Where the workers will go on 3-5-14

AS the country went through the motions of celebrating May Day on

Thursday, representatives of labour groups across the country had a
very different and painful story to tell.

Unemployment, under-employment, job insecurity, denial of workers`
rights, a state indifferent to the working class the list of woes is long
and seemingly intractable. Yet, as labour representatives have argued,
the trouble for employees of public sector enterprises may only just be
beginning with the PML-N`s determination to push ahead aggressively
with its privatisation plans. Any debate about privatisation breaks down
along predictable lines: one side argues that the state should not be in
the business of business; the other side argues that only the state can
run businesses efficiently and it also has an obligation to provide
employment to the citizenry.

Yet, it is how those respective ideological positions are translated into
action that is more problematic. In allegedly getting the government
out of the business of business, the PML-N appears to put the rights of
wealthy investors ahead of the infinitely less well-off middle and
working-class employees. As for the PPP, it appears to treat public-
sector enterprises as little more than a means of disbursing patronage
through granting employment to political supporters. So now that a
PML-N government has followed a PPP one, the PML-N can argue that
it is the PPP`s poor policies that have left it with little choice but to sell
off public-sector enterprises. Lost in all of this is the balance between
the need to have a healthy job-creating economy and looking after the
vulnerable sections of society.

What makes the PML-N`s line on privatisation difficult to accept is the
focus on efficiency and best practices but not across government, just
when it comes to particular businesses that it wants to sell off. For
example, a bitter bureaucratic war over the country`s largest social
protection scheme, the Benazir Income Support Programme, has been
allowed to play out without much concern for its impact on the running
of the programme itself. Or while so focused on privatisation, the
government appears to have little interest in creating a reasonable
regulatory environment, paving the way for monopolies and oligopolies
that hurt the public interest. True, entities like the Steel Mills and PIA
have too many employees and the workforce will eventually need to be
rationalised. But how much money do the vast majority of those
employees really cost the state and how do those sums stack up against
the extraordinary waste, corruption and leakages elsewhere in
government? Would not the withdrawal of just a handful of tax SROs
that favour wealthy and politically connected special interests more
than compensate for this great loss the state suffers from? But those
are issues the PML-N would rather not talk about.
Strike politics
ON late Thursday afternoon, the people of Karachi witnessed an
unfortunate series of events they are all too familiar with. Soon after
the MQM gave the call for a `day of mourning` for Friday to protest
what it says are the extrajudicial killings of its workers, the Sindh capital
went into lockdown mode, with markets and fuel stations rapidly
shutting down and transport disappearing from the streets. The fear
factor was palpable as people are well aware that violence can and
usually does follow calls for such shutdowns following the party`s
announcement, at least two people were shot dead by unknown
gunmen in the metropolis while a bus was set ablaze. It was only after
the funeral of two Muttahida activists on Friday afternoon that Karachi
started limping back to normalcy, after staying shut for almost 24
hours. It is regrettable that the MQM, which joined the Sindh
government last month, would choose to protest in such a manner,
when it knows full well that strike or mourning calls can paralyse
normal life in Karachi and in other urban centres of Sindh as well.

The Muttahida and every other party has a democratic right to protest,
especially if it feels it is being victimised by the state. The party claims
the four slain workers, whose identification triggered Thursday`s
events, were arrested last month, while it has on numerous occasions
stated that its supporters are being picked up and murdered ever since
last year`s operation began in Karachi.

While the need to address crime and militancy in the metropolis is self-
evident, all state actions must be within the limits of the law, and under
no circumstances can extrajudicial killings be tolerated in the name of
restoring order. The administration needs to investigate the
Muttahida`s claims and bring anyone involved in extra-legal actions to
book.

Having said that, political parties must adopt alternative methods of
registering their protest, such as staging marches or rallies. Strike and
mourning calls fill Karachi with dread, mainly because the possibility of
violence is never far off during such protests. Also, the battering the
economy takes with daily losses in the billions is too much to bear,
especially for those who have to earn their bread on a daily basis.has a
democratic right to protest, especially if it feels it is being victimised by
the state. The party claims the four slain workers, whose identification
triggered Thursday`s events, were arrested last month, while it has on
numerous occasions stated that its supporters are being picked up and
murdered ever since last year`s operation began in Karachi.

While the need to address crime and militancy in the metropolis is self-
evident, all state actions must be within the limits of the law, and under
no circumstances can extrajudicial killings be tolerated in the name of
restoring order. The administration needs to investigate the
Muttahida`s claims and bring anyone involved in extra-legal actions to
book.

Having said that, political parties must adopt alternative methods of
registering their protest, such as staging marches or rallies. Strike and
mourning calls fill Karachi with dread, mainly because the possibility of
violence is never far off during such protests. Also, the battering the
economy takes with daily losses in the billions is too much to bear,
especially for those who have to earn their bread on a daily basis
Mr Bush makes world leaders
IT is a habit hard to suppress, it seems. Former American president George W.
Bush has moved from painting his pets and other subjects in his vicinity to creating
world leaders he had an opportunity to observe during his time in the White House.
He thus joins an illustrious group.
Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Adolf Hitler and in recent years
Vladimir Putin have all been drawn by the charms of art to create visuals on canvas.
None of these gentlemen could quite rise to the heights of critical acclaim but most
of them have been intent on painting, showing the way to other leaders who can
spare themselves and in many cases the people they have ruled over for pursuits
away from the art of the possible. Their works have certainly been raising some
money, though mostly for charity.
And they have been raising eyebrows, and eliciting inevitable remarks about what it
would have been like had these amateur painters decided to focus their full
attention on producing art pieces. We knowthat from among the lot Hitler did try to
gain admission to an art school. Interestingly, he was averse to painting people and
his preservation effort was limited to depicting buildings etc. But George W. Bush
has no such inhibitions. He has a bagful of recognisable faces from Gen Pervez
Musharraf to the Dalai Lama to Manmohan Singh with his customary smile and a
stone-faced Vladimir Putin as mementos from his days as president and he has no
problem flashing these proudly. His portraits of world leaders, on exhibition for a
month from Friday in Dallas, Texas, have led to some grimacing but they do vindicate
their maker in a big way: he had most certainly been watching them more intently
than the world had given him credit for. There would be moments when the
accusations of American ignorance and indifference would be justified, but surely
not during Mr Bush`s tenure. His paintings are evidence the man was deeply into his
subjects.