Democracy under assault

Democracy rests on three founding pillars: citizens’ engagement, independent judiciary and free media. Citizen engagement comes via two basic tenets: an electoral process which should be ideally free and fair, and a concept of local governments as the third tier of governance which impacts a citizen’s day-to-day life — the essence of democratic culture. The quality of these two activities will define the character, the quality, and the credibility of any democracy. Sometime nations hold an electoral exercise but remain unmindful of delegating power to the lowest tier in a government.

They may not have local governments at all which turns democracy tenuous and fragile. Independent judiciary keeps the people invested in a system through fairness and protecting their rights. Most importantly a judicial system protects fundamental human rights against dominating power of the state. Only an effective judiciary independent of influence of any kind can assure that. Similarly, a fair judicial concept protects a citizen against another stronger or more influential individual and his exploitative and manipulative power.

Independent judiciary in principle holds sacrosanct the rights of the minorities against the tyranny of the majority imposed through the force of numbers or the power of legislation. Democracy thus must ensure its balance and fairness to forge a cohesive society. A legislation contrived to favour a majority thus is open to scrutiny by the judiciary for its intent, purpose and effect on the rights of a minority in parliament. Free media is society’s check on both the state and the government. It acts as a watchdog and keeps the system functional within stated limits of the constitution and fundamental freedoms.

Media manifests freedom of speech within the constraints enunciated by sociocultural norms and restrictions imposed by the constitution. It is another debate whether there should be absolute freedom of speech or be constrained by ethics and sensitivity to other freedoms. But one way or the other, media is regulated in all societies through a formalised code or otherwise through a regulator. Media brings to notice excesses against the weak and deviations which exceed limits ordained by convention and law. It emplaces guardrails for society to nurture in a democracy. When any of the above tenets of democracy is subverted, a conditioned or a controlled democracy, and increasingly in the last few decades, illiberal democracy results. In illiberal democracy the façade is democratic, but the substance hardly is.

This isn’t all theoretical enunciation; it is in play in notable societies globally. Autocracies seep into democracies by controlling one or the other tenet twisting it to suit its purpose and secure an unquestioned hold on to power. In most autocracies elections are the perfect façade. Yet those are the only manifested illustration of a democratic process even when engineered, structured or manipulated. Weak elections or a denial or delay in holding elections weakens democracies. Pakistan in its current spate continues to dither from such an expression of people’s will. Governments in some nations use elections to reinforce their popularity and extend their tenures by winning another full term. Something IK could never comprehend when the going was good for him. It could have won him the elusive ‘azadi’ that he now desperately seeks. Similarly, local governments are a full expression of a democratic intent and when fully equipped and powered produce the most optimal articulation of democracy.

Every nation must strive to enable this level of democratic participation and governance where local issues are resolved by local indulgence and devolved capacity and capability. Judiciary is the most threatened when autocrats or cultlike political arrangements need least interference in how they legislate, implement and arbitrate law — always to their advantage. How it is done is quite how Narendra Modi in India has slowly but surely controlled higher judiciary. What was patently secular is now obtrusively ethnoreligious enunciated by one word, Hindutva, or the socio-cultural domination of the Hindu religion over all else. Indian SC, once the bastion for upholding minority rights and individual freedoms in a culture loudly labeled secular and democratic, has now transformed into a government’s second-string authorising and perpetuating the tyranny of Hindu majority over its smaller ethno-religious minorities.

Indian Muslims cannot fall back on the strength of law in seeking equivalence in citizenship as Indians. When Republicans in the USA pack judiciary with judges of certain inclination, the SC becomes a predictable supporter of policies and social inclinations propounded by that party. Erdogan in Turkey has followed the same route and judges of higher courts are now quite in-line with what the political preference is. If Pakistan has a judicial crisis at hand its roots lay very much in the political machination of what is in play here and what will become of the court in time will reflect the preferences which dominate today’s polity in Pakistan. What separates the judiciary in the US from one in South Asia or Turkey is the type of cases which come before the respective SCs.

It is usual for Asian Courts to protect political governments even in criminal cases against the leadership — at times manipulating evidence or interpreting law to favour those in power. The US SC will not deal with such cases routinely — Donald Trump’s insurrection under investigation by the Congress and a Special Counsel will test the waters if Trump stands indicted. Media is the last bastion in this mauling of democracy but usually the first to be corrupted, unfortunately. Special interests, targeted funding and compromised legislative leverage mean that empires need to save themselves from the power of law and will therefore submit before authority and money.

Pakistan is the worst example of how easily manipulable the media has become. Erdogan and Modi in their respective countries have allegedly bought off the entire enterprise and reigned over the last bastion in their own favour. With law and the airwaves both fully controlled democracy only recedes, giving root to autocracies and neoliberalism. Right-wing fundamentalism then takes over. What was patently inclusive eschews the essence (inclusivity) which defines democracy. Societies fragment while strongmen rule over divided polities and societies. It doesn’t take long for a political leader to change his spots. Democracies turn predatorial under strongmen autocracies. Erdogan and Modi are buoyed by their tales of success trading their credentials of innocuous democrats into predatorial autocrats.

Their route to such inevitability first lay in matchless economic performance under their watch through which they incrementally assaulted the judiciary and then monopolised the media through their cronies. Economic successes translated into media ownerships both beholden to the same man — Erdogan or Modi. Pakistan stands at just such cross-roads. Those playing around with these fundamentals in Pakistan must take heed. There is still time before we lose the plot entirely. Our survival as a federation lies in patently democratic structures. To save its pillars foremost is to save democracy