UN official wants to return to school

UN official wants to return to school

Hera Diani and Riyadi Suparno, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

If you were an activist dealing with poverty and other problems
in developing countries, there would have to be many frustrating
things along the way.

That is particularly true for UN Assistant Secretary-General
Hafiz A. Pasha, who, with almost two decades of experience in
public service, has to deal with the same problems over and over.

However, the obstacles are minute compared to the tedium of
working as bureaucrat in his home country of Pakistan.

Previous to the work with the UN, Pasha was
involved in high-level consultation on policy making as a federal
minister for financial and economic affairs, deputy chairman of
the Planning Commission, education minister and commerce minister
for three governments.

"There is frustration working with the U.N., but the most
frustrating period to me was when I was with the government," he
told The Jakarta Post in an interview here on Tuesday, a day
prior to the opening of the Asia-Pacific ministerial meeting on
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"I don't think I was cut out to work in the government. It's
too bureaucratic, with emphasis on ranks..."

Some people, however, criticize the U.N. for being too
bureaucratic, which Pasha said was natural as it involved
governmental systems where a decision must be based on consensus.

Now also the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
assistant administrator and director of the regional bureau for
Asia and the Pacific, Pasha said he was "very happy working with
the U.N. because I believe in the values of it."

Dealing with 37 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, he is
excited to be working in the most dynamic and fastest growing
region in the world.

He particularly pointed to three countries in the region as
his favorites.

The first is Malaysia, which is able to maintain its moderate
brand of Islam, while maintaining a strong economy.

The second is Vietnam as "it has leadership with a vision. The
country has been devastated by war, but has become the most
dynamic country, with a mix of different cultures, Chinese,
French, and so forth," said the father of six children.

"The third country, which also amazes a lot of people, is
China. China is remarkable."

In terms of his home country, however, there are surely things
that have to be done in reaching the MDGs, which are meant to be
achieved within the next 10 years.

Agreed upon in 2000 by 189 nations, the goals are poverty and
hunger eradication, gender equality and women's empowerment,
universal primary education achievement, reducing child
mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDs, malaria
and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and
developing a global partnership for development.

Pasha said that the results had been mixed in his home
country.

"There has been progress in poverty reduction, and there have
also been some improvements. Now, of course, the government is
focusing more on poverty reduction," he said.

He said he remained overly concerned with the gender issue as
many countries in Asia still were very male-dominated societies.

Violence against women is common in deeply conservative
Pakistan, with hundreds of women killed or brutally disfigured in
so-called "honor" attacks.

Recently, the country was in the world's headlines in the case
of a public gang rape of a woman by six men, as punishment for
her brother's alleged illicit affair with a woman from another
family.

The convictions of five of the men, however, were overturned
and the sixth reduced to a life sentence, sparking an outcry by
human rights groups both in Pakistan and internationally.

Pasha said that to improve gender equality, the first thing to
do would be to promote the education for women.

"We need to have immediate cultural and attitude changes in
South Asia, particularly, in my country. We need to promote
appropriate legislation, changing the laws and so on. So there is
still a lot of work that needs to be done."

As much as he is pleased to be working with the international
body, Pasha said it starts to get tiring to be constantly on
missions traveling extensively.

"I don't know how many times I have traveled around the world
every year, around five to six times a year. I miss home a lot.
Especially because two of my children are quite young," he said,
adding that it was difficult to take his family on the trips.

Now based in New York, so when yearning for home, Pasha takes
time to tune in to Hindi music, watch Hindi movies, or else,
watch a cricket match. Pasha himself was a cricket player in
school.

He said he would retire as an academic in Pakistan as he
started as an academic.

Pasha has an M.A. from Cambridge University in England, and a
PhD from Stanford University in California. He was once the vice
chancellor and then president of the University of Karachi, as
well as the dean and director of the Karachi's Institute of
Business Administration.

"I will go back to my country, teach and guide PhD or masters
of philosophy students ... write books."

He said there were already plans to write books based on his
diary, which he has maintained about different countries he has
visited.

"Also, I've had the chance to do a lot of speeches, so I
develop on that," he laughed.

Teaching, he said, was the most rewarding of professions, as
he meets young people with a thirst for knowledge, and he has an
impact on them.

There is a saying, that those who cannot do, teach others to
do.

Pasha laughed hard about it, nodding in agreement, and added
"Well, that's (teaching) just me."