What price democracy?

By Ghazi Salahuddin


It is hard to seriously reflect on the quality of our democracy, in spite of the fact that there is such a lot to think about democracy, Pakistani-style. In any case, I was part of a solemn exercise devoted exclusively to an assessment of democracy in the year 2012. The session continued for about five hours, with a break for lunch. And what were the findings of these deliberations?

Before I come to that, I have to tell you that the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency – Pildat – has formed this Democracy Assessment Group of which I also happen to be a member. The group had earlier issued its reports based on a quantitative assessment made on an international framework.

By that measure, the quality of democracy in Pakistan has improved from the period before the 2008 elections. In an assessment made in January 2010, the pre-2008 era earned 40 percent marks. In comparison, the quality of democracy as it stood in January 2010 was given the score of 48 percent. There was a slight improvement in the mid-term assessment made in September 2010, with a score of 49 percent. The score for the current year is yet to be calculated and now a Pakistan-specific framework has also been designed.

The meeting on Thursday was meant to discuss the draft brief on the quality of democracy in 2012. In addition, the issue of delimitation of constituencies in Karachi and the verification of electoral rolls also came under scrutiny. Some members of the Pildat’s Citizen Group on the electoral process were also invited to the meeting and it was followed by a national workshop in which representatives of political parties and other sections of the society expressed their views. These would serve as an input for the final democracy assessment report to be released next month.

Coming back to the essence of Thursday’s discourse, let me first refer to the statement that was issued by the Pildat. It said that while processes that strengthen democracy have effectively been put into work, the ultimate performance of democracy as it affects the people has not been satisfactory in the year 2012.

It was noted that the completion of the five-year term by the present government “is a milestone in the country’s political history”. However, “there is more that needs to be done on the governance front”. This, then, was the gist of the observations that were made by the members of the Democracy Assessment Group and the National Workshop.

Obviously, there has been a marked inclination to balance the positive trends with the negative ones. It should be easy to guess how this balance is achieved. It is seen to be an achievement that the process has not been interrupted. Besides, the passage of the 18th Amendment that prescribes provincial autonomy is a tribute to our parliamentary democracy. Disqualification of a sitting prime minister did not rattle the system. For the first time in our history, the chief election commissioner was appointed through a consensus-backed process. And so on.

Similarly, the negative trends are also glaringly evident. The law and order situation remains alarming, with a particular focus on Balochistan and Karachi. The energy situation is precarious. The delivery of public services has further declined. There has been a surge in sectarian killings and in violence against minorities. Instances of corruption seemed to have increased. With all the headlines that the Supreme Court has generated, dispensation of justice in an overall context remained highly flawed. The economic woes of the people have increased. In short, there is gloom all around.

Irrespective of how any group’s assessment would define the quality of our democracy, I feel distressed by trends that, in my view, undermine the very potential of what a democracy is meant to be. There is a growing sense of disorder at all levels. Intolerance and extremism are gaining strength. It would appear that after five years of a professedly democratic dispensation, people are less democratic in their behaviour.

So, what is there to celebrate if the elected government has completed its term? If you hear a sound of applause in the background on this accomplishment, you may find it blending into a mournful song that portrays a loss of hope in the future. That this should happen on the watch of a coalition that is supposed to be liberal, with secular tendencies, is the real tragedy.

Ideally, a government completing its term is like a dog biting a man – not news in normal circumstances. It should be possible for a regime to remain in a state of paralysis and live out its prescribed term in office without any mishap. Would that be something to celebrate? Yes, the present interlude would be a source of inspiration and strength if it had weakened forces that are essentially anti-democratic. That has not happened. The rise in extremism is in itself a negation of democratic values and principles.

Tomorrow, on December 10, the world is observing Human Rights Day. It is an appropriate occasion to look at the human rights situation in Pakistan and see if we have moved ahead in protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and oppressed sections of the society. In this respect, some incidents that were reported this week may serve as reminders of the general drift.

For instance, armed men barged into the graveyard of the Ahmadis in Lahore early morning on Monday and destroyed 125 epitaphs and desecrated the graves. On the same day, also in Lahore, two gunmen shot and severely wounded an elderly Swedish woman. She has lived in Pakistan for nearly forty years, doing charity work. In Karachi, a Hindu temple was partially damaged in the course of the demolition of ‘encroachments’. There have been more severe assaults on the minorities in the recent past.

This ambivalence about how the present democratic rule has wounded our lives is not easy to understand or to resolve. One can only hope that the imminent transfer of power after general elections in a few months’ time will lead to a beneficial shift in the present balance between the negative and the positive trends. Still, it is difficult to expect a new beginning if the present state of disorder and moral, as well as intellectual disarray is allowed to persist.

Apparently, our ruling politicians have demonstrated that you can also damage democracy through supposedly democratic means. Their policy of consensus is the policy of compromise with the anti-democratic mindset. This means that the threat to democracy in Pakistan is not only from military intervention. The challenge now is to build intellectual and psychological support for democratic values and counter extremism with a new narrative of what democracy actually means. It does not mean the mere survival of a regime.

Source: What Price Democracy