Development is for the people: Part - II

Development processes are meant to empower people and add to their social, cultural, economic and political wellbeing. If people remain disempowered, no angels are going to come in and lift the country from its medieval backwaters of under-development and put it on the path of power, prosperity and development.

So the development of the country is a by-product of the development of its people. Only when its people are prosperous and empowered can a country hope to join the comity of developed nations.

Of all things that separated modern from the medieval world, the developed from the undeveloped, and the empowered from the dis-empowered, the most important was a culture change. While it affected the whole range of how we conduct our life, work and leisure, the most important ingredient of that culture change was that individuals took centre stage in society.

It radically changed the status of the individual from being a slave or a subject to becoming a citizen with inalienable rights which could not be taken away at the whims and wishes of anyone. This empowerment unleashed the creative powers of the people and liberated them from the suffocating totalitarianism of the medieval world.

Any doubts about it should be dispelled by an example right from our home. Nothing explains better the pitiful position of people in the suffocating and tyrannical medieval world than the Urdu phrase used in the court of medieval kings: “jaan ki amaan paanoon tau arz karoon” (I will speak or express my opinion only if you promise not to take away my life – in case my words do not please the lord!).

Human lives had no value in that culture – much less their liberty and development. Every aspect of their lives depended upon the whims and wishes of the rulers. Any remaining doubts on this would be put to rest by the diary of French physician Francois Bernier who spent 12 years in India during the reign of emperors Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb. How could anything, any idea, any reform grow in such a barren soil where survival was every day at risk.

Liberating people from that suffocating tyranny was a long struggle – both intellectual and physical – that weakened the medieval culture and made the transition to the people’s empowerment possible. What is important here is to highlight the important features of this culture change and its new value set, which created an enabling environment.

For our purpose, we will briefly mention five main features of the culture change which laid the foundation for the empowerment and development of the people: One, a belief system that all humans are equal, and all lives, not just that of kings, conquerors and clergy are important and must receive equal rights and protection. Two, there is neither any divine right to rule nor a hereditary one. The only legitimate way to rule over people is by the consent of the governed.

Three, society determines the shape, form, powers and functions of the state, as well as the rights of citizens – not the other way around. Four, knowledge is rational and incremental. Five, the state is a man-made institution, not a divine creation; and its raison d’etre is to work for the social, economic and political empowerment of its citizens in this world.

Once this culture – this value set – is embraced and lays its roots in a country, development is an automatic output of this enabling environment which liberates the creativity of the human mind. It has continued to add value and wealth to the world. Previously, it took over a thousand years for the global GDP to double before this culture change. Later, it doubled in 100 years in the 19th century and doubled again only in 50 years in the 20th century. It continues to increase by leaps and bounds every single day.

But countries still mired in the suffocating medieval culture are miles away from economic growth. In these countries, economic stagnation and the status quo continue to prevent people from realizing their potential. The shift from medieval to modern culture can best be seen in the context of the power struggle between the state and society as an attempt to create a better balance of power between the two.

The resistance of the state to this shift, which earlier had a monopoly of power, also reflects its concern to the emergence of a competitive centre of power in society which may hold the state accountable for not delivering on the empowerment of the members of society – the people.

The insistence of some quarters on preserving the status quo is a throwback to the monarchical style of governance and the desire to continue to keep power within the same family or group. This is symptomatic of the underlying fear of the empowerment of the people and co-exists with non-representative rule. But to believe that a country can develop without the development of its people is wishful thinking.

If we analyze the failing states, we will see that the disempowerment of their people is a common thread running through them all. Some countries have ended up in the list of failing states despite being independent for 200 years (Haiti) or rich with abundant mineral resources (DR Congo) only because their people have remained disempowered.

In an age of empowered people where new inventions, discoveries and advances in science and technology are uncovering the secrets of the universe and leading the march to ever new sources of power and prosperity, a country with disempowered people – mired in unending medieval games of instability with no agreed code of conduct – is creating problems for itself and should reset its priorities.

Former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had famously said that a country without the discipline of abiding by an agreed code of conduct will find neither democracy nor development.

And a World Bank report on Pakistan says it is “heartbreaking” that the country has “so little to show for so much money spent in the name of development”. On top of this, the country has buried itself under a mountain of unsustainable debt.

This reaffirms our fundamental concern: that we have been misusing popular labels like democracy and development often contrary to the intent of the labels themselves.

The state should retreat from being an active player in development and focus on its principal function of creating an enabling environment for the empowerment of people. An empowered people will take care of not only their development but also the country; because people’s development precedes the development of the country.

Concluded

The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women’s Bank. He can be reached at: smshah@alum.mit.edu