PKKH Exclusive|By AbuZar Ilyas
Democracy is a system in which people practice their right of vote to bring a few people who are eligible for serving the state. People can vote for the candidates participating in elections and can elect them and give them the right to rule the country. The mechanisms and the technicalities of democracy are very idealistic and in fact they have many flaws in them. The contents needed to fulfill the requirements for an ideal situation are impossible to achieve. Aristotle highlighted democracy as “Worst type of Government”.
The popular concept of democracy, most talked about is a “Government of the people, by the people and for the people” but all these honey talks are far from reality. First we have to explain the structure and types of democracy in order to analyze its dimensions. Of the many types, the two main types that concern us are ‘Parliamentary Democracy’ and ‘Presidential Democracy’.
In a Parliamentary Democracy, which we have experienced in Pakistan, a head of the state (Prime Minister) with ‘lot of powers’ is elected by the people’s representatives in Legislative Assembly and he has authorities and rights to run the state functions as per laws. The Head of State in this system is bound to go to the parliament for many decisions so this system is flawed or we can say it is not rapid in the case when quick decisions are needed.
Presidential Democracy or Presidential Type of Government is a type in which a President of the state elected by the people of the country directly has all authorities and all rights to run the country. The president in this system is like an elected Monarch who can order all the departments at his whim. This system is good for the war time or emergency basis decisions due to the power in one hand.
The parliamentary type of democracy is a worst type of democracy in which people theoretically elect their representatives but in reality they elect Monarchs on them. In Monarchy there was one King. But in parliamentary democracy, there are hundreds of Kings which rule, leech and loot the country’s resources, presenting this type of democracy as a holy cow just because it suits their looting of country’s resources without any accountability. Here is an interesting fact I am stating that according to Aristotle, “The Democracy itself is a worst type of Government” and the current political system or type of government in Pakistan is the “worst type of democracy”. So, we have ‘worst of the worst’ in Pakistan. Let me highlight some flaws of democracy. According to democracy, the 51% opinion will dominate the opinion over 49%. This is in fact a biggest dishonesty of the democracy that 49% does not mean a thing. This theory in past, led to the dismemberment and balkanization of many states in which 49% did not get their rights and then left the federation which resulted in the break-up of the state just like as we saw in East Pakistan in 1971. Many other factors were also involved just like geographical limits and enemy’s planning but one of the main factors was democracy.
Some people now-a-days have a naive concept that Pakistan came into being just because of Democracy. In my opinion Pakistan was made in negation of democracy. If democratic rules were applied, then Hindus were bigger in number than Muslims. In democracy, the opinion of 20% can defeat the opinion of 80% if different opinions counter 20% from different platforms. For example, 9 candidates are participating in elections, one got 20% votes and others got each 10% of casted votes then in this way the opinion of 20% will dominate on 80% which is a big flaw in democratic system.
Now look at the 2008 Elections in Pakistan. We all saw what happened in the name of democracy in 2008 in Pakistan when only 38% of registered voters casted their votes to bring in the legislators. Later on, Supreme Court of Pakistan declared 40% of the elected votes as bogus. Yes! the 40% votes in 38% total casted votes were fake or bogus. The true public representation was according to statistics then 22-24% in 2008 Elections and Federal Government made with only 2/3rd of 22% votes which is 15-17%. So, the “democratic” government we tasted in Pakistan was made of 15-17% of public votes, and we got heads of the state that had immunity from every crime.
All the dilemmas and all the loop holes in democratic system are just because of its high level idealistic painting which it draws to attract people but in fact it is not a practical system. Democracy serves as ‘worst type of government’ and some people call democracy, ‘hypocrisy’. I have also the same thoughts about this type of government that it can only serve the interests of the elite class. It also serves the interests of banks, corporations and ruling class but it has nothing to give to the public.