bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1993) — Spring 1993 // Printemps 1993, pp. 40–41
Bureaucratica by Saif R. Khan, Islamabad,
Rahman Publishers, 1992. 181 pp., $12.50.
As a species, civil servants are not renowned for their sense of humour. The South Asian variety are, if anything, generally viewed as solemn, self-important bores so imbued with the nobility of their calling and their position in society that nothing would be further from their thoughts than gentle self-deprecation. And yet every mould must have a crack, and Saif Khan is it.
After obtaining degrees from the University of Punjab and Vanderbilt University, Saif Khan joined the Pakistani civil service in which he rose steadily to hold a number of senior appointments, the most recent being that of Chief Controller of Imports and Exports. Over the years, he managed to find the time to write a series of newspaper columns sending up the idiosyncrasies of civil servants and Pakistani civil servants in particular. He has now collected them in a little volume entitled Bureaucratica, which will reward those seeking temporary escape from the burdens and discipline of “in” and “out” baskets with an evening of good fun well worth the modest purchase price.
In countering the charge that civil servants are slow and lazy, the author has one of his characters declare with complete self assurance that “the less work that we do and whatever delay that naturally occurs, is socially and economically desirable since demand for staff increases. More people get jobs and their incomes go up. hand, we create larger employment and, on the other, wider distribution of the nation’s wealth.” This same worthy rebuts the suggestion that the country cannot afford yet another protracted and expensive civil service reorganization with a resounding act of faith: “If implemented, these reforms will act as a neoclassical nectar to the maladies of contemporary administration.” Shades of Michael Pitfield, the high priest of the doctrine of salvation through reorganization!
Some of Saif Khan’s sharpest barbs are reserved for bureaucratic drafting, its addictive qualities and circumlocutions. One hardened practitioner thus concludes a personal letter to his wife: “It may not be out of place to mention here that, as submitted on suitable earlier occasions, the undersigned has been consistently in love with you … I would be personally grateful if you could kindly convey my love to little Sarah and respects to the elders and other miscellaneous relatives in the requisite order of precedence.” Or an extract from a letter of condolence to the widow of a recently departed colleague: “It will not be out of place to point out that his death appears to be tragically unprecedented since the deceased was never known to have died before…. May God grant you a substitute at His earliest convenience.”
While much of the parody is good natured the book also has bittersweet, if not cynical, undercurrents. In a glossary, Saif Khan defines hypocrisy as the “sweet bird of success; most coveted possession of politicians” and justice as “an archaic expression of doubtful origin mostly found in Scriptures and Constitutions”. This does not, however, detract from the sheer humour of the enterprise which commands itself to civil servants and others as both entertainment and prophylaxis.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1993) — Spring 1993 // Printemps 1993, pp. 40–41. Read the rest of this issue →
