As a nation, we are going under unending confusion and have polarised opinions on our national issues. We get carried away without getting into the depth of matters. We have been suffering for the last 70 years between democracy and dictatorship. We are neither happy with democracy nor with dictatorship. We fight for democracy when we are under dictatorship and after getting rid of the dictatorial rulers and our entry into the democratic zone makes hardly any difference as we are failing in observing the rules of the democratic system. We get fed up with democracy due to our in-house fights and leaders start pulling each other’s legs. The question arises; why those who remain out of power start their skills of destabilizing the system?
This internal struggle starts to get the system packing and this trend of packing systems is becoming too dangerous in our country. Let us go into details as to why it happens and do we observe the rules of business and political ethics? I think that politicians have not yet learned the real politics to transform into real leadership to handle democracy as per its well-defined principles. If the defined principle of democracy is not followed then democracy is the worst form of dictatorship. Let us see the difference between politics and democracy as we all know that democracy is the best form of government as it comes into existence with the vote of the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives, and there may be a parliamentary or presidential way of government.
The government is run by the elected people as per the given democratic moms. We have tried both the presidential and parliamentary system and even the BD system of Ayyub Khan but we have failed to bring the real democratic system. We are again hearing the echo of the presidential system. Unfortunately, none of the systems could give relief to a common man.
Legislation is the main pillar of democracy which regulates the rule of law and the welfare of all factions of the society. The functions of public representatives, judiciary, and bureaucrats are regulated under the respective law and the Parliament is responsible for legislation. The government comes into being with the majority enabling it to take the appropriate decisions in the best interests of the public. In an appropriate majority rule, the government is one where the PM is elected and makes his cabinet to run the day-to-day affairs and policymaking.
Our Parliament is ignored consistently and it has now become like an annual budget-passing body. The houses have become like street forums of exchange of abuses. Some members make their respective leadership happy by using their abusive skills and vocabulary against the opponents under the shadow of so-called democratic house debates.
The people would be surprised that whatever resolution or calling attention notices and certain collective decisions etc. are not mandatory for the government, unlike in the US Congress or Senate. Despite huge public funding on the houses, the parliament has failed to bring some betterment for the common man because the PM does not consider himself responsible to the Parliament. This is the reason we have bad governance and piles of local and foreign debts, failed foreign policy with the hype of dearness which is crushing the common man. The people are rightly fed up and confused with deterioration in the system and forced to think and question as to what kind of politics is there where a middle class or an educated person cannot be a member of the Senate or parliament?
The common man now takes our democracy like “monarchy “as our democracy is still based on old colonial principles of “monopolized politics” and there is no chance for a common man to become a decision-maker and this is the reason which has confused the masses further. It will be more appropriate to state that though the British Empire departed, however, their legal and political system adopted by us and the colonial type governance remains the same by only replacing the “British Empire Rule with “Monarch democratic rule” and the system is still treating a common man like under British Empire with the same penal codes and old legislations meant to rule the oppressed one with the stick.
We exploit uneducated voters in every election, promising change for betterment but they receive change in terms of the worst form of depriving of their basic rights. They are becoming poorer and poorer and even unable to get their children to go to school, the hype of dearness, and suffering of more diseases as we have failed to place a proper national healthcare system for the general public. The common man in villages sees his shoeless children and anxiety can be felt in their eyes so the futureless children opt to become either criminals or terrorists.
Let us be honest in saying that our present system has failed to give the desired level of legitimate facilities and rights to the common man except for the hollow slogans. The present ongoing struggle of power and uneven distribution of wealth and mega corruption has confused and disappointed the common man whereas the government itself is confused and directionless rather it is more confused than a common man. It looks that we will continue to be progressively confused and we are heading to a point of no return in fighting the greed of power.
