Imperfect Democracy, Insoluble Problems
Any exercise in democracy without the participation of the people at the grassroots level is an exercise in futility. Democracy enjoins the continuous freedoms of expression and action, the process does not end by simply exercising the right to vote and giving away a mandate for the leaders to administer. Above all, only the absolute majority formed by that vote in any entity, may it be a constituency or the entire country, have a right to exercise that mandate. When a mandate is exercised by a minority faction having a majority due to an imperfect system as is usually the case, problems not only proliferate they multiply. The inter-action of insoluble problems in turn leads to disunity as each minority faction bands together in a bid for power and when they cannot get that power then out of sheer frustration, they try to secede from the union.
While nothing in life can really be perfect, unless we try and make our exercise in democracy close to near perfect, at least at the grassroots level, we may cease to exist as a nation. The aspiration for excellence can happen as an evolution of the present mandate i.e. if the rulers set about their task in a concerted manner and not spend their entire energies in seeking longevity. For the existence of the nation a period of authoritarian rule may well be necessary, it is better to have that rule than cease to exist as a national entity. There is a dire need to reform the system, particularly the electoral process. The idea should be to ensure that every individual in the country must feel that his or her participation is important and constant, that after exercising the vote once every four years, he or she does not become meaningless, at least till the next elections come around. This can only be done by making a pragmatic nation-structure that does not give lip-service only to democracy but inculcates the modicum of accountability that democracy enjoins along a broad spectrum at the very base of the system.
The base of any democratic system is the Local Bodies system, the core unit for any democracy. Regretfully, except intermittently this has been lacking in Pakistan for the past 50 years. The present system at this base level pits candidates against each other in an electoral contest to form the Union Council. In a faction-ridden male-dominated society, divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, any faction that has the most votes, even if they are not in absolute majority, will manage to have their candidates into the seats of power, whereas conceivably the major part of that constituency may be divided among themselves and thus despite their size they become a minority in the Council, their divisiveness giving them lesser number of seats. In a constituency having an ethnic or a religious divide, any ethnic or a sectarian faction having 20-25% of the vote can come to power, denying the balance 80-75% any participation in Local Government. Not only is this situation fraught with danger, we continue to skirt along the faultlines of calamity. Therein lies the essence of the problem, democracy’s illogical first-past-the-post system that is geared to recognize the authority of a bloc of votes rather than the absolute wish of the actual majority. This knowledge also causes a sense of apathy and helplessness among the voting populace, many simply do not go out to vote because they come to the conclusion that their vote would be meaningless.
For a Union Council and like bodies, the laws must be amended to ensure that candidates from the slate are elected on the basis of votes they get, i.e those who get at least 5% of the vote should sit on the Council. Theoretically speaking, there could be as many as 100 candidates who may vie to get elected but conceivably only 20 members sitting in the Council. Even the figure of 20 is very unlikely and at the maximum there may be 15 or so. The important thing to recognise here should be that with the constitution of such a Council, almost every person in that constituency would have his/her representative on the Council and that during the tenure of the Council, that representative will be their constant voice in exercising the people’s mandate. While every grievance can hardly be solved, the peoples’ participation will at least be ensured in that almost everyone in a particular constituency will have the satisfaction that at least their grievance is heard.
The Union Council functions as the Local Government, the person getting the most votes becomes the Chairperson. So that a plethora of candidates do not line up for elections, some of them non-serious, the mandatory requirement for candidacy must be at least 1,000 electors from the constituency signing the candidature form, this will knock out frivolous candidates. With the Census nearly done, the requirement of a 1,000 signatures can easily be met. If the aspirants cannot organise a 1,000 committed supporters, how are they expected to get much more than that to win elections? If the person getting the most votes gets less than 30% of the votes cast then in all fairness there may be a run-off election among the first two vote-getters for the post of Chairperson. At the same time, we must ensure that by law at least 40% of those elected must be women, if more get elected so much the better. To achieve this parity, candidates can get to transfer a percentage of their votes that even women who have less than 5% of the vote on the overall count, can get upto the magic figure of 5% to get elected. Democracy is a sham unless it actively inducts women into power at the base level. It is extremely important to bring women at the grassroots level into the democratic process. With women empowerment in the Councils, more than 50% of the population that is presently on the sidelines will be enfranchised. In contrast to men, women are rarely separatists. Women are presently marginalised in the matter of governance to the detriment of the nation, economically, politically and socially, some outstanding women notwithstanding. The subjects of governance they can handle efficiently and effectively are being managed by incapable men with hardly any commitment and with a penchant to only lining their pockets. The inclusion of women will ensure full participation of every section of the population in the democratic process, with a strong voice in decision-making.
Let us now consider a Union Council of 15 members with 9 men and at least 6 women. What is important to the population at the grassroots level? Leaving aside food, clothing and shelter, what is required are revenue generation, educational and health facilities, law and order with justice at the doorstep, electricity, water and sewerage, welfare, etc. The “ministries” monitoring these socio-economic requirements can be divided among the Council members so that there is direct responsibility. Each Council should have a paid Secretariat with employees having tenure along with the elected ones i.e. they can be selected by the Council and terminated by them. The actual functioning can be devised in a more deliberate, rationale manner.
People’s participation in a democracy is the most important ingredient of nationhood. For a nation to prosper, it must be organized at the grassroots level, the aforementioned represents a simple formula, the actual mechanism can be adjusted to the genius of the people. Unless we get our foundation strong, we cannot even begin to think of democracy at Provincial and national level. Therefore we need a time-out, a period of rebuilding of institutions on logically correct lines. Because we have an imperfect democracy, it is exploited by those where only interest is power and how to milk power for their personal financial benefit. For Pakistan nothing is more important than to have Local Bodies election as a meaningful exercise in people participation, the present exercise is a farce, a fraud perpetrated on the people of this country. Unless we get rid of this chicanery, by whatever means possible, the people who perpetrate fraud will continue to exist, the country may not!
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment