Democracy on crutches

CJ has a point

Maybe politicians will pay heed to Chief Justice Jamali’s advice, and stop bringing their dirty linen to the Supreme Court. There was nothing really in the matter of the Sindh government’s appeal against the Sindh High Court judgment – PPP and MQM squabbling over electing mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice-chairman of councils through show of hands – which the two parties could not settle in private, as the CJ rightly noted. Such actions only betray our political elite’s disregard for the finer democratic norms. And they play no small part in retarding the growth of true representative government.

CJ Jamali is also spot-on that our system of government is ‘crippled’ and is being run with the help of ‘crutches’. The fuss about filling local body election seats, for example, is a story in itself; especially because the elections were hardly an exercise in strengthening grass-root democracy. The positions of chairman, vice chairman, etc, which have created this latest friction, are hollow and without much decision-making or fund-dispersing authority. And, of course, no debate about any type of elections is complete without pointing out the government’s inability to conduct the census. Elections lose transparency, and therefore legitimacy, without the census.

Yet, flawed as the system is, it is important to preserve it. It is now up to the politicians, of course, to chart out a way that minimises confrontation and maximises cooperation between parties. Our democratic leaders love to ‘save democracy’ whenever their personal positions are threatened, but hardly budge when interests of the people are at stake. If these old habits don’t change, they will see the people leverage the democracy they ‘saved’ to vote in new leaders for themselves. And for once, our dear leaders will not be able to play the ‘democracy in danger’ card. Instead, they should take the CJ’s advice and shape up before they are made to ship out.