When I see the angst in people across
continents due to their elected governments failing to match their
expectations, I ask myself how much governance do we really need? If the
current running establishment of the governments were halved, would one feel any impact other
than huge cost savings? This probably depends on which parts gets shed. For a
population which aspires to get a secure Government job, this thought would sound discomforting. But the fact
remains that the sooner and as many functions we can shift from the Government
to the society and free enterprise, the faster we will grow economically due to
the time dividend and flexibility in operation. While job assurance would not
exist, opportunities would multiply promoting efficiency and enterprise in
society. Lazy worker would then be an oxymoron rather than the reality.
Having
said that, how could we possibly achieve this? A possible beginning could be
creation of self supporting democratic institutions embedded in the society –
not the kind of parasitic bodies on Government dole adapted to reward loyalists
with jobs which entail no contribution to the nation. Industrial houses have
long had working models for social outreach activities. Remodelling our PSUs as
enterprises with minority Government holding could provide it with the missing
competitive spark and decision ability. Removing caste based reservations in higher
learning institutes is another positive action that could be taken. Trimming
down the public dealing mechanism assisted by enhancing IT presence in repetitive
tasks and introducing mandatory cooling down period after a public(money) interaction
appointment of two years appear to be implementable ideas.
The
private mega- enterprises with organizations resembling the government in size
and bungling have already read the writing on the wall and adopted an
outsourcing model. Their cost savings are quantifiable and the pitfalls are
also recorded. If the political leadership wills it, it can be adopted in government reasonably
fast. Finally, it is not too many measures which make a huge difference to the society. It is
those few measures which affect every man directly every day, that reduce the
stresses on the society and make daily life a happier experience than what it
is currently.
That is the way to hear the signal of progress 'strength five'.
