Daily Times

Decades ago, Winston Churchill uttered these words, which have since become the mantra for those who stand to gain from the democratic system, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

And any time democracy falters, these rusted words start jumping around all across the troposphere and considering that our pillars of governance need to repeatedly quote these very words in Pakistan off late, it can be concluded that our democracy may not be in great shape as well.

The problem with this kind of narrative is that everybody gets brainwashed — much to the delight of the beneficiaries of democracy who definitely are not from the people — into believing that there can be no system that can perhaps deliver what democracy cannot: good governance. In Pakistan, most probably the fear of a military dictatorship is the catalyst for this closed minded stubbornness but the fact that the rest of the democratic world can also not see the writing on the wall is mindboggling. Admittedly, military dictatorship is no solution but the only hope for the 99 percent does not seem to be with democracy.

Apparently, Mr Churchill’s admittance that democracy is the worst form of government had to do with accountability. People vote in their rulers who can pretty much do what they want to do without fear of any repercussions for the disasters they might lead their country into; something which was also discussed in this column a couple of weeks ago; if bad decisions are never punished there will be no incentive for the rulers to take good decisions. Even if the voters establish early on that they have made a booboo, all they can do is wait for the next election and even then it is remarkably naïve to believe that the populace will have the wherewithal and wisdom to vote sensibly the next time. The poor will always be looking to sell their vote and the illiterate will either vote for someone they can relate to or will be dictated by fear. And these very representatives the people vote into power are responsible for making laws, which will govern the future of the nation. When you think about it in this manner, corruption becomes a secondary issue. Since the people cannot be blamed, the blame rests entirely with the system.

I, for one, do not subscribe to the much-touted concept of a sham democracy simply because a system which allows itself to be shammed is ab initio a sham. Modern history proves that genuine democracy is one where the rich and the powerful can snatch leadership and cling on to it; the system allows for that to happen, so it is genuine.

In Egypt, a military dictator removed a democratically elected government and was rewarded by democracy to become the next democratically elected President of Egypt. Once a stable economy, the country has been delivered into the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who forced the government to float the currency and is pursuing cuts in food subsidiaries; so how do both these steps help the poor who elected the President. On the other hand, Egypt’s courts have quashed the death sentence and ordered a retrial of the deposed President; and what if he is acquitted?

Did you know that the 92-year-old Robert Mugabe, whom the West refers to as a dictator, is the elected president of Zimbabwe and got 61 percent of the votes in 2013? He has ruined his currency to the extent that his people cannot even withdraw their own money from their bank accounts and they still vote for him. The Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who has declared a state of economic emergency allowing him to rule by decree was also elected in 2013; in Venezuela, the people now have to stand in line to get basic necessities. In the case of Turkey, the President who was once a darling of the west and is now deemed a dictator by them has been ruling since 2003 and if all goes according to the plan will be the elected ruler of Turkey till 2029. He continues to purge the opposition as well as unfriendly journalists and has kerbed social media ruthlessly. In South Africa, the elected government of Mr Jacob Zuma is battling with the judiciary to cover up corruption scandals. There is also Argentina, Brexit, and a host of other countries who enjoy democracy and can be elaborated upon, but I skip them all and get to the key examples.

And for all its worth, Russian has an elected President. According to Google, “Having extended the presidential term of office from four to six years, Putin would remain in charge until 2018 — or 2024 if he won a second term. By then, Putin would have chalked up 24 years in power out of the 33 years since the collapse of Communism thanks to his previous terms as president and prime minister”.

I, for one, remain confident that he will be elected for a second term and continue with the amazing things he has done for his people.

Now let us move to the world’s largest democracy, which ended up electing a man with a massacre on his hands — who was denied visa by the world’s only superpower, which now wants to cuddle with him again — democracy is amazing beyond words. Mr Modi remains hell bent on once again proving the dictum “Two democracies have never gone to war” absolutely wrong; again, because they have, Google it. And personally, his economic policies are nothing to write home about as well.

Finally, we move to the world’s oldest democracy. I suppose there is no need to discuss this one at all, just follow the American press. It is because of these amazing democratically elected leaders that the world is in a total mess, and the party has just started. Arguably, the only ray of hope for pursuing global stability is coming from a leader who is not democratically elected!

Dear readers, if you thought that I would give Pakistan’s example for proving that there is no such thing as a genuine democracy, you were wrong. Compared to all of the above, and a lot many which could not be discussed due to the brevity of space, we seem to be in democratic nirvana.

“Democracy is the worst system: Period.”

Perhaps we can now move towards discussing and conceiving a new system.

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