Capital suggestion...Election

[fatman17]

Opinion Capital suggestion...Election

Dr Farrukh Saleem
Sunday, July 15, 2012



What are the three things wrong with us? One: men and women are getting rich through corruption not by hard work. Two: money is flowing towards those who deal in favours not in goods. Three: our National Assembly (NA) is making laws to protect predators not the preyed (original work in this field was done by Ayn Rand, the Russian-American philosopher and playwright).



Why nations fail? Answer: leaders of failing nations have three characteristics – greed, selfishness and ignorance of history (original work in this filed was done by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in ‘Why nations fail’).


Scenario 1: The PML-N wins the next election. How were men and women getting rich between November 1990 and July 1993? What kinds of laws were being formulated between February 1997 and October 1999? Remember; one Ameer-ul-Momineen for 130 million Pakistanis, no separation of powers, one man over everything else including the judiciary, the legislature and the media.



Scenario 2: The PPP wins the next election. Public money, private greed. Doubling of debt, printing of Rs3 billion a day, power emergency, education emergency, financial emergency, nutrition emergency and economic emergency. Plus, 120 million Pakistanis in multi-dimensional poverty. But then may be the next PPP government will be benevolent, caring and competent. Any takers?



Scenario 3: The PTI wins the next election. Other then Imran Khan the entire hierarchy belongs to status quo tried-and-tested politicians who have been part and parcel of ‘organising-the-entire-societal-infrastructure-in-order-to-extract-from-the-masses’ scheme of things.



Over the past 35 years, we have had eight elections. Of the 342 seats in the NA 272 are general seats. Of the 272 generals seats nearly 200 have rural constituencies. Of the 200 seats some 100 are in rural Punjab. And rural politics is all about three things: ‘dharra-bandi, langaar bazi and thana-katcherry’ (DLT). We have already gone through eight vicious cycles of DLTs.



Election statistics from 1977, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002 and 2008 stand witness that winning candidates in rural Faisalabad have always, always belonged to one of the six land-owning classes – Jatt, Rajput, Arian, Gujar, Baloch or Kharal (original work in this field was done by Dr Mughees Ahmed).



Elections can be held today, later this year or early next year, results will be the same – perpetual misery for Pakistani voters and more laws to protect the predators. The election cycle would have to be broken in order to make sure that Pakistani men and women get rich through hard work – not through corruption-and legislation protects the preyed from the predators.



Pakistan’s current course takes us all deep into failure, a complete collapse or an implosion. The course must be corrected. Pakistani elections merely ‘defend the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status’.



The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

 

[Jango]

Right now, you can see people sleeping on the road median at night.

If PPP gets another 5 years, you will see half of pakistan there at night!

 

[niaz]

One thing this article left out was that numbers of seats allotted to the rural constituencies are now out of sync with the ground reality. Pakistan has urbanized over the years yet the seat boundaries continue to be based on very old census.

It is perceived that allocation of seats based on actual population would reduce number of rural seats; resulting in increase of MQM representation from Sind at the expense of PPP and that PTI would gain advantage over PMNL-N in Punjab. Therefore it is in in interest of the larger political parties (PPP & PML-N) to maintain the status quo. PTI do have a point that current assemblies do not correctly represent will of the masses.

An interesting satire on the current state of affairs is noted below:

I do not want democracy

Nighat Kamal Aziz
Sunday, July 15, 2012 From Print Edition

I do not want democracy if it means that I wait in the streets for long periods of time in the sweltering heat in the name of VIP movement, when those who are plundering the country move in cavalcades protecting them from the wrath of their own countrymen.

I do not want democracy when those who earn an honest living go home to no water and unlimited loadshedding, while those who have risen to power using unjust and illegal means sit in the lap of luxury and never know how it feels to be without these basic amenities.

I do not want democracy when those at the helm of affairs send their children abroad for education but the youth of their country, the ones who will live and serve here, are deprived of quality education.

I do not want democracy if it helps convicted criminals and openly corrupt people to rise to the very top, while those who are capable are sidelined and disregarded.

Why should I want democracy when it does not provide justice, when someone not in a position of power is wronged? Where criminals walk free and the poor cannot fight for their rights? When laws are made to be broken, and there is no system to uphold the rule of law which treats all equally?

Of what use is democracy that is supposedly “of the people, by the people and for the people,” but where the rich get richer and the poor wallow in extreme poverty with absolutely no hope of a better tomorrow? Where middle-class people, who are the backbone of a nation, find it impossible to make ends meet? Where hard work, intelligence, honesty and dedication are not enough for someone to rise high and be in a decision-making position for the country?

I do not support democracy when top party positions are passed on like hereditary rights within the supposedly elected members. Where sycophancy and cronyism, not merit, are the criteria to succeed. Where inexperienced and inept people are made party leaders, sidelining veteran members.

