The Economist January 2nd 2021 Asia 25

2 chitecture, so there’s no interoperability The Durand Line

within the government,” laments Sato
Motohiko of the Japan Association of New A big beautiful wall
Economy, an e-business lobby group. The
agency will consolidate control over it pro-
curement previously devolved to different
arms of government. Mr Hirai aims to shift
the bureaucracy to cloud-based systems to
KABUL
make it easier to share data. The Daiwa In-
Pakistan has fenced itself off from Afghanistan
stitute of Research, a think-tank, reckons formal posts were established
that digitisation of government services
could boost gdp per person by more than
1%—a hefty improvement.
T
he tribesmen outside the Pakistani posts. Despite winding through some of
embassy in Kabul huddle into their the most rugged and inhospitable land-
woollen shawls and wait. A few years ago, scapes on Earth, the fence will be complete
The first step involves ending archaic grumble Abdul Haq Barakzai and his in weeks, says Pakistan’s government.
habits. Kono Taro, Japan’s minister for ad- friends, a trip to Pakistan for medical treat- America, among others, has for years
ministrative reform, catalogued some ment was as straightforward as slipping a advocated building a fence, in the hope of
15,000 circumstances in which a hanko, or border guard a few hundred rupees. As well stemming the insurgency in Afghanistan.
personal seal, was required to carry out a as the main crossing at Torkham, a rich But in the end Pakistan moved ahead be-
bureaucratic procedure; now, he says, only choice of tracks led across the mountain- cause of terrorists mounting attacks on its
83 remain. Fax machines, still a staple of ous frontier. No paperwork was needed to side of the border before seeking refuge in
the Japanese office, have come under fire. cross. Now he must stand in line with a Afghanistan, not the other way round.
So too has the custom of sending email at- bundle of doctors’ notes to obtain a visa. Pakistani soldiers are bullish about the ef-
The 2,600km
tachments as zip files with a password in a This border boundary between Af- fect so far. They credit the fence with reduc-
has long been ignored by citizens in both countries
separate message, which does little to en- ghanistan and Pakistan was marked out in ing attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
hance security but causes untold inconve- 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand as the limit of (ttp), a home-grown militant group.
nience. After that come harder tasks. “We British India (see map). The arbitrary fron- Western observers are more doubtful,
need to take the second step: from digitis- tier has long been ignored by tribesmen, saying a fence alone cannot bring security, Many
ing data to utilising data,” says a former se- traders and guerrillas on either side. Ihsa- particularly in such terrain. “A fence is use-
nior official. That, in turn, will involve nullah Shinwari, a businessman in the less if you can’t observe it. You and I could western
breaking down the barriers between minis- Pakistani city of Peshawar, describes how walk up with a pair of wire-cutters and go
tries, says Robert Ward of the International he and his friends used to nip across to eat through, and then it’s not a fence,” carps a media believe
Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank fried fish in the Afghan city of Jalalabad: “It Western military official. The scale and
in London. wasn’t like going to a different country.” profitability of smuggling across the bor-
that the fence
According to Goldman Sachs, an invest- This porousness has loomed large in der mean that smugglers will not meekly
ment bank, goods consisting of intellectu- world affairs. After the Soviet invasion of shut up shop. Sceptics also point out that
al property, such as software, account for Afghanistan in 1979, America funnelled the Afghan Taliban have been able to cross is useless and
less than 3% of the Japanese government’s weapons over the border to rebels. When the frontier easily not because there used
fixed assets, compared with 8% for Ameri- America invaded Afghanistan, in turn, in to be no fence, but because Pakistan’s that the
ca’s. Wider adoption of the national id 2001, the Taliban flitted back and forth armed forces let them.
card, known as “My Number”, would make from havens in Pakistan. And for decades a Afghanistan’s government, meanwhile, Taliban,
it easier to put services online, but many large share of the world’s supply of heroin does not accept the Durand line and claims
Japanese have resisted because of privacy was spirited across to Pakistan. parts of north-west Pakistan, so it is un- smugglers
The neglect of this border has led to many international problems
concerns. Going digital also threatens to All that began to change in 2016, when a happy with the fence. But Moeed Yusuf,
alienate the elderly. Mr Hirai envisions thin metal line of chain-link fencing and Pakistan’s national security adviser, says can easily get
turning bureaucrats who now sit behind razor wire, punctuated by forts, slowly un- the fence will improve relations and even
windows at counters receiving forms into spooled along the border through the Hin- boost trade in the long run. The movement
“digital-support” workers to help ageing du Kush mountains and the deserts of Ba- of fighters both ways has caused recrimi- over it
residents learn to apply for services on lochistan. Dozens of unofficial crossing nations on both sides, he says: “This ele-
smartphones. points have been closed and cross-border ment of mistrust must be removed. The
Finally, for the digital agency to make a travel is being channelled to 16 formal only way to do it from our view is ultimate-
difference, Mr Hirai will have to find theFormal border was created and most of the unofficial crossing ly to fence the border.” Afghanistan is unhappy with the
talent to staff it. The government lacks en- In practice, the biggest repercussions of
TAJIKISTAN
gineers and it specialists. Competition ispoints TURKMENISTAN
are closed the fence may be for thedemarcation
Pushtun tribes that
of its territory, but
already fierce in the private sector. Mr Hirai straddle the frontier. They now need pass-
hopes to make the agency feel more Silicon ush ports and visas to visit relatives. Mr Yusuf
du K Pakistan believes such a fence will
Valley than Tokyo ministry. His slogan is Hin says Pakistan is handing out visas readily.
“Government as a startup”. He points to Jalalabad Long-term multiple-entry permits will be
Taiwan’s popular digital minister, Audrey Kabul Peshawar
common, he says: the boost long-term
border will betrade
more between the
Tang, as a model. “Jeans will be fine,” he Islamabad like one in Europe than anything designed
A F G H A N I S T A N Torkham
says, a radical departure from the suit and by President Donald Trump.two countries
tie that are de rigueur in Japanese govern- Mr Barakzai and his fellow applicants
ment offices. Engineers will be paid at say they have yet to see any sign of that.
competitive rates and allowed to work re- Durand Line
PAKISTAN They complain of long waits and sticky-
motely. A tech leader from the private sec- fingered officials. As crossing becomes
tor will be tapped to head the agency. “The Balochistan more laborious, some dispersed families
challenge of changing a national system is IRAN
are choosing to consolidate on one side or
attractive,” Mr Hirai says. That may be so— 250 km
another. “It’s just getting harder and hard-
but it will not be easy. 7 er,” Mr Barakzai moans. 7
The fence makes it harder for people to see their relatives across the border