Vote for Corruption is not democracy-a
By Qaisar Sultan
I have been searching for the answers to the present chaos and corruption in the government, military and judiciary for last three years; somehow we have learnt to live or be complacent with what has been choking and destroying the state. The fact is that the ordinary people do not really get involved as they have too many problems of their own. But what is incredibly uncharacteristic of the precise nature of democracy is the facts that our people vote for bad and corrupt leaders- once elected the elected politicians do not serve the interests of those who elected them. Some may argue that voters are under duress or under some kind of threat to vote for a party or a person; and the leaders they vote for belong to the feudal class who own land and businesses where the voters make their living from. Where there seems to be some truth in this view, there happens to be more than feudal reality of Pakistan- The political equity does not exist in the country. We rightfully argue why we do not have sincere, honest and competent leadership. The idea of the leadership is in the eye of the beholder. There is supposed to be a conscious awareness in the public and their set of values and choices are based on their free will. That idea of free will of people was totally fictional in the social contract that was understood by the rich landowners, military generals, religious politicians and anyone with ten cows (This a reference to Tutsi’s phenomenon where the Belgium declared anyone with ten cows a Tutsi). Right from the start, even before the formation of the country, Pakistani culture was not based on the association on economic concern of the masses; it was traditionally one way street. We can say that it was a political arrangement based on master and slave culture; those were the ways of this part of the sub-continent. The vast majority was not educated and was extremely poor; that allowed the structural basis of a typical tenth century European style aristocracy and feudal set up. Years of practice and acceptance of an unfair society developed a system where they do not seem to have any capacity for a sense of justice and conception of good (Rawl’s mature theory of justice). Off course, the obvious thing for an individual to do is to look out for his welfare and the end that he seeks in his life. But in Slave and Master Culture the loyalties are so lopsided that we wonder why those people would do and support that is not in their best interests.Read More »Vote for Corruption is not democracy-a
