, trading companies and law practices in the same sanctified localities. That ‘business’ is kosher but schools are not. Schools do operate usually in residential areas. It will be odd were schools to be opened in industrial zones, commercial areas or in river beds. In Lahore, the LDA which has failed to provide any zoning laws worth the name, plays a dumb game, issuing the obligatory ‘challans’. One project is ‘commercial,’ and the next is not. Who can catch the LDA ?

One day we may have schools in specially demarcated areas. Till then, institutions will spring up wherever they can. Yes bring in laws, but across the board and equally for all. Those who are fighting the school-crusades should take a long hard look around their world and understand some home truths.