Democracy is a joke if it provides absolute power to a single, supposedly elected, person to do as he will to countrymen who abhor him. This type of democracy is a deadly combination of hereditary ascension and dictatorship.

I certainly do not want democracy where parliament is only involved in internal squabbling and has neither the intention nor the capacity to solve the mammoth problems facing the country. Where those who occupy public offices are not deterred from fighting for their own perks and privileges when their contribution to the society and country is absolutely nil. Who go for joyrides all over the world, wasting public money without any qualms, with nothing to show for it.

Why does the democratic system not help us make use of our unlimited natural resources, the countless willing hands of our large population, the promise and potential of our land of plenty? Why are we perpetually dependent on the begging bowl just because we cannot get our act together, despite democracy?

Why can’t the democratic system channel the energies of the teaming millions towards nation-building, instead of their running around like headless chickens? It seems our population is deliberately not allowed to rise up from the abyss so that they remain unaware of their rights and cannot challenge the status quo.

I do not want democracy if it cannot provide health insurance to its citizens and leaves them at the mercy of unaffordable medical treatment, while those at the helm of affairs fly abroad for their own medical problems.

Come election time, will we again see poor, uneducated people voting for unworthy candidates in lieu of a tin of cooking oil and a free ride to the polling station? It is a sham when the persons whose track record is far from spotless get elected again and again. What sort of a system is it that elections cannot guarantee a genuinely popular government?

Please don’t misunderstand me. I never said I want dictatorship. Dictatorship is not, and never will be, the answer to our ills. But let’s not absolve ourselves totally. Out of the 65 years of our existence half have been spent under dictatorship but what about the other half? Dictatorship weakens does institution, but has democracy strengthened any of them? The fact is that if there is a real will to help the nation, results are bound to show. Has there ever been any one leader who stands up and takes responsibility for the mess we are in? Who doesn’t complain and blame others for all our problems and puts nation before self, not merely in rhetoric but in actual fact?

Does democracy mean that all the benefits are reserved for the top brass and all the woes for the rest of the country?

When we preach about democracy, let us have the real thing.

Is it really democracy that we have, or some mutilated, distorted form of it? Because if this is democracy then please don’t insult my intelligence by giving me sermons about upholding it. Don’t try to make me believe that our bright future depends on it, for I certainly don’t want this sort of democracy.

Call it by any other name, but not democracy.


The writer, Country Project Coordinator for a German welfare organisation, has her short stories about Pakistani people she comes across in her fieldwork are published in German newspapers

I do not want democracy - Nighat Kamal Aziz

 

[Leader]

whatever there maybe, I hope we all agree that BullDogs are no good to rule Men?



Agree?

 

[Areesh]

whatever there maybe, I hope we all agree that BullDogs are no good to rule Men?



Agree?

Bulldogs are always better than stray dogs.

 

[Leader]

Bulldogs are always better than stray dogs.

haha...good one--- still dog rule !!

this transit is a very serious phrase of democracy, especially in a country like Pakistan. let there be a transit to whom ever the Nation selects..

implied suggestions of these faceless doctor cum analysts and Islamabad (read GHQ) based columnists of bringing out of the box (read GHQ based solution) is not going to do any good to Pakistan and its evolutionary political process. the instruments like security forces prime job is always to facilitate peaceful transit of power, not to hijack the process.

Bulldogs are always better than stray dogs.

haha...good one--- still dog rule !!

this transit is a very serious phrase of democracy, especially in a country like Pakistan. let there be a transit to whom ever the Nation selects..

implied suggestions of these faceless doctor cum analysts and Islamabad (read GHQ) based columnists of bringing out of the box (read GHQ based solution) is not going to do any good to Pakistan and its evolutionary political process. the instruments like security forces prime job is always to facilitate peaceful transit of power, not to hijack the process.

Bulldogs are always better than stray dogs.

haha...good one--- still dog rule !!

this transit is a very serious phrase of democracy, especially in a country like Pakistan. let there be a transit to whom ever the Nation selects..

implied suggestions of these faceless doctor cum analysts and Islamabad (read GHQ) based columnists of bringing out of the box (read GHQ based solution) is not going to do any good to Pakistan and its evolutionary political process. the instruments like security forces prime job is always to facilitate peaceful transit of power, not to hijack the process.

 

[somebozo]

Election Khappay, Pakistan Khappay..Pakistan needs a visionary like Mushraff..Not actors like Zardari, Khan and Ganja!

 

[batmannow]

Election Khappay, Pakistan Khappay..Pakistan needs a visionary like Mushraff..Not actors like Zardari, Khan and Ganja!

but musharaf needs to decrease his dependency on USA?
or a more nationalistic approch by musharaf is needed to over come the US influence in pakistan!
anyway his time is getting over, as his age is getting over?

 

[RazorMC]

Good point in the OP; every political party consists of the same people who've been part of the problem in the first place.

When will our nation start educating themselves and open their eyes to the grim reality?