DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 28 March, 1999
Wealth
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
ON my return from Japan (a different world) I found a rejoinder written by a Dr Miftah Ismail (March 20) to my column Shantiniketan printed the previous Sunday. He discussed Kenneth Arrow's 'impossibility theorem' (referred to by some as the 'Arrow-Sen general possibility theorem'), democracy, the tyranny of the majority, the advantages bestowed by a republic, and the accumulation of wealth.
Waiting for me also was the latest journal of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), in which was reproduced a lecture on the subject of 'Redefining Wealth' recently given by Dick Onions, the Society's Chairman of Council.
What the man Miftah had written intrigued me, and he had to be found. Found he was by an odd coincidence. At a dinner given by my good old friend Haji Ibrahim Haji Karim Al-Karam who adheres to the 'Micawber theorem,' has his finger on the pulse of real commerce and industry, appreciates the true value of wealth, and is therefore a highly successful businessman and a renowned philanthropist. His family dinners are usually memorable. That night, those sitting around the table weighed in at over 200 lbs each, all ate voraciously, all sampled the many flavours of ice-cream made by one of Haji's enterprises, but, being mindful of the value of good health, insisted on drinking diet colas.
At dinner, I discovered that Miftah was the son of a great friend of Haji Ibrahim. He is a trained economist who did his doctorate at Wharton and then joined the IMF in Washington. After eleven years in the States he came back to Pakistan to reorganize his family's candy business, which he has successfully put back on the right track. He also teaches at the IBA in an honorary capacity.
A few days later, Miftah and I met. He explained that his letter as published appeared somewhat disjointed and that, perhaps for want of space, it had been edited. He has his own views, as do most of us, on various theories, but has yet to fathom the 'Spencer-Cowasjee theorem' (Spencer being economist Ardeshir Spencer who taught economics and finance at the IBA from 1968 to 1975).
Miftah on 'Republic versus Democracy': There is a distinction between a republic and a democracy. A democracy is merely a manifestation of majority rule which does not preclude tyranny of the majority. In a republic, all citizens are guaranteed certain minimal rights that no majority or authoritarian can take away. If we are all guaranteed certain rights, say, the right to life, to property, to free speech, to the free practice of religion, and so forth, then even in a majority-rule polity, dominated by unenlightened opinion, we can go about our business in relative peace. A republic presupposes a government of rules and not of men. Democracy, or majority rule, makes no such requirement.
We must remember Hitler's Germany, he emphasized. Wily Adolf Hitler, a popular leader, received a plurality of votes in the elections. And so Germany was a 'democracy.' It certainly was no republic and the ruling Nazis, with their 'overwhelming mandate' felt free to do what they liked, right or wrong, and embarked upon their 'Final Solution.' What did 'democracy' do to save the innocent millions of Jews, citizens of Europe, who were murdered in the concentration camps? And this, though the Germans were an educated people of a highly civilized nation. The articles of the German constitution could not prevent the Holocaust.
And on Wealth : Wealth is 'operative liberty,' that is, liberty that you can utilize. If one has all the money in the world but is not allowed to do that which one wishes to do, then money is of no use, one is not wealthy. Conversely, if one has the freedom to do all that one wishes, but does not have the money to be able to afford to do so, then freedom is useless. So, for money to be useful one needs freedom, and for freedom to be meaningful one requires money. Thus, an all-encompassing definition of wealth has to take into account both money and freedom, which is summarized in the phrase 'operative liberty.'
Now to Dick Onions, the founding and general partner of Baring Private Equity Partners, who has spent a lifetime in strategic financial investment. He argues that the current attitudes to wealth, as a purely monetary concept, inhibit risk-taking, creative development, and a contribution to a civilized and sustainable society.
In his lecture he goes through capitalism in theory, discusses Karl Marx (who was a member of the Society), money as a measure of success, superpower wealth, the American dream, resolution of wealth, global economic balance. He defines 'wealth': "I will let George Bernard Shaw have the last word on the subject. 'We have no more right,' he said, 'to consume happiness without producing it, than to consume wealth without creating.' More widespread happiness, surely, must result from a redefined concept of wealth."
Together with the Onions lecture, the journal has reproduced the definition of wealth as made by varied personalities, past and present.Edmund Burke: "If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed." John Ruskin: "There is no wealth but life." William Shakespeare: "For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings that then I scorn to change my state with kings." William Sieghart (Chairman of Forward Publishing): "Wealth is not having to kowtow to people you don't respect." Paul Smith RDI (Royal Designer for Industry - fashion designer): "Wealth is good, but cannot buy happiness or health." John Monks (General Secretary of the TUC): "Wealth is freedom. Poverty is imprisonment." Genista McIntosh (chief executive of the Royal National Theatre): "Wealth is being able to pay somebody to do the ironing." John McConnell RDI (Industrial designer): "Wealth gives you the ability to misbehave." Sir Alan Ayckbourn (playwright): "Wealth is having the choice not to do things you really don't want to do." Carol Traynor (head of St Boniface Roman Catholic Primary School, Salford): "Wealth is good health and peace of mind." Alan Fletcher (designer): "Wealth is more than you need."
Our private sector wealthy bowers and scrapers, crawlers and cringers, those who know what respect is and who can afford to ostracize robbers, should give a thought to Sieghart's definition.
The Sharif family have had power and privilege for the last eighteen years. The Bhuttos have been up in the clouds since Father Bhutto installed himself as the first civilian martial law administrator-cum-dictator in 1971. The Bhuttos make a great show of boasting that they were to the manor born, that their wealth and aristocratic connections are generations old. The Sharifs claim that their riches were amassed through honest toil over the past half century. But the people know better. They know at whose cost and from where the money and properties emanate, how the two families squander wealth that is not theirs but their nation's. Both insensitive, they have convinced themselves that it is their inherent right "to consume happiness without producing it" and "to consume wealth without creating it".
What the people want is security of life and property, water to drink, atta to eat. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his hangers-on came to Karachi last week in their special plane to condole with Farooq Bhoja whose son was murdered by kidnappers. All at our expense. The visit afforded them photo-opportunities which their 'grief' did not prevent them from shunning. No amount of rhetorical condolences will bring back Asif Bhoja or assuage the grief and agony of his mother and father. Life, the gift of God, is the only true wealth and it is the preservation of that wealth that must be the first concern of any government or ruler.