Our politics is full of hypocrisy and our model of democracy has become an instrument for the powerful to keep coming back in power by exploiting the poor majority. The powerful will continue to be in power with their self-serving interests. The power players will continue to take every dictatorial decision democratically. Let us wake up and give chance to real democracy for the long due benefit of the common man and not to the elite.
https://nation.com.pk/27-Oct-2020/a-hypocritical-democracy
A hypocritical democracy: op-ed by Senator Rehman Malik in The Nation, Oct 27, 2020
As a nation, we are going under unending confusion and have polarised opinions on our national issues. We get carried away without getting into the depth of matters. We have been suffering for the last 70 years between democracy and dictatorship. We are neither happy with democracy nor with dictatorship. We fight for democracy when we are under dictatorship and after getting rid of the dictatorial rulers and our entry into the democratic zone makes hardly any difference as we are failing in observing the rules of the democratic system. We get fed up with democracy due to our in-house fights and leaders start pulling each other’s legs. The question arises; why those who remain out of power start their skills of destabilizing the system?
This internal struggle starts to get the system packing and this trend of packing systems is becoming too dangerous in our country. Let us go into details as to why it happens and do we observe the rules of business and political ethics? I think that politicians have not yet learned the real politics to transform into real leadership to handle democracy as per its well-defined principles. If the defined principle of democracy is not followed then democracy is the worst form of dictatorship. Let us see the difference between politics and democracy as we all know that democracy is the best form of government as it comes into existence with the vote of the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives, and there may be a parliamentary or presidential way of government.
The government is run by the elected people as per the given democratic moms. We have tried both the presidential and parliamentary system and even the BD system of Ayyub Khan but we have failed to bring the real democratic system. We are again hearing the echo of the presidential system. Unfortunately, none of the systems could give relief to a common man.
Legislation is the main pillar of democracy which regulates the rule of law and the welfare of all factions of the society. The functions of public representatives, judiciary, and bureaucrats are regulated under the respective law and the Parliament is responsible for legislation. The government comes into being with the majority enabling it to take the appropriate decisions in the best interests of the public. In an appropriate majority rule, the government is one where the PM is elected and makes his cabinet to run the day-to-day affairs and policymaking.
Our Parliament is ignored consistently and it has now become like an annual budget-passing body. The houses have become like street forums of exchange of abuses. Some members make their respective leadership happy by using their abusive skills and vocabulary against the opponents under the shadow of so-called democratic house debates.
The people would be surprised that whatever resolution or calling attention notices and certain collective decisions etc. are not mandatory for the government, unlike in the US Congress or Senate. Despite huge public funding on the houses, the parliament has failed to bring some betterment for the common man because the PM does not consider himself responsible to the Parliament. This is the reason we have bad governance and piles of local and foreign debts, failed foreign policy with the hype of dearness which is crushing the common man. The people are rightly fed up and confused with deterioration in the system and forced to think and question as to what kind of politics is there where a middle class or an educated person cannot be a member of the Senate or parliament?
The common man now takes our democracy like “monarchy “as our democracy is still based on old colonial principles of “monopolized politics” and there is no chance for a common man to become a decision-maker and this is the reason which has confused the masses further. It will be more appropriate to state that though the British Empire departed, however, their legal and political system adopted by us and the colonial type governance remains the same by only replacing the “British Empire Rule with “Monarch democratic rule” and the system is still treating a common man like under British Empire with the same penal codes and old legislations meant to rule the oppressed one with the stick.
We exploit uneducated voters in every election, promising change for betterment but they receive change in terms of the worst form of depriving of their basic rights. They are becoming poorer and poorer and even unable to get their children to go to school, the hype of dearness, and suffering of more diseases as we have failed to place a proper national healthcare system for the general public. The common man in villages sees his shoeless children and anxiety can be felt in their eyes so the futureless children opt to become either criminals or terrorists.
Let us be honest in saying that our present system has failed to give the desired level of legitimate facilities and rights to the common man except for the hollow slogans. The present ongoing struggle of power and uneven distribution of wealth and mega corruption has confused and disappointed the common man whereas the government itself is confused and directionless rather it is more confused than a common man. It looks that we will continue to be progressively confused and we are heading to a point of no return in fighting the greed of power.
Our politics is full of hypocrisy and our model of democracy has become an instrument for the powerful to keep coming back in power by exploiting the poor majority. The powerful will continue to be in power with their self-serving interests. The power players will continue to take every dictatorial decision democratically. Let us wake up and give chance to real democracy for the long due benefit of the common man and not to the elite.
https://nation.com.pk/27-Oct-2020/a-hypocritical-democracy
Published in Pak Media comment and Pakistan