Cabral Pinto
3 July 2009
opinion
Nairobi — Mathira MP Ephraim Maina has taken up a project of state intervention in the economy by bringing to the House his Price Control (Essential Goods) Bill, 2009. Although he has been advised that he could have achieved similar goals by simply ensuring that the Restrictive Trade Practices Monopolies and Price Control Act, 1989, is enforced by the minister for Finance, let us not turn this issue into a legal circus.
Fundamentally, this is an issue of ideology and politics. It is an issue of commitment political leaders have to show in bringing about fundamental changes.
The issue of state intervention in the economy, which price controls reflect, is not new. Modern state interventions in the economy can be traced back to the end of World War II. Invariably called welfare capitalism and social democracy, Western states had witnessed from close quarters the spectre of revolution that sought to overthrow the capitalist system.
SOME REVOLUTIONS SUCCEEDED IN JOINING the ranks of earlier ones, notably that of the Bolsheviks of 1917. Where capitalism remained intact there was need to mitigate the system's greed and inhumanity with its core creed of profits before people. Welfare capitalism did mitigate the harshness of capitalist system, while also acting as a powerful ideological weapon against the socialist systems.
The ideological message of welfare capitalism was that the system could deliver products and benefits that the socialist system prided in giving to the people. So the capitalist system addressed the basic needs of the poor and marginalised, including housing, work, health, education, transportation and food. This policy of mitigation can be traced from 1945 to 1974 when market fundamentalism yet again reigned supreme.
The collapse of so-called socialism and communism or capitalist restoration in socialist countries from 1989 gave market fundamentalism the ideological supremacy long ago articulated by Sir Winston Churchill in the following words: "Capitalism is the worst system, but nobody has designed a better one." It took less than two decades for market fundamentalism to shoot itself in the foot. Now, following the financial crisis in the West, state intervention is back on the agenda in the name of bailouts that the conservative right in those countries is calling nationalisation or socialism!
It is in the 1970s that Africa, Kenya included, was subjected to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), which decreed market fundamentalism. The welfare of our citizens was yet again left to the invisible hand of the market with the usual economic and social consequences. In the case of Kenya one of the casualties of these programmes was education. Many of the current Kenyan elite would not have had their education if SAPs had been in place in the 1950s, '60s and early '70s.
How does a civilised state hand over such critical social services as education, water, food and housing to the dictates of capitalist greed and profits? How do bright kids from poor homes serve the nation if their avenues for advancement are blocked right from their time of birth? How can critical knowledge be created and acted upon at universities if the creed and greed of profits before students is ingrained in the so-called institutions of higher learning? How can we eradicate poverty when the system itself creates poverty on daily basis?
Narc rightly decreed free primary education, and we should have this up to university if we are serious about development. We cannot focus on the prices of essential goods that politicians decide what they are. How can we leave health, education, work, clean water, a clean environment and nutritious food from the list Mr Maina has given in his Bill as essential goods?
IF WE ARE TALKING ABOUT EXPLOITATION, why are we not discussing its fundamental causes, including corrupt, inept and clueless leaders of whom Mr Maina is part? Why are we not listening to the manufacturers about controls that are broad and all inclusive? While the manufacturers should be aware that the theory of liberalised economies has taken huge economic, ideological and political dents, their argument is simply that exploitation is both internal and external. Such control policies in the past have killed the national entrepreneurial spirit and activism at the altar of championing foreign vested interests.
This issue of state intervention in the economy is, indeed, part of Agenda 4 in our quest for fundamental reforms that can guarantee peace, non-violence, prosperity for all and the eradication of poverty.
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