WHY JAPAN ?

After going through my observations the readers might wonder why I refer to the example of Japan every time. The reason is that I have studied two countries very thoroughly. One is Pakistan where I was born and studied and where my parents and other members of family live and I my self can not snap my ties with Pakistan. The other is Japan where my business and family life began. I saw that like me every one here is working hard day and night and I observed in Pakistan that people work for making their personal lives and status better. In Pakistan the wealthy people form co-operative societies and trusts in order to avoid the government tax and keep their income secret. In Pakistan people do not shirk from hard work rather explore other alternative methods. On the other hand the feelings of Japanese are different from this. Here people do lot of work to establish themselves as a nation or to strengthen their nationality. Here no one stops working or forms trust to avoid taxes to be paid to the government. The people themselves are not shy of paying their taxes and their system is such that any body even the prime minister of Japan can not escape from the tax net. Japanese do small work as well. Where ever I talk of good things about Japan it should be taken as outcome of my desire to see the same things happening in Pakistan. How did Japan make progress? How did it reach the present level of development? I want to tell my Pakistani compatriots about the good policies of Japan.

The first thing the Japanese politicians did after the second world war was to make education compulsory by law. The primary education is totally free and essential. Those who tried to avoid it were taught after shutting them up in jails. The primary school pupils get high quality lunch free and there is no distinction between the rich and the poor in that. My children also go to the primary school and every day on returning from school they very happily tell what was the menu on that day. Every day a different menu is served. The children eat in the company of their teachers. One glass of milk is officially given every morning to the child. They take care of their health. Their teeth are checked periodically. They are provided with vitamins. Japanese population is almost equal to Pakistan but Pakistan has more resources than Japan. Then why shouldn?t we make our resources and means better by hard work. This is my desire as well that our Pakistan be a new Pakistan ,more developed and richer than Japan In order to reach this goal our foremost mission should be to make education universal. The education shall create a sense of realisation in the people for good and bad. They will be able to distinguish between good and bad. They shall be able to identify the distinction between legal and illegal or permissible and not permissible. When the whole nation will be educated then they will feel the dignity of labour and real democracy shall prevail in the country. The people will elect the good and enlightened leadership without any consideration of greed, pressure or rigging. Good planners will emerge and the economic condition of Pakistan will change.

IN Japan they had planned fifty years ahead as to what would they achieve by the year 2000.Today Japanese leaders have told their people what would they be in 2050. And the people of Japan are devotedly working in that direction. Fifty years ago when the planners of Japanese nation sent the good and intelligent children to Europe and America for higher education, then they did not go there after spending the savings of their parents to earn money . No, they were sent on government expenses for higher education in superior vocations and technology and when these children returned to Japan after completing their education then using the technology learnt in America they produced cheaper and better Radios, Television sets ,VCR?s , Cars, Computers and other articles than America and England. What ever was manufactured in America and Britain its quality control was carried out in Japan. Here I shall mention an interesting thing. My mother says that,? The people all over the world love Japanese things. Some one proudly says that I have Japanese TV another one mentions that I have a Japanese refrigerator or a Japanese VCR but I say that I have a Japanese daughter in law. I have Japanese grand sons and grand daughters.? May be she says these things to please my wife.

I want to tell my Pakistani brothers and sisters that they should think about Pakistan from the bottom of their hearts. We shall have to move forward after planning for next fifty years. In my opinion education should be given priority. Those who avoid education should be severely dealt with. They should get good education. It is also imperative to acquire religious knowledge. Allama Iqbal considers education as the most important thing and according to Quaid-e-Azam the foundations of a strong faith can only be laid on superior worldly and religious education.

The next saying of the father of the nation is unity. The whole nation can get united only when it has the ability to think that its destiny is one and it has one goal. But the homogeneity of thought and concept can only be on the basis if education. The religious beliefs could be on individual basis. Education tells us that religious beliefs are for the satisfaction of an individual and nations are not created on the basis of religion but on a broad based manifesto. We are all Muslims and Islam teaches us to become a single nation. But when the education is denied to some people then they fall prey to discord and dissension. Education tells us that we should not bring pain to any body nor should we ridicule the beliefs of any one . More over we should not distract the nation from its goal by entangling it in wrong debates. When the education will be universal then most of the problems will be automatically solved. The father of the nation has used the word faith so that every one should be honest with himself and his country and should fully respect others. This will create homogeneity in the nation and harmony and homogeneity is the first step towards national unity.