Democracy Needs an Opposition
Without check and balance, even a democracy can become a dictatorship. For too long, we have had total rule unfettered by an opposition strong enough to effectively counter the totalitarian urges of the rulers, elected and unelected. The result has been that those who are mandated by the people to enforce the rule of law have invariably become the major violators of law in the land. Other than an extremely faulty system of democracy that enjoins “the first past the post” system rather than an actual majority of the votes cast, thereby giving a minority a rule over a majority, the practice in South Asia is to centre “democracy” around personalities, with only lip-service given to ideology and constitutional mores. The result has been voter apathy as more and more people are frustrated in the democratic process, with progress denied to the masses and confined to a privileged few or those whom they choose to associate with them.
In Pakistan the present Opposition lacks credibility. As much as Ms Benazir may try and charm foreign audiences to deny her corrupt governance, this is now a documented fact of life. She and her husband can invent any number of technicalities to escape the process of law, there is a pretty open and shut evidence against their corruption on scores of counts. What is amazing is that despite her known indiscretions, she continues to be blatant about her denials. This leads to a more serious charge, of brazen faced misrepresentation of the truth on a daily basis — and this is the stuff of leadership she has provided to the people of Pakistani! And she does not stop at that, having subjected the people of Pakistan to economic misery to accumulate illegal wealth, she is actively engaged in activity that is detrimental to the interests of Pakistan. And she is not alone, party workers mesmerised by her charisma one can understand but mature party leaders who privately acknowledge her and her husband’s corruption should only have contempt for her instead of publicly defending her. These include party colleagues as well as the smattering of allied leaders like Nawabzada Nasrullah, Hamid Nasir Chattha, etc, etc, who are guilty of abetment, having turned a glazed eye to the Zardari shenanigans. They have put the person (and their own selfish interests) before the national interest and any person who does that does not deserve to be called a leader. Leaders must have credibility and in the face of facts all those who are still supporting Ms Benazir lack the moral responsibility they owe to the people they profess to lead. That leaves only erstwhile ally ANP in the opposition and while one may disagree with them on any number of counts, the fact remains that they are at least credible and not prone to tell outright lies repeatedly as some of their colleagues in the Parliamentary Opposition do. The MQM, which despite being in the government, oppose their colleagues on most counts, has also lost its credibility over the years. A once-fine movement, founded on the rightful need to give the Mohajir community a rightful say under the sun, has now degenerated into corruption. When a leader is away in self-exile far away as is Altaf Hussain it is difficult to control the party’s militant cohorts who have made collection of “protection money” or “Bhatta” into a fine art, or for that matter their white-collar leaders who have mastered the art of siphoning off big money in Karachi’s mega-projects. As such their once-vaunted simplicity and credibility have been rather shot as they have descended into “business as usual”.
