Democracy is useful only if it improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people
*Warna logon ney democracy ko ley k chatna hai kya..
*Pakistan Observer - Latest News, Pakistan News, and World News
Gilani has made Machiavelli- prince of modern politics- proud for tabling a resolution for strengthening democracy in Pakistan. He has succeeded in crying wolf to squeeze promise for a vote on the resolution on Monday. Gilani’s government deserves credit for covering up their governance failures of the last four years by blaming dictators. The military has supported democracy and its institutions all along. However, Gilani has no option but to blame the armed forces to distract the public from real issues of governance and corruption and support America’s geo-strategic interests in the region including the drama of so-called war against terrorism. In all probability, the anti-democracy forces ploy has failed once again because the wolf of armed forces has not turned up at his government’s door and the PPP is now expectantly looking at the judiciary to “immortalize” him and his president as face saving excuses for the PPP in the senate and general elections.
The resolution will destroy democracy. It is a misperception that the resolution is benign and it is going to strengthen democracy. If the resolution passes on Monday, it is going to derail democracy, undermine the trichotomy of power and demolish judiciary. Gilani bluffed the house by saying that he has not come to seek its support on NRO, save his government or become a ‘political martyr’. In politics, it is very important to keep an eye on what is not said and what is being rejected. Gilani has rejected the observations that the resolution has been moved to protect the president and the PM from the law of the land, and it is against state institutions. It is a spin to sell the resolution as benign but the opposition leader Ch. Nisar has exposed the conspiracy hidden in the resolution against state institutions. He said, “This resolution has no justification as there is no threat to democracy. We will not support this resolution which has been tabled to cover up the failure of the government during the last four years”.
It is now the parliament’s duty to bring the truth before the nation on Monday. Gilani has conjured up the coup drama to cover the corrupt government and individuals. Therefore, the parliament instead of proceeding with the resolution drama, should tell Gilani to bring proof of coup against his government by the anti-democratic forces including armed forces. Everyone will agree that he cannot prove his baseless allegations because he had staged the whole resolution drama to avoid accountability under the rule of law, protect the party at the cost of national interest and his oath to office.
He is seeking to bring judiciary under the parliament permanently. Like Rasputin, Gilani conjured fear into the hearts of corrupt parliamentarians to vote for supremacy of the parliament or be ready to go to prison at the hands of the independent judiciary. The timing of activation of NAB has more to do with scaring the parliamentarians to fall in line with the anti-judiciary resolution than upholding Supreme Court’s orders on the implementation of NRO implementation judgment. The government would have implemented the judgment in 2009 if it was serious about respecting the judiciary and empowering democratic institutions to strengthen democracy. The activation of NAB at this stage is insignificant and at best a cosmetic step to bluff the judiciary and the nation.
**Democracy is nothing if the government is not asserting moral standards. The Gilani government has lost moral credibility, and in turn it has eroded the faith of ordinary people in democracy. The public therefore is not interested in Monday’s resolution because it smells of hypocrisy. The public believes that the government is using the resolution to protect its corrupt leadership and cover up its failed policies of the last four years. PPP may refute its failures but it cannot undo the general perception. The political parties of Britain have been undermining morality in politics for decades but they have protected the quality of life of ordinary people to some extent. The novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch advocates the value of goodness in decision making in her book ‘The Sovereignty of Good’ because it affects all of us. Harvard professor Howard Gardiner champions truth, beauty and goodness as necessary foundations for government to benefit society in the 21st century. Morality is a persistent theme of Pakistan’s Constitution. Unless our politicians clean up politics with a strong lead from the top and lead by example, it is hard to restore the trust of people in democracy.
Gilani should have called for fresh elections instead of the resolution.** The Friday session of the assembly was an excellent opportunity for the government to call general elections in February. It would have taken the fizz out of the opposition and the media, kept the lid on Gilani-British High Commissioner’s phonegate scandal, and the public would have gotten on with the general elections. The new assembly would have elected its own senate and president, and it would have cleaned national politics from anti-state, dual nationality holders and pro-west elements.
It would have allowed PPP government to strengthen democracy and go back to the voters with some pride. Now, the resolution will further expose PPP and destroy whatever little moral credibility it is left with. It could permanently destroy the top PPP political leadership and weaken its national standing. The removal of the president and the prime minister’s names from the resolution was an admission of defeat by the government. The numerical superiority in the parliament may get PPP a resolution and the irreparable damage to the standing of Gilani and Zardari is not lost to the judiciary and the establishment. The opposition’s resolution to avoid clash of institutions has shamed Machiavelli. Media has already dubbed government’s resolution a fig leaf to cover its incompetence, failures, corruption and lack of interest. The opposition could have demanded a review of the Secretary Defense’s dismissal to restore the faith of the executive in the rule of law. It is good that Gilani defended adherence to rules of business.
It would be interesting to see how secretaries of cabinet, establishment, finance, law and their ministers will face the litmus test established in Secretary Defense’s case. Under the freedom of information act (FoIA), the public has the right to scrutinize orders of the president and PM secretariats of the last four years. As per the ESTA Code, the losses incurred to the national exchequer due to the orders of those paid from tax money must be recouped from salaries, pensions, sales of personal property of all those involved in unlawful practices in addition to punishments to bring an end to the culture of illegal orders by politicians and unlawful executions by the government servants.
The British High commissioner must share reasons of his unwarranted statement in the media on supporting democracy in Pakistan. The foreign office should also take notice of the statement and issue a clarification to the media. As in the UK, the people of Pakistan are also concerned about the status of democracy and human rights in Britain due to reports of its government’s alleged involvement in rendition flights (Minster’s role in Libyan renditions must not be kept secret, Jan. 13, the Guardian), torture, illegal regime change in Libya and the death of 50,000 civilians in NATO attacks in Libya. The public wishes to know the position of London on undermining of democracy in the US due to reports of establishment of military courts, handing of British citizens to US, and Obama’s authorization of extraordinary powers to the military to detain US citizens without trial (The NDAA’s historic assault on American liberty, Jan.2, the Guardian). There have to be uniform standards for supporting democracy.
