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The PM Speech
By
Dr Ghayur Ayub
In
cyberspace a speech by a chief executive is gauged by three things; appearance;
body language; and contents. Let us look at the PM speech in that context.
Appearance; camera plays
pivotal role in appearance. It is believed that Richard Nixon lost presidential
election from John F Kennedy because the way he appeared on TV. Many world
leaders make sure to have them beamed properly by zooming them in the
right way through correct angling and picture softening. This aspect of PM
was pretty stale making his otherwise good appearance monotonous and even
boring. The fault lies with the technical team who handled the camera and
edited it later. After all it was not a live speech and must have been
edited by the technical people.
Body language; I watched Mr.
Nawaz Sharif very closely for over two years in Duke Street, London.
Except for rare private occasions when he opened up emotionally, he would
always keep his face blank, unemotional and straight. My impression was
that he still believes in old-time politics when politicians talked with
straight face without blinking their eyes. His brother Mr. Shahbaz Sharif
is just the opposite. He coordinates his speech with body language making
it attractive and interesting. ZAB was master of this art. So, during his
speech I saw the PM went out of his routine a few times and used his hands
and fingers to coordinate with his oration. It was on those occasions, I
could see his real personality coming out in his speech. For example, when
he called the public his children I saw a twinkle in his eyes and the
movements of his hands coordinated with his oration giving it a personal
touch. It is this type of friendliness I used to see in his private
sittings at Duke Street, London. So to be fair, he did come out of his
usual masked face a few times and showed emotions. Though, living in
social media, those emotions were far less for some.
Contents; usually, the first
100 days are given to a new government to show its performance and provide
direction of its future policies. Expecting fulfilment of those parameters
in 75 days seems illogical and so unfair. Among vast number of problems
that Pakistan faces five hit the top list; bad governance, corruption;
energy crisis, law and order; and foreign policy. PM highlighted these
five in his speech.
Governance is judged through
political decisions and bureaucratic appointments. On political decisions,
he quoted recent no confidence movement brought against the PM of PPP-led
government in AJK. It would have been successful had he given a nod. He
didn't. That was admirable political decision. He spoke of similar
decisions in making governments in Baluchistan and KPK despite advises
given to him to the contrary. On bureaucratic appointments, he spoke of
discording incompetency and nepotism and choosing right people with sound
professional back-ups for the right jobs even if they were not government
servants. So far, with exception of rare occurrences, he is keeping to his
words.
On corruption, he said he heard
of corrupt practices in the previous governments but was astounded by the
vastness of its occurrences when he took-over the premiership. He said he
gave the corruption a stop. It is a common knowledge that day-to-day
corrupt practices have been curtailed. On mega projects, it is too early to
say but fingers have been pointed at some his close colleagues on Nandipur
and LPG projects. He spoke about Nandipur project giving some details but
the logical reasons based on numerical calculations have already been
provided by Ishaq Dar which are not countered effectively by the
opponents.
He highlighted major causes of
energy problems linked to improper feasibilities prepared by previous
governments and their fall outs on electricity production and so its
shortages. He gave example of Neelam Jehlam Hydro Project where the
essential distributing part was missing in feasibility. He quoted other
projects with similar problems. Then he gave his version as to what his
government would do to overcome electricity shortages on short-term and
medium term basis.
The major cause of law and
order is terrorism. On that he gave a clear message to the terrorists to
chose between negotiation and action. In case of the latter, he warned
between the lines that he would deal with them with iron hand.
On foreign policy he centred
his arguments on China, India and Afghanistan. His friendly overture
towards China was a message to America that his policy will be changing
its direction from west to east. To expound on this point he went into
depth on trade and economic coordination between China and Pakistan
through roads and train expanding it with Central Asian States. According
to him these are the main tools of financial progress for strategically
placed Pakistan. There was wisdom in that part of speech on foreign policy.
Having said that it would have good had he bracketed Iran in the loop as a
valued neighbour.
His speech
was a little out of balance on youth. His speech writers could have done a
better job and put such an important subject in right place and flow. They didn't.
So when he spoke about youth and their problems the spoken words sounded out of
place with no vigour. I personally know he has good team headed by Capt Safdar
on the youth program who provided promising results in a short span of time.
Looking at him
speaking as the PM of Pakistan, I went back in time when I saw him speaking in
the Civic Centre at Slough near London on his arrival from Saudi Arabia in
2006. I could see he was not Nawaz Sharif of 1980s or 1990s. The exile in Saudi
Arabia had changed him. The avenge which braced him in nineties had been taken
by endurance and he turned from a politician to a statesman. His opponents
object that he weighs government in the same scale as business. So what is
wrong with that? Don't we know that the most successful governments are those
which are good in trade and business? Being a successful businessman Nawaz
Sharif wants to run the government on sound economic footings without using
cut-throat techniques of business. We don't want Plato to be our PM. We want a
successful businessman to hold the post so he could bring out the country from
financial slum. His speech primarily contained those elements.
The end
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