Senator Mohammad Yaqoob Khan says ‘Poor are born to serve the rich’ (May 27, 2016). His remarks may sound offensive but they reflect a pervasive mindset not only at home but also in `civilised’ countries like USA. A British imam and sheikhs in Arab world believe that slavery was banned by Abraham Lincoln, not by Islam. My personal view, albeit false, is that what Lincoln did is apparently tenable under Islam concept of maslaha mursala (broader public interest).
A bitter truth is that inequality has remained a feature of most societal studies by political philosophers like Aristotle, Tacitus, Moska, Michel, Marx, Pareto and C Wright Mill. What a pity that demokratia(power of the people) could never equalise citizens. James Maddison’s idea of having a bicameral legislature to balance brute power of proletariat against bourgeoisie or filth rich did not bear fruit. Look at performance of our National Assembly versus Senate, lok sabha versus rajya sabha, House of Commonsversus House of Lords, so on.
Nevertheless, all democracies envisioned `opportunities for political participation to larger proportions of the population’, and across-the-board accountability (no loan write-offs, plots for only Grade 22, sugar and flour mill permits, stratified educational ann medicare system, and what not). Democracy is a progressive effort to equalise citizens before law, rather than legalising elites and mafias. It is unfortunate that a senator regards inequality as an unchangeable status quo.
William A. Welsh says, `The rise of democracy has signaled the decline of elites’ Leaders and Elites, p.1) But, a bitter lesson of history is that demokratia (power of the people) had always been an ideal, never a reality. History reminds no system, not even ochlocracy (mobocracy) could ever bulldoze governing elites. Delhi Sultanate, the Moghul, and the Englishman ruled through hand-picked elites. The `equal citizen’ as enshrined in golden words of our constitution remained a myth. Even American democracy is run by a handful of specialised people. The majority of the population is a silent spectator, a `bewildered herd’ (Chomsky).
Amjed Jaaved
Rawalpindi
