The country seems to be at a loss for direction. We are in a state of confusion, like the US. However, we do not have a Trump to blame but ourselves. Imran Khan is locked up tight and cannot be released for a while. No reason is given, and none can be asked that much is clear.
On the other hand, the nation is missing a golden opportunity for progress. The people are busy and the farmers are doing well with the crops, providing a bounty sufficient to keep the growers happy and the granaries full. This does give the farmer and the nation a feeling of well-being on the basis of being well-fed. An empty stomach is the basis of most revolutions. Being well-fed removes the primary reason to initiate a revolution. It is difficult to preach communal riots to a somnolent peasantry too lethargic to move.
Of course, the next requirement is a TV in every household, which then provides entertainment via a hundred channels courtesy of the internet. Thus, the waking hours of the public are filled by TV channels that produce better-than-ever rubbish to keep the locals busy. The gravitas is missing.
The sciences are not producing their outputs to a higher reach. The country is being fed a mild dose of a low-calorie diet that does not provide the nutrients necessary to improve their lot in life. Theya re cocooned in a bubble of religion to ease their conscience. All these factors negate the outputs that are necessary in this world, which requires hard exportable goods which must compete in the real world. At the same time, we have to find dollars to pay for our aeroplanes and arms necessary in the real world.
We are lucky indeed that we do not have a Trump to create the problems that he has set for the US. For this, we should be sincerely grateful. In all his moves, like the tariffs debacle, which has created a problem for American citizens and customers alike in trying to bring manufacturing back to the US, he has failed miserably. The relocation of industry to the US is a difficult and long-term proposition. Both require an extended time frame, which does not give the opportunity for a quick fix.
Trump’s rhetoric is a demand for a quick fix. This cannot be done, nor can the time factor be avoided, nor will the Chinese afford the space for the US to claw its way back. The Chinese success in quality and production brought them to the largest manufacturing industry in the world and has raised the Chinese people from abject poverty into a respectable middle class.
China has achieved this for a population of five hundred million people in a scant period of fifty years. Today, it is the world's premier manufacturing hub. This is unbelievably a record in the history of this world. No political system or leadership has achieved this record in such a short period.
The world is considering the opportunity to avail itself of this Chinese system. It seems to have outperformed the capitalist system, which has floundered very badly over the last two decades, and is a serious cause for concern to the US and its European allies.
The continent of Africa is looking to this Chinese miracle to be established there. Of course, it is a mixture of Chinese regimen and a capitalist mix. The Chinese method will be adapted and adopted within the Chinese framework. The Chinese have the will and the opportunity to succeed.
The writer is a political analyst and the author of the books ‘Victim of Democracy’ and ‘Comments’.
