Where’s the leadership?

By Jehangir Khattak
Published in Dawn on Thursday, 19 Aug, 2010

A TIMELY response by the government could have minimised the human and material losses suffered in Pakistan’s greatest flood disaster. The effectiveness of any relief outreach is directly linked to the quality of governance.

Available figures pertaining to the government’s relief outreach are alarming, as apparently little more than 40 per cent of the flood-affected population is receiving relief from the government, mainly from the military.

Pakistan was deficient on two vital counts when the disaster struck. It lacked leadership and resources. The two became a deadly combination when nature let loose its fury on the country’s choked waterways and badly managed flood protection system. The massive cutting of forests in the upper reaches of the mountainous north and north-west increased the ferocity of the flashfloods.

The disaster has lead many politicians to rediscover their lost love for Kalabagh dam, forgetting their collective failure to evolve an effective water management system to secure waterways and conserve resources. Nations across frontiers are using technology and modern irrigation tools to attain water security and safeguard communities against floods. The US has conserved its water resources and minimised the flood threat by building 100,000 dams. China, which witnessed the worst floods for centuries, has met the threat by building 85,000 dams across the country. It has also created separate entities for maintenance of its seven river systems and introduced tough laws, regulating construction in flood-prone regions.

Leadership and governance have always been Pakistan’s biggest problems. Many in Pakistan and the US are calling the calamity President Asif Ali Zardari’s ‘Katrina moment’. It may or may not be, but it should alert Pakistanis to the difference a more competent and sensitive leadership could have made in the crisis. The administrative breakdown and chaos that followed the floods did not surprise anyone; in fact it added to the frustration and misery of everyone.

Response to such calamities itself is a subject that has not received much attention in countries vulnerable to disasters. Nations across the world have evolved national disaster response mechanisms. In Pakistan, no such system is in place even after the 2005 killer earthquake in the north. All that came out of the leadership’s introspection was the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), a toothless relief coordination agency, with no real power or assets to deploy in times of crises.

The key ingredients of an effective response system are almost universal. These are: integrated institutional arrangements, state of the art forecasting and early warning systems, failsafe communication systems, rapid evacuation of threatened communities, quick deployment of specialised response forces and coordination and synergy among various agencies at various levels in dealing with any disaster.

Pakistan’s response to this national emergency is chaotic and incoherent. The leadership has failed to inspire national mass mobilisation for rescue and relief. The ministers who bravely defended President Zardari’s ill-timed pleasure trips to France and Britain failed to realise that leaders inspire nations in times of crisis. When leaders become a bad example, they demoralise the nation. Little wonder that government appeals for public donations received a lukewarm response. People have little trust in the government and are donating to private charities.

The apathetic response of the government and most of the international community to the unfolding disaster has created a void that is being filled by some shady charities accused of being linked to extremist groups. These charities may be partially filling the critical void. But there is no guarantee if their activities will be limited to relief efforts. Many in western and Pakistani security establishments fear that these charities could give the militants a new foothold in areas such as Swat, and threaten military gains. These fears are not ill-founded.

The disaster offers a unique window of opportunity to the international community, particularly the US and other western powers, to make good on their claim of friendship with Pakistanis. Public opinion polls released by the PEW research institute recently revealed that a majority of Pakistanis consider the US an enemy. According to the poll, the worst flood-hit provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the highest level of anti-American sentiment, at 69 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

These figures represent a daunting task for US diplomacy to improve America’s image in a country it calls a strategic partner. This may be the moment to start building a relationship with the people of Pakistan by helping them rebuild their lives.

Long-term international help will be needed to rehabilitate the uprooted people, rebuild damaged and decimated cities, towns, villages, communication infrastructure, schools and hospitals. Generous international help in rescue, relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation will go a long way in not just mitigating the sufferings of those who lost everything but also in building up an image of friends of those now deemed foes.

No one should discount the prospects of a more radicalised Pakistan if its government, the US and the rest of the international community fail to win back the ground already lost to charities with questionable credentials in the relief effort. It is a race against time to save lives, preserve hope and deny space to those who may capitalise on the situation.

The writer is a US-based freelance journalist.

mjehangir@aol.com