Daily Times

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the 35th President of Brazil. He served from 2003 to 2011. Lula was one of the most popular politicians in the history of Brazil. In 2010, he was featured in the Time‘s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” and was called “The Most Successful Politician of his Time” by Perry Andersen.

On July 12, 2017, the former president was convicted on money-laundering and corruption charges, including accepting a luxury apartment as a bribe from a construction company. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison.

On the issuance of warrants of arrest, he turned himself in and began serving his sentence on April 7, 2018. According to Brazilian law, anyone who is convicted and loses a first appeal, as in Lula’s case, has to conduct further appeals from the prison cell. He remains popular. According to recent polls, he could potentially score more than twice his nearest rivals.

Park Geun-hye was the 11th President of South Korea from 2013 to 2017. She was the first woman to be elected as President of the country. Prior to that, she was a member of the National Assembly serving four consecutive parliamentary terms between 1998 and 2012.

In 2013, Park was ranked 11th on the Forbes list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women“ and the “Most Powerful Woman in East Asia”. She was also ranked 46th on the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful people.

The instance of Lula and Park, extremely popular and powerful leaders in their time, bowing before the adjudications of their respective courts, should be a model for the erring leaders of this country to follow because that’s the only way democracy would be strengthened in Pakistan — through a process of uninterrupted and uninterruptible accountability. No one is above the law, and no one should be. And, penitence has no time bar!

On December 9, 2016, Park was impeached by the National Assembly on charges relating to influence-peddling by one of her top aides. Her presidential powers and duties were suspended with the ratification of the impeachment. The impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court of South Korea, thereby removing her from office.

Park was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison. She is currently serving her time.

There are countless other examples where top and popular leaders of the world have either quit voluntarily, or they have been removed from office on the slightest infringement of power, or the tinniest hint of corruption by them, or their associates. This is the most enduring foundation on which the edifice of democracy stands throughout the world. Everyone subscribes to this enshrining principle, and bows before it.

Now match that against the nerve-shattering noise that is being orchestrated in Pakistan on the removal of a prime minister who is implicated in grave cases of corruption, influence-peddling, blatant lying, forgery, and money-laundering. He and his cronies are abusing every institution for acting on behalf of some unseen powers. The judgment of his removal is being equated with an assault on democracy and an attempt to pave the way for the military’s take-over.

Contrary to the rules guiding democracy in the rest of the world, the ones in Pakistan are built around the over-lording dictum that you cannot be in politics here if you are not corrupt, or you cannot be honest if you are in politics. It is as if politics and corruption have become intrinsically intertwined in the short history of democracy in the country and everybody who is anybody in the political arena carries the stigma.

There is another disturbing feature that separates Pakistan’s democracy from the rest. There is a sickening excess of self-righteousness in its strands. The one who ascends the seat of power is somehow rendered invincible and beyond the prospect of committing any wrong, thus reproach and accountability. He is, as if, created in the image of God Himself, carrying forth the virtues of omniscience and omnipotence.

He is the lord almighty who is to be obeyed and held on the pedestal by the plebeians — the common and the nameless millions who are constantly struggling for two measly morsels in a day, and a roof that could hide their shame.

They end up in ramshackle abodes, which are leakier than the democracy that comes riding the crest of countless promises including, but not limited to, securing them respectable occupations and shelters irrespective of their beliefs, or any other discriminatory features.

Before the elections, it does not matter who you are because it is your vote which is to be secured. The more downtrodden you are, the more importance you may seem to be getting. But, after the elections, your continued relevance is dictated by what further benefit you can bring to the advancement of the interests of the ones who sit in the chambers of power.

Currently, the state is under a vicious assault waged by people representing the forces of the corrupt status-quo to further perpetuate the syndrome of the few exploiting the rest. Their crafty stranglehold, dating back to decades, does not appear to be waning as they move from employing one guileful trick to the next, from coining one crafty slogan to the other, to dig in further. They know that if they are ousted now, there would not only be no coming back, they would also have to pay for their myriad crimes and transgressions.

It is a different matter that, in the current environment of enhanced awareness which is being continuously expanded and strengthened through use of modern information tools, their chances for survival may have receded a bit. The fact that the former prime minister is able to gather a few thousand people at his public meetings to vent his venom is no measure of his popularity. With the federal and provincial government of Punjab, where most of these meetings are convened, still under their control, the thana-patrawi combine musters sufficient criminal nuisance to gather this kind of crowd every time a call goes out. And don’t overlook the might of money when there are billions circulating for the asking.

The fact that the ‘Quaid’ of PML-N has called upon the de-jure prime minister for suspending the accountability law through an ordinance covering the period of the caretaker government not only reflects the fears that he may be nurturing from the forthcoming executive which may not be under his control, it is also utterly undemocratic in essence. Democracies don’t function as if beholden to the interests of a single individual. Democracies also don’t function in a vacuum catering to the whims of the beneficiary ruling elite.

The instance of Lula and Park, extremely popular and powerful leaders in their time, bowing before the adjudications of their respective courts, should be a model for the erring leaders of this country to follow because that’s the only way democracy would be strengthened in Pakistan — through a process of uninterrupted and uninterruptible accountability. No one is above the law, and no one should be. And, penitence has no time bar!

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan

Published in Daily Times, April 10^th 2018.