A stuttering democracy

That is who we are. A split mandate, and we get stagnated again. We don’t know how to move beyond it or resolve this possible consequence in a democratic exercise, needing external arbitration. A recent global democracy review downgrades us to an ‘autocracy’. And understandably. That is how has been our mental make-up, pre- and post-independence. Brief spurts of democratic interjections have never let a culture develop or the real taste and understanding of democracy institute itself. We are democratically inclined but aren’t practised enough to make it a default recourse. Our default fallback is greatly more devastating and throws us back in time by decades every time the military intervenes.

First eleven years of our existence saw seven prime ministers, all civilians — bureaucrats and politicos –with beguiling intrigue of fortune hunters whose tribal and personal motives underwrote initial years of political instability. This was followed by the first nation-wide martial law that took away fifteen years between Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who earned the ignominy of being the first civilian martial law administrator. That he was an epitome of an autocrat in manner and disposition is the least how he can be explained by today’s standards. His four years were followed by another martial law of eleven years under Zia Ul Haq. It was a consequence of the same political legacy and bankruptcy which had denied Pakistan its chance to establish true democratic roots in the first eleven years. Personal and tribal interest than people’s will, or benefit, drove their impulse. Democracy as a culture, its essence and purpose, and its structures never got instituted. The people weren’t even a part. The nation never got its chance to grow up.

The 90s were unique. One political/democratic government after another fell when laws and the constitution — with no less significant leg-pulling by the political opponents — provided the shield for immensely personalised dislikes and intolerance. Yet after every two years or so an electoral exercise followed inducting the opposition into power. This revolving chair experience between the PML and the PPP only reinforced that lust of power than governance, policy or service drove their respective aspiration. Yet, it was unique enough that the military kept out of power even if it now became the arbiter between feuding politicians. This introduced to the military the facet of leveraging its influence in political matters while keeping in the shadows. Many would argue the trend continues till date. Democracy remained stunted both as a culture and as the means to governance. Autocracy, as was germane to societal trends since and before independence, persisted as the dominating recourse.

Musharraf’s martial law was an aberration borne out of months of institutional stand-off and paralysis in decision-making. The more Nawaz Sharif dithered in making the tough ask of Musharraf to resign the more it strengthened latter’s hand at undermining the democratic government. It stole another nine years from a nation’s growth. While such alternation of power between politicians and the military may seem cyclical between the power elites with its other attendant setbacks it stalls a society in its development to a mature and conscious democracy which can hold its representatives accountable. In its absence this right too gets ceded to other forces in the power struggle who claim to be acting on behalf of the people. The entire equation of democracy and its essential elements thus have stood compromised and corrupted weakening democracy because of this lack of interface between the people and the political enterprise.

Three democratic governments and four elections later the quality of democracy and its complementing elements remain abysmal. Three facts have not changed despite this fortuitous run: (a) the political parties remain entirely autocratic in their structures and in functioning; this culture hasn’t changed over decades given society’s mental make-up which remains highly patronised and servile; (b) the people are stranded in a class structure where power elites and the people do not socially or functionally intersect at any point beyond the electoral exercise every five years; (c) establishment’s (judicial, military and bureaucratic) capacity to ingress and leverage its influence in state and political matters remains potent and unstymied. We thus get the toxic mix of autocracies which are incompetent, unaccountable and rapacious.

Given the existing predicaments, which have a background and hence some causal justification, it should still be possible to chart a way out to a better sociopolitical existence than what we assume has become our unfortunate destiny. The spurt of support for the most maligned political party in the recent polls indicates a sense of awareness and entitlement among people which if, one, dismissed can only be at our collective peril, and two, needs to be honed and included in a structured way to seek cleansing of an entirely corrupted and decadent political system.

Education, access to information and freedom of expression are three principal attributes to build this societal capacity further. The political parties will become greatly more answerable to the people if the people are better informed and aware forcing the political parties to be democratic in letter and spirit. This will also pave the way for a greatly more inclusive political culture than its presently elitist mold. Increased engagement with the people is fundamental to strengthening democracy in our environment. In its absence it will always remain a weak, manipulative, exploitative and extortionist system of governance even when clad in democratic colours.

The second most critical aspect of becoming a better and a more optimal democracy is a two-fold responsibility within the power elites. First and foremost, the rulers must submit themselves to law and not stand absolved because of their station and stature — which not only endows respect to law, naturally germane to civilised societies, it makes them accountable public servants liable to equal arraignment if they commit excesses. Simply, just one behavioural change can lead to widespread respect for law among the citizenry. Without respect for law or its equal application to all chaos alone prevails as has increasingly become the case. If the leadership is virtuous and incorruptible there will be little reason for anyone from the other elements of the state to exceed their domain beyond the circles ordained in the Constitution. This one change in structures, culture and character can bring in greatly more and wider attendant gains enabling a credible, sustainable and uninterruptible democratic system of governance.

When the people own the process, they will also institute corrections to it. In remedying a corrupted political system lies the long-term perpetuity and relevance of what we hope can be a real democratic future as a people and a society. The 2024 election should have at least brought this lesson home to all.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2024.

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