Re: Altaf Hussain Resigns from MQM leadership?
To be honest, MQM’s ‘message’ makes political sense. A constant rhetoric against feudal lords and industrialists is attractive. Some of my mqm-supporting relatives are convinced that MQM is the only party that can protect their rights (although they are not very clear exactly which rights are being usurped by others, and even now that their next generation is mostly ethnically mixed).
Then, MQM works very closely to how a mafia does. The ‘rewards’ are based on theory of tournaments and the top guy is always very very very sacred but also reaps most of the rewards. The ‘street workers’ aspire to get to that position but are not rewarded much to keep their desire burning. The whole organization is based on the belief that it is only the top guy because of whom the structure stands. “jo quaid ka ghaddar hai, woh maut ka haqdaar hai” is a very nice exhibition of the parallels between a mafia and MQM.
If MQM ever came out of its ethnic-centered politics, it would either do great on national level or be buried in an instant. I think it is the former, but I guess MQM high-ups think it is the later.
Here’s a review of what we know about such organization…
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The political economy of organized crime: providing protection when the state does not**
Organized crime emerges out of the power vaccuum that is created by the absence of state enforcement, and which can have many sources: geographic, social, and ethnic distance, prohibition, or simply collapse of state institutions. Mafias and gangs are hierarchically organized and can be thought of as providing primitive state functions, with economic costs that are typically much higher than those associated with modern governance. Though organized crime cannot be completely eradicated, its control is necessary, since it can easily corrupt existing institutions of governance. Some thoughts on what can be done to control organized crime are offered.