Futile tilt at the windmills
A dreadfully daunting task, contesting an election. Many have been humbled at this altar. Captains of industry and commerce, retired generals, exceptional professionals, star civil servants, all of them have been surrounded by sycophants who have told them one simple yet alluring lie: the people love you. Off to the polls, then, and the mightiest of the mighty have had their security deposits confiscated by the election commission for lack of the minimum number of votes.
It is a Herculean task, requiring an immense amount of patience, a skin thicker than would put a rhinoceros to shame and apt judgments on countless of constituency rivalries and dynamics.
Despite the infusion of money into the whole process, it is still not possible (yet) to simply buy one’s way into a chamber of legislature or elected executive office. Many might have splurged successfully to this end but they would have had also had to go through the tortuously difficult motions of an election campaign as well.
Be that as it may, however, though money cannot guarantee a candidate a success, not having any can also almost surely guarantee failure. The minimum required campaign war chest might vary from constituency to constituency but it has become, all around, a rather expensive proposition. Yes, there is middle-class representation in the houses from all provinces, but they have made it there despite our political culture, not because of it.
One wonders whether the recent press conference of six progressive political parties that asked for election and land reforms only stated the problem and did not really proceed in providing workable solutions. What exactly does one mean, in 2011, by land reforms? And if the Americans can find ways around campaign finance restrictions, then so can we, under the very valid assumption that anything that an American can do, a Pakistani can do better.
The uninterrupted evolution of the democratic exercise in the country will serve to strengthen, as institutions, our political parties and create within them the need to have professional and intellectual members. This will also happen within constituencies, which will feel their case at the federal and provincial levels will be best represented by bright sparks who are not necessarily landed or moneyed.
Till then, any proposed election reform would either be a bad, unenforceable law or one that would restrict the freedom of the democratic process itself.