Elite capture

Pakistan is an unfortunate victim of the oft-quoted pathology of socio-economic growth – ‘elite capture of resources’. A highly stratified society due to past subcontinental religious traditions as well as the stultifying impact of colonisation has created an iniquitous social milieu in the grip of structural violence.

This structural violence is the perpetuation of the exploitation of the lower classes by the upper class oligarchy through an iniquitous system of governance and distribution of public goods. As sociologist Johan Galtung put it, structural violence inhibits positive peace – that is, absence of injustice and exploitation – by locking the top dogs and underdogs in a state of disharmony of interests which results in an ‘unequal exchange’ of public goods between them. This unequal exchange is the nub of the issue while framing a discourse of social equity and justice.

Thomas Picketty writes that “Extreme inequality can be harmful to growth because it can be harmful to growth and impedes mobility and can lead towards political capture of our democratic resources.” Elite capture of resources through marginalisation of the poor and disadvantaged segments of society is not limited to the political elite only; it extends to the deadly competitive world of the corporate greed.

Conscientious objectors like John Perkins have castigated well the rapacity of corporate greed vis-a-vis third world countries. In his latest exposition, ‘Confessions of a New Economic Hitman’, the author reaches the conclusion that the world needs to convert to a “life economy” model rather than the traditional laissez faire version. Environmental sustainability and human welfare defines the concept of “life economy”, which is now being offered as a prescriptive remedy against the excesses of capitalism.

In Pakistan the governance and business models of an entrenched elite continue to defy the above global trends. Instead of reducing the inequality the emphasis is on widening the income disparities. This is being done through political and social marginalisation of the poor and dispossessed. In a country where the top 20 percent appropriate over 60 percent of the national wealth while the bottom 40 percent receive only 20 percent, the hope for progress remains a pipe dream for the oppressed majority.

What could bring social inequality in starker relief than the figure of 58 percent food-insecure people in a population where the elite continually evade taxes. A tax-to-GDP ratio of 9.5 percent is a scathing indictment of our elite segments – including traders, politicians, rich landowners and bureaucrats.

The above indices of inequality in a socio-economic milieu of scarcity would naturally demand an element of social empathy and altruism from the privileged elite for the disadvantaged and penurious. It is in this context that the present astronomical rise in the pay, perks, and allowances of the members of parliament seems so hideous. Though the poor and destitute remain far from storming the Bastilles of unmerited privilege the low rumblings of discontent are within earshot. A people eking out just bare subsistence would not take kindly to the three-fold increase in the remunerations of parliamentarians, the majority of whom already belong to rich and privileged classes.

All over the world parliamentarians are remunerated for their parliamentary duties proportionate to their workload and such token remunerations are in no way equated with the salaries of civil servants or corporate top management. In fact such comparisons would invite outright derision and censure in stable democracies of the world.

The present socio-economic national scene calls for sharing the burden of straitened economic circumstances with the poor through belt tightening and austerity. Members of parliament need to take the lead in this altruistic national endeavour to show the way to the rest of the country. They have to demonstrate through their conduct that they are in the vanguard of a movement to eradicate inequality and social injustice through personal example of pecuniary sacrifice. People need to be reassured in these times of public scepticism with democracy that their representatives are not out to feather their own nests but to fight for their rights. That will happen only when the people see that that the pay raise of the parliamentarians is within limits and in sync with the income increase of the masses.

For deliverance from the shackles of structural violence national resources have to be made equally accessible to all segments of the population – based on their honest endeavours and in keeping with the principles of equity and social justice. That is the only way the country can rid itself of the elite capture of resources.

The writer is a PhD scholar at Nust.

Email: rwjanj@hotmail.com