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Articles |
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!!!Economic
issues require review
By :
Dr. Zafar Altaf
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ARTICLE (February 20 2010): The form of government determines the choices
that beset a country and how to cater to the needs of general masses. The
choice of population is excessively important and the events have indicated
how these are to be handled. Every individual act involves a choice and
these choices culminate in a collective choice that is always complex and
requires a response that cannot be simplified.
In a pluralistic society such as Pakistan that would mean that the
structures would have to be very complex. The difficulty is that economics
methodology cannot be as the one that is employed in natural sciences as in
economics the human element has somehow to be included.
Human motivations can only be understood by a degree of introspection and
that is why economic requires a systematic not decentralisation of objective
decision-making, but a subjective aspect that meets the aspirations of the
people that would be affected. That means that the system has to go not in
terms of decentralization but the new management concept of subsidiarizaton.
This simply embodies that the resources are to be provided by the authority
that does so - provincial or Federal - but then the systematic evaluation
requires not only the outcome of the resources provided, but also the
accountability in case those objectives have not been met. It is in that
sense that the loop is completed.
It was no wonder that the further away the project was from the approving
the authority that responsibility was greatest. In other words, the autonomy
was dependent on the governance factor for if the governance was fine, then
the system of subsidiarization would play an effective part? The complexity
that would increase there after was what would one do with the ones that
have played poker with the system and abused it for personal benefit[s].
The work is thus dependent on subjective evaluation as well. On this
subjective evaluation, one can determine the structures that might evolve.
The local circumstances then would determine the general pattern of
intervention for all kinds of structures are possible if the local
aspirations are to be met. Based on these general responses, predictions can
be made to identify general regressive and positive responses that would
accrue.
This is not a simplistic intervention and neither is it based on a single
calculus model of measurement that is at best pseudo-statistics. Appoint a
project director and that will take care of all the matters. All projects
beyond a certain cost shall have a feasibility study done. Why? Feasibility
studies are not done on the assumption that the costs are more than a
certain amount, but on the basis of technological requirements.
The more complex and intricate a project is, the more the requirement for
determining where that kind of knowledge is and where can it be utilised for
the furtherance of human aspirations and not some idiots view of how things
ought to be. This will be crystal clear if you consider all the project
directors that have been appointed so far and their inability to deliver.
To make matters more understandable, consider the drought programme and how
it was implemented. The fault lies within and we keep on blaming the
without. Keep on looking for blaming others. Why were the finances that
utilized for the renovation of the room of the Chairman of the Planning
Commission? Why were people employed here [relatives of the powers that be
in the Planning Commission numbering 87] and why were transports purchased
and each one of the top executives given an extra transport for their
families?
Why was an accountant employed for this? I can go to each ministry and get
you a can of worms that would be difficult to deny. Why do projects fail and
this is one of the major reasons. So we have done what the others want us to
do for different reason and used the perfectly sane interventions to do what
we want to and justify the same. It is to be remembered that limited pattern
predictions do not provide the answers to what is required to be done to
achieve what we set out to do in 1947.
The subjective honest valuation is far superior to the mathematical
precision that one is trying to do in a subject of development that
inherently is conspicuously different to the 'marginal' concept of
neo-classical economics. Costs in the neo-classical model reduced these to
the use of differential calculus and econometrics later on did not help but
worsened the situation.
Accounting controls never helped the system and the criminal element will
always get by these stagnant controls-employed year in and year out.
Repetition is but a signal of resignation and acceptance of nothing better
can be found. Discarded alternatives is a different matter altogether for
then one is questioning the very premise of decision-making and stating that
the approving authority is ignorant of the other possibilities or
probabilities.
Past decisions would then have to be re-evaluated and the choices exercised
critically examined. An equivalence of knowledge and judgement would not be
possible as was apparent when the Ehtasab and NAB bureaus came in to
existence and perforce resolved to meet the issues on a singleton basis by
trying to target politically. The doers were criminally treated by the
ignorant, trying to determine what was corrupt in the innocent and the
incorruptible whereas the corrupt were taken on the political bandwagon to
meet the demands of the people.
Why not consider all this as part of a subjective phenomenon and consider
the recent examples. Have we found a way out of sugar crises? The fault lies
in the manner that we have objectively considered market for sweeteners
whereas the fallout is because of the subjective factor called greed among
the socio-economic class that classify themselves as entrepreneurs [bearers
of risk].
Go to any economic zone and the difficulty that Papanek from the Boston
University [the architect of the industrial policy during the Ayub regime]
and a similar pattern will emerge. Time and again, the cronies or the well
to do were given the license to do what they wanted to and robber barons
were created as of public right in the textile industry, in the cement and
in the edible oil sector.
There can be no private socio-economic forms the perception of other
sciences becomes important. These can be in the realms of psychology, law,
and the perceptions of liberty and justice. In all, the project works that
have been determined so far there are no indications of how these will
impact on the society and on the social conditions emanating and to emanate
on the population in the country.
How can abstractions of money as the central role be taken to mean every
aspect of a society? Humans cannot be crucified on a 'cross of gold' as the
presidential candidate to an American election stated in 1946 [Jennings]. He
was on the right track, but like everything else that is rejected by the
powerful and the candidate lost the election.
As will be noted human action and reaction are constantly in play. The
process is dynamic, which the last regime, despite being told in no
uncertain terms of the 'moving goal post', refused to accept due to the
servility that is found in the hangers on. The servile always win in such
circumstances. Junket tours were organised to meet the go of the powerful
and to prove that the servile were all powerful they even made a hash of all
the presentations [see Davos I 2005-6] and the under-graduate work that was
circulated there.
Decisions are to be formulated in a growing social system affected by
uncertainty and the more uncertainty the bolder the strokes. Judgement and
discretion are not uncertified management tools they are part and parcel of
an economic system that is riddled with uncertainty.
There is a potential for error but that error, is unintentional and can be
corrected, while the others are intentional errors and cannot be corrected.
The potential for error has to be recognised. Entrepreneurship then
determines the flux of everything - so back to humans. Prices do not give
any cohesion to human actions for prices are supposed to be determined by
the market force and where have market forces worked where criminals take
charge as CEOs and as project directors.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2010
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