Daily Times

A general objection, raised on the democracy in our country, is that the opinion of an erudite person and ignorant are considered the same. It is logically a wrong statement. Another objection is that in democracy, people are counted instead of standardising their moral values and intellectual abilities. Against the first objection, a simple question arises that in a country where literacy rate is less than 100 per cent, what can democracy do or what role can it play? In reply to the second question, the base of democracy lies merely on an individual’s opinion. The opinion of the majority comes from a gathered system that establishes democracy in a country. Now, the question arises that if democracy is the worst form of government, which system respects the opinion of individuals and transfer sovereignty to the hands of people, keeping in view the respect of every citizen?

The contemporary form of government is not the actual shape of democracy in our society but, in fact, a dummy. The question that arises is did we take the pain of educating our public before granting them the right of opinion and vote? In our country, only 1.5 per cent of the total GDP is spent on education and the rest is specified for security purpose or sent into the accounts of corrupt politicians. There is no doubt in stating the opinions of literate and illiterate cannot be of the same weight in the country where only 28 per cent of the people are literate and the rest have a low literacy rate. In a country where 100 per cent people are literate, how could these objections be raised there?

It is worth mentioning democracy is a system of learned and conscious people but in the place where ignorance and unethicalness persist at the national level, democracy takes the form of severe corruption. Having criticised the democracy, we keep on saying the opinion of a scholar and an illiterate person cannot be the same but this basic issue has not been given importance. Why have we not yet tried to fill the gap between ignorant and learned men? Our thinking and theoretical limits have come to an end. The irony is we have declared our limited intellectual capacity a “scholarly sense” and start criticism on the international and solid political system of social values. Our study is very limited and incomprehensive. Neither our thoughts nor moral values are replete with vastness and contemporaneity. In fact, we have not yet come out of the slavery that has been inculcated in our minds in the form of culture and civilisation of foreign people. It reflects upon our thinking. In fact, we are stuck on (imitation) whereas observations of Iqbal were based in the future and the vastness of vision.

From the beginning, the main problem of our society has been “corruption.”

The contemporary form of government is not the actual shape of democracy in our society but, in fact, a dummy

We have restricted this English term to economics only whereas the meaning of corruption has a broader sense. Corruption is an unprincipled attitude in every aspect of life whether it refers to an individual or a group of people in society. This unprincipled attitude destroys the moral values of human societies, to a complete degree. Hence, at first, we are corrupt with ourselves, then with family, similarly with our country and then with the entire world.

It is a reality that people are counted in democracy but every citizen of a democratic state possesses a high level of consciousness. A society where education is regarded as the basic necessity of every member, in which there is no unethical discrimination of literate and illiterate, passes sovereignty to the majority of the opinion. Democracy is not the numbering of the existence of individuals but the name of the superiority of consciousness in mankind.

Thus, democracy is the name of the superiority of consciousness. There is no doubt that every human in this universe is unique and so is his opinion. Therefore, no particular group has a right to own the educational system whereas every citizen of the state has the basic right to education. This proves that education is essentially required before democracy. Democracy is, in fact, the production of fresh consciousness, which is present in the shape of opinion in every citizen of the state. Any citizen of a state, whether he is blessed with the highest moral values, does not have the right to establish his government, impose his will over the people without their consent, or constitute whatever principles he likes. Sovereignty is the common right of human society, and these political values are obtained through consciousness. Consciousness develops sensitivity in humans and brings them closer to each other. A person who gains the light of consciousness eschews from all sort of corruptive attitudes because he becomes aware of the fact that the activity, which brings pain to him, would also be painful for others. Therefore, education is mandatory so that a human could gain consciousness and find the reality of humanity. Democracy is a conscious system of government, which cannot be understood by either illiterates or numbskulls. They cannot reach to the depth of its reality. This collective system is not the property of an individual but the right of every person having consciousness, who is elected by other conscious people through individual policy and planning. In a purely democratic system, human consciousness keeps a basic place, and the difference in opinion is faced with respect. The opinion of the man is considered flawed only when he is devoid of the light of consciousness. After obtaining consciousness, to what extent is the negativity of a person’s opinion felt, it would be deserving of judgment and reasonability.

The writer is a psychologist and a polymath