By Rabia Ahmed Pakistan Today 28 June 2011
Apparently no one is indispensable to Pakistan, not the Chief of Army Staff, nor the Director General of the ISI. What is becoming increasingly clear certainly is that this government, both federal and provincial, is dispensable. In fact, maybe the whole democratic exercise (or what passes for ‘democratic’ in these parts) should be disposed off where Pakistan is concerned.
PPP’s victory in Kashmir’s elections further proves that people are incapable of intelligent choice even when faced with evidence as glaring as the appalling performance of the PPP across the country. Government by the people (democracy) appears to have failed in Pakistan.
Alternatives to democracy in Pakistan have been restricted to martial law consisting of one witless general following another, with far from happy results. Are there more alternatives, or could something be done to make the existing system work?
In ancient Athens there were two classes of persons who vied for dominance in government, the Oligarchs (the rich, landowning class), and the Democrats (the masses). Things have not changed much in this respect.
Plato was disenchanted with democracy as a philosophy of government because he felt the masses were unable to choose the best way to arrive at a goal, much less the best goal to arrive at. Things have not changed much in this respect either, in some places.
What makes an Oligarchy a bad choice for us is not that it places government in the hands of the rich landowning class per se, but that the rich landowning classes in most places and definitely in Pakistan are a bunch of indolent, self-centred, predatory wolves, making it a poor idea to have them as rulers. The government in such hands would go, well, it would go the way it is going now. As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner’, and it is obvious that all our lambs have been devoured by our wolves who are now fighting over the entrails.
Yet if the rich landowning class were better educated in all the ways that make education truly ‘better’, well-intentioned and adept at governance, they would have everyone’s blessings to make and run a government.
As it is, they are none of the above, and offering governance to a member of the landowning class is unfair both to that person who has too many personal interests to protect, and to the governed. If in addition the lambs he governs are weak and ignorant, as they are, the gate is wide open for a staggering amount of abuse, which there is.
The reality is that we are witnessing a failure in Pakistan not of democracy, but of the wolf in lamb’s clothing (tut tut! all these mixed metaphors...), in other words we have here a failure of an oligarchy disguised as democracy, call it a ‘demogarchy’... this is what has failed.
Democracy, or the rule of the many, is also a dangerous option for a country such as Pakistan where education when available, is appalling, making ‘the many’ too ignorant to sit on any selection panel.
Our budget allocates a minute percentage of GDP to education. While I agree wholeheartedly that more funds should be allocated to education, the question remains: Is it worth being taught what is being taught, with little, none, or even more funds?
What use is it to know the capital of Tanganyika, while being ignorant of one’s own history or religion, as they are so badly taught, even re-written to suit various agendas?
What is required is a decent academic education based on egalitarian principles unlike the current ones which deepen class lines, dividing people of the same country on every front: religious, linguistic, cultural, and academic; Pakistan needs an education that stresses analysis and research in the same language for all, and equally important, a training in politics and governance
In many countries of the world, student parliaments function in schools, even at the primary level. Linked to the rest of the curriculum and following the country’s own government procedures, students elect each other to positions such as prime minister, ministers, speaker, members of parliament, secretaries, opposition members, etc. Those elected then proceed to debate, vote, submit petitions, and move motions, sticking to time, rational content and due process.
No Pakistan student, sadly, has been taught even the value of standing in line, in a queue.
Which students do you suppose would grow up to constitute a better informed citizenry, more capable of making reasoned choices: those fed a diet of distorted facts by rote, encouraged to scorn less privileged peers and trample on their rights, or those thus trained in government and democracy?
The minds and living conditions of the people of Pakistan appear presently to be beyond redemption. The next generation must be trained to higher standards. Not to give them this training implies an interest in keeping them in ignorance, which interest, given the current feudal leadership, there definitely is.
| Plato |
PPP’s victory in Kashmir’s elections further proves that people are incapable of intelligent choice even when faced with evidence as glaring as the appalling performance of the PPP across the country. Government by the people (democracy) appears to have failed in Pakistan.
Alternatives to democracy in Pakistan have been restricted to martial law consisting of one witless general following another, with far from happy results. Are there more alternatives, or could something be done to make the existing system work?
In ancient Athens there were two classes of persons who vied for dominance in government, the Oligarchs (the rich, landowning class), and the Democrats (the masses). Things have not changed much in this respect.
Plato was disenchanted with democracy as a philosophy of government because he felt the masses were unable to choose the best way to arrive at a goal, much less the best goal to arrive at. Things have not changed much in this respect either, in some places.
What makes an Oligarchy a bad choice for us is not that it places government in the hands of the rich landowning class per se, but that the rich landowning classes in most places and definitely in Pakistan are a bunch of indolent, self-centred, predatory wolves, making it a poor idea to have them as rulers. The government in such hands would go, well, it would go the way it is going now. As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner’, and it is obvious that all our lambs have been devoured by our wolves who are now fighting over the entrails.
Yet if the rich landowning class were better educated in all the ways that make education truly ‘better’, well-intentioned and adept at governance, they would have everyone’s blessings to make and run a government.
As it is, they are none of the above, and offering governance to a member of the landowning class is unfair both to that person who has too many personal interests to protect, and to the governed. If in addition the lambs he governs are weak and ignorant, as they are, the gate is wide open for a staggering amount of abuse, which there is.
The reality is that we are witnessing a failure in Pakistan not of democracy, but of the wolf in lamb’s clothing (tut tut! all these mixed metaphors...), in other words we have here a failure of an oligarchy disguised as democracy, call it a ‘demogarchy’... this is what has failed.
Democracy, or the rule of the many, is also a dangerous option for a country such as Pakistan where education when available, is appalling, making ‘the many’ too ignorant to sit on any selection panel.
Our budget allocates a minute percentage of GDP to education. While I agree wholeheartedly that more funds should be allocated to education, the question remains: Is it worth being taught what is being taught, with little, none, or even more funds?
What use is it to know the capital of Tanganyika, while being ignorant of one’s own history or religion, as they are so badly taught, even re-written to suit various agendas?
What is required is a decent academic education based on egalitarian principles unlike the current ones which deepen class lines, dividing people of the same country on every front: religious, linguistic, cultural, and academic; Pakistan needs an education that stresses analysis and research in the same language for all, and equally important, a training in politics and governance
In many countries of the world, student parliaments function in schools, even at the primary level. Linked to the rest of the curriculum and following the country’s own government procedures, students elect each other to positions such as prime minister, ministers, speaker, members of parliament, secretaries, opposition members, etc. Those elected then proceed to debate, vote, submit petitions, and move motions, sticking to time, rational content and due process.
No Pakistan student, sadly, has been taught even the value of standing in line, in a queue.
Which students do you suppose would grow up to constitute a better informed citizenry, more capable of making reasoned choices: those fed a diet of distorted facts by rote, encouraged to scorn less privileged peers and trample on their rights, or those thus trained in government and democracy?
The minds and living conditions of the people of Pakistan appear presently to be beyond redemption. The next generation must be trained to higher standards. Not to give them this training implies an interest in keeping them in ignorance, which interest, given the current feudal leadership, there definitely is.
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