Daily Times

The idiom ‘sitting on the fence’ refers to a state of indecisiveness between two choices and the resultant procrastination, in simple terms meaning to delay a decision when having to choose between two sides in an argument. Unfortunately, there is no comparable idiom that adequately illustrates the current state of the common man in Pakistan: glued to the fence and unable to exercise choice. Rehashing the Bard, with due apology, “A horse, a horse, my democracy for a horse.”

The pro-democracy camp, fuming over this affront to their sacred cow, will immediately respond by rambling on with their standard boring monologue about how democracy liberates the common man and how freedom of speech is the forebearer of all good things in life. The speech will somewhere in between touch upon how democracy’s evolution has repeatedly been scuttled in Pakistan. Let us not forget the standard proviso that literacy is a precondition for democracy to work. In the end, there will be the usual promises that after four or five elections democracy will have weeded out the non-performers and undesirables, through the all powerful never appreciated one vote, and the country will be on the path to eternal prosperity.

Seriously? It will take more than 20 years for all that to happen? Most of this generation will be dead by then and, all jokes aside, in this currently volatile world, does the nation really have 20 years to sit and wait for democracy to do its magic? Most importantly, history does not support the assertion that in time democracy evolves into something terrific for the masses.

Let us take everyone’s favourite example: the good old largest democracy next door, India. Based on whatever data is available on the net, in around 1957, 65 percent (roughly 215 million) of Indians lived below the poverty line. Even after lowering the poverty line repeatedly for the past few years, the world’s largest democracy for the last 68 years admits to having more poor than at the time of independence. The why and how of time and again overhauling the definition of who is poor by the rich is rather scandalous, especially considering the fact that while collecting taxes the definition of rich is kept utterly elusive. Notwithstanding, independent analysis places the population of the poor at around 60 percent in India.

One of the world’s oldest democracies fares no better; remember the Occupy Wall Street movement and the never-ending debate on income inequality? A recent tweet claimed that anyone having no debt and $ 10 in his pocket is wealthier than 25 percent of US citizens.

History also does not support the weeding out theory of democracy. Evidently, in the case of developing nations, anyone who can hold on to power for two terms is impossible to dislodge. Apparently, once settled in, it is more than impossible to get rid of a democratically elected ruler in the Muslim world.

Before being branded by the journalist community as well as civil society as a traitor, a clarification: this is not a white paper on democracy; that will come on some later date. To borrow from recent parliamentary debate, in spite of everything, support for democracy is steadfast, mostly in this case because sitting on the fence there is not much else that can be done about it. So, what exactly is the view from the fence?

Floods have once again caused havoc across the country and the poor as always are in the front line. While the government’s post-flood efforts are commendable, as a layman the first question that comes to mind is whether or not this devastation can be prevented. Floods have grievously become a regular feature so this time around the government might consider strengthening the barriers to withstand the higher flow of water, rather than these barriers being washed away every time. Statistics cannot even begin to describe the pain of a single poor person devastated by the floods.

In the meanwhile, the twin dharnas (sit-ins), against all odds, continue. Boundaries have been drawn and alliances made. All sides blame everyone else for failed negotiations and accusations are flying all over the place. Parliament’s unflinching and praiseworthy support for the system is indeed groundbreaking but those on the fence cannot help wondering whether sweeping everything under the carpet to save democracy is actually what democracy is all about. This current political conflict has polarised the entire nation to a point never seen before; even on the fence common men are sitting at extreme corners.

The government’s most recent estimates peg economic losses due to the dharnas at one trillion rupees. This is a whopping five percent of the GDP, which could mean negative growth for the current fiscal year for the first time in decades. China, one of the few nations Pakistan counts as a friend, has deemed the situation unconducive for their presidential visit and, frankly, after the conspiracy floating around regarding the nature of their projected funding, whether debt or investment, the Chinese may well be concerned about the future course of action. Obviously, the economic loss will have to be borne by the common man who, all this while, has been sitting on the fence praying for some kind of miracle.

Remarkably, the war in North Waziristan is on the back burner as far as the camera’s eye is concerned. In any other nation, a domestic war will always hog the headlines. Imagine how bad things are as a whole when Zarb-e-Azb can only get sporadic news coverage and that too as a formality.

There is a sudden realisation that the view from the fence is quite bleak and the list is not even halfway through. There is inflation, load shedding, unemployment, a depreciating rupee, deteriorating health and education infrastructure and then some. Beyond the domestic front, there are a host of international conspiracies that, apparently, as analysts keep pointing out, can have seriously adverse implications for Pakistan. To be honest, some of these even challenge an imaginative mind. Perhaps it is just better to jump from the fence and bury one’s head in the sand.

The democracy camp should realise that those sitting on the fence are past the point of caring. It is about time that the former get their act together and focus on solving issues so that the latter may continue to sit peacefully on the fence, and enjoy the view.

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant.