I once got a chance to attend a seminar in Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) organized by a youth based organization, the topic being “Is our Future Positive or Not”. The proceedings went something like this; young participants at the event were bombarding the guest politician for the failures of government, the host of the show was constantly covering him up, the bureaucrat was giving rational answers, while the representative of the university was optimistic in his talk. I also somehow got the chance to speak but was silenced in mid-way. Perhaps my question was taking too much of time and was also deemed uncomfortable by the officials. As I suspected, I got a totally awry and senseless answer from the politician. Today I think I should re-express my thoughts and I leave it up to the reader either to falsify me or take my thoughts justified.
In my question, I came up with the notion that to me the future of Pakistani youth is bright, and so is the future of Pakistani universities, bureaucracy and media. But the future of political parties of Pakistan seems dark and gloomy. This opinion was based on what I heard from representatives of four mainstream political parties present at the occasion.
Our political parties lack such institutionalization of training and capacity building for their workers. The leadership in political parties is mostly based on plutocracy while the existing mechanisms for generating membership are hopeless.
Well’ that’s not just all. As far as I understand, our political parties have the acute dearth of leadership and its succession as well as poor capacity development setup. Any organized group of individuals who believe in continuous development, have to set goals on short, mid and long terms basis. I wonder why our political parties fail to do so!
We do witness an encouraging number of young people engaging in community development. They generate credible experience through attending training workshops and other group activities. Universities have their own developmental programs and various training programs by Higher Education Commission. Similarly our bureaucracy has the National Institution of Management (Formerly NIPA – National Institute of Public Administration) and Civil Service Academy in Lahore.
But on the other hand our political parties lack such institutionalization of training and capacity building for their workers. The leadership in political parties is mostly based on plutocracy while the existing mechanisms for generating membership are hopeless. It has been observed that according to standard practice, anyone could walk in a party office and become a member just by filling out a membership form. There is no system in place for measuring the credibility and capability of a potential member. A certain political party has indeed made it a joke that one could join the party just by replying to an SMS. Should there be no criteria for becoming the member of a political party?
Coming back to the training and development part, some political parties do provide various kinds of opportunities to their members for mass mobilizing and public speaking. This kind of training surely makes their workers firebrands but do they know what good governance is? Do they understand the nuances of political issues and that of leadership? The only competitive training that political parties receive is from few NGOs. But such foreign funded organizations are surely not self-sustaining. They are doing a good job but when the aid ends the capacity building would also come to a halt.
A candidate for some political office should deem it like this: he/she is asking for a job while the whole constituency is the interviewer.
The youth, at least the one I am referring to and the likes of those attending the seminar I mentioned above, seem well aware of their rights. They have a sound know-how of developmental framework, most probably gained through trainings from various NGOs and academic initiatives. I would like to ask how many party workers of the ruling party know about the Millennium Development Goals, a primary cause for which our country is getting aid for development but which are actually spent on party campaigns. I am sure only a handful of them would be aware of it. So far the key training and practical education that our politicians receive is after they become parliamentarians, again thanks to a handful of training institutions and NGOs. Isn’t it unfortunate that only after becoming an MPA or MNA, our politicians get to learn about governance and related issues?
So, what’s the solution? To start with, the old ways of politics must be gotten rid of. Instead of increasing their personal influence, the politicians should focus more on real time development. The activists and members of political parties should go through extensive trainings. There are already many programs initiated by various non-governmental organizations. These programs should be benefitted from to the maximum level. More innovative programs for internal capacity building should be initiated by the political parties themselves which should focus on issues of political philosophy, community development, project management, strategic management and human development. This way, when questioned regarding capability, the political parties should be able to answer with evidence.
Our politicians must realize that Pakistani youth is now empowered and aware. A candidate for some political office should deem it like this: he/she is asking for a job while the whole constituency is the interviewer. Apart from popular support, they better have credible education and experience on their Curriculum Vitae and if they fail to do so, then our parties are doomed. And neither the rhetoric of big names nor the promise of new-come hereditary leadership will be able to save them.