Controversy over the style of government
From so many days there have been going a lot of heated debates in different circles about change in governmental systems from parliamentary to presidential. It’s mean that efforts are being made to bring this form of government again to life and test this system because the previous system is failed to deliver. The problem in Pakistan is all types of governmental systems have been tested and yet failed one by one to satisfy the nation as a whole. From Governor General to Presidential system, from military dictatorship to parliamentary democracy, we gone through and experienced but didn’t get any fruitful results that could solve the nation’s problem.
There are more than 200 countries in the world and each one had its own rules, policies, laws, regulations, and system of government, yet we can classify all in the shape of five different models: Democracy, Kingship, Dictatorship, One Party System and Hybrid Democracy. The system we bitter criticize all day while sitting in a room, walking on a road, busy or in our leisure time is also a system of government of Norway, Denmark, Finland, Canada, UK: Democracy, Our Ummah brothers in the Middle East had Kingship in practice. Military dictatorship nowadays is hard to find but still, its customers can be found in Thailand, Myanmar, Egypt, and many African countries. When talking about a one-party system a lovely image reminds us of our favorite China. Now to discuss hybrid democracy, its examples are a bit difficult to find.
Let me clear you about this: Hybrid democracy means ‘aadha tetar, aadha batair” that is to say it’s a system with democratic institutions, a working parliament with elections being held regularly but all without one thing i.e absence of democratic norms. Now it’s easy for you to identify those countries and I am sure one of the names directly comes to your mind is one of your favorite countries. Like always we are neither on one side nor another. We demand a welfare state like Norway, a leader like Tayyip Erdogan, An economic model of China, for liberty and freedom we look towards the USA for an example, we love Thailand for making vacations, A terrain like Switzerland, strong and stable bureaucracy like Singapore. We feel that by following Chinese steps of hanging the corrupt officials, introduce a bureaucratic structure on Singaporian steps, adopt trans-democratic model of the Turkish government and take a ‘baith’ on the hands of Mahathir Muhammad will be a solution to all our ills.
China is a communist country, where the communist party runs the government. 8.5 crore people are its members. These members are not directly elected, people apply for registration and then the party decides who to allow in and who to reject. Hence in this way, a large proportion of its population remains out of the race even in the first round of political participation in country affairs. This method is called a democratic practice in China but the rest of the globe thinks otherwise and considers it something else i.e not letting its people fully participate in the country’s political life hence impeding them to come forward and have their voice and say in national political affairs. On our side, the upper class of the country has their opinion about common man that they don’t have the necessary knowledge to stand for their rights and demand them and also to help the state in policymaking. They think that first there should be education to spread awareness (enlighten) the society and then there will be perks and privileges after that. But they don’t know that mere providing food to the people isn’t the key to solve the country crises but other freedoms are also necessary. They think that people are only confined to bread(daal or rooti) and nothing to suggest government on matters of policymaking and better governance, so better to leave them where they are and hence don’t keep an ear on any voice they raise in place of their demands. In views of such people, the need for bread should be met by the government for these masses and the rest of the facilities, rights, etc. would be provided when they show enlightened behavior. This enlightened behavior would be the result of common education. As far as they don’t get educated, (I’m getting philosopher)they don’t have the right to demand more and more from the government and must only confine to their ‘daal roti’.
Unfortunately, we are unaware of the fact that mere providing food and shelter is not enough but other constitutional rights such as freedom of expression, speech, associations, etc would end the vicious cycle of ongoing nation-wide confusion about the system of government. In my opinion, the governmental system whatever may be but it should guarantee constitutional and secure basic rights of its people.
