Daily Times

Repeatedly, in fact, in every debate, the eventual defence of the democracy-loving civic society when confronted with the argument “What has democracy give to Pakistan till now?” the evergreen reply has been that “Democracy is an evolutionary process.” Unequivocally, even when history itself never attested to this particular hypothesis of theirs, the democracy camp continued to harp this mantra passionately and stubbornly, all the time completely sidestepping rational contentions. When it was argued that even after multiple elections, the scions of the same wealthy and powerful dynasties continue to dominate the assemblies and hence perhaps the evolution theory might even be hogwash, the infuriating response was that “If democracy had been allowed to continue, the masses would have been able to judge performance and delivered their verdict by the ever-powerful one vote.”

Unfortunately, the exact timeline for this miracle to occur has always remained cloudy, which in itself is frightening since in the current international environment, Pakistan might not have the required time for democracy to evolve into its promised state.

However, even democracy zealots should agree that in order to continue down this path, there should be undisputed substantiation that the evolution theory of democracy is not a mirage. Accordingly, it would make sense to review what exactly democracy has evolved into. I am sure everyone will agree that elections are the foundation of the democratic system, the common man armed with his all powerful vote decides who will rule him, which even sounds wrong at multiple levels, by the way. So what exactly is happening at the voting booth?

There are multiple allegations of ‘large-scale voter fraud’, which include dead people voting and stolen votes. Allegations of incidents at the voting booths in the run-up to the elections include doors being closed up to 30 minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. Candidates even question the legitimacy of the election, pressing unsubstantiated claims that the contest is rigged against them. Obviously, no evidence is ever provided to prove these allegations and claims. With delays in timely census, there are also allegations of gerrymandering, with the controlling party forcing opposing voters out of districts.

Allegation of rigging also include that the media is corrupt hence fabricating complete lies and making fake allegations against one candidate to favour the other. “They even want to try to rig the election at the polling place,” a candidate says at a rally. Or “So many cities are corrupt and voter fraud is very, very common.” In fact, there are even allegations of federal agencies corroborating to favour candidates in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. Obviously, the response is the standard “He knows he’s losing and is trying to blame that on the system. This is what losers do.” Obviously, the so-called loser is expected not to accept the results.

Lying during election campaigns has become endemic, so much so that it is impossible to distinguish whether there is any truth anywhere anymore. The Economist even asserted: “Politicians have always lied. Does it matter if they leave the truth behind entirely? …But post-truth politics is more than just an invention of whingeing elites who have been outflanked. The term picks out the heart of what is new: that truth is not falsified, or contested, but of secondary importance.” Truth is now of secondary importance in democracy?

And if lying was not enough, allegations against political opponents have crossed all limits of indecency, and this is the first time that you realise that even indecency should have limits. The allegations range from not paying taxes, donation scandals, carelessness towards confidential information, lacking abilities to hold the office, and amazingly, having good relations with the nation’s biggest enemy. In fact, being a hypocrite was perhaps the politest form of character assassination, while the worst can’t even be published in this newspaper at least. And let us not forget the promises to, well, do harm to opposing candidates when elected. In all these cases, respective candidates’ response is very well captured here by Pam and Russ Martens: “No matter how big the lie you’re caught in, no matter how much documented evidence exists against you, just deny, deny, deny.”

Bending over for corporation and businesses and being swayed by lobbyists is one aspect that each candidate diplomatically avoids discussing in campaigns, probably because each is equally part of the equation. Irrespective, the masses are well aware of what goes on in the corridors of power, and how money is the sole criterion for merit, but can seemingly do nothing about it. Corruption, in one form or the other, is at best talked about but largely left unshackled.

And where do candidates stand on issues, notwithstanding each and every candidate’s view that the opposing candidates are unable to comprehend the issues facing the nation and hence ill-suited to do anything about them. Well, national debt is spiralling, economic growth is not at the desired level, the nation is getting divided on ethnicity and race, war seems to have become a way of life with less and less global recognition, and Treasury bill and bonds are the preferred avenues for balancing the fiscal account with taxing the rich perhaps being a bridge too far. Sadly, the masses remain equally ignorant of the real issues and, therefore, are deluded into polarised debates on irrelevant arguments, which rather amazingly include building a wall all across the border and impose trade restrictions on China, the nation’s biggest trading partner.

Dear reader, I just realised that I could go on and on and the truth will not be evident. The entire fact sheet above relates not to Pakistan but to the American election campaign 2016. Apparently, after more than 200 years, the world’s oldest democracy has evolved to where we probably already are; I suppose what is left is for their losing candidate to lock down Washington.

Hopefully, now once and for all, the evolution theory of democracy can be laid to rest, side by side with the monkey theory of evolution. This is as best as it get in a democracy, and so until someone invents another system of governance, lay back and enjoy.

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