The Facade of Democracy

Democracy has been considered the best system of governance, and no doubt it has delivered quite well. However, it has recently been observed that democracy has been eroded and many countries claim democracy is worse than dictatorship as such evils as corruption, nepotism, injustice, and violation of human rights are more common in so-called democratic countries.

India is the textbook example, which has exceeded all records of human rights violations. Discrimination, injustice, and corruption have become normal routines in today's India. The state is promoting violence against minorities and lower-caste Hindus. Instead of protection, minorities and lower castes are deprived of equal citizen rights. Police, security forces, and the judiciary are biassed and working on the RSS agenda – transforming India into a “pure Hindu State” where only elite Brahmans enjoy the right to rule.

The US is also not much different in the case of gross human rights violations, discrimination, and injustice. The civil unrest, the Capitol Hill incident, Black Lives Matter movement, racist policies against the yellow race, Muslims, etc., all are examples of the worst form of democracy.

In many cases, the Western-style democracy is earned with money, irrespective of black money or hard-earned money and the elections are manipulated and even a person like Donald Trump can be elected as the US president. In many European countries, so many politicians are elected because of influential wealthy backgrounds, in place of their qualifications or intellect.

In developing countries, abnormalities are even more common and the true form of democracy is desperately missing. Even the US is playing double standards in the name of democracy. The US removed Iranian legitimate democratically elected Prime Minister Musaddaq in the 1950s. They also removed the legitimate elected President Adil Morsey in Egypt. However, the US supports dictators in oil-rich Gulf states and in other parts of the world and tends to install puppets like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan. This may be referred to as the American style of democracy, which is neither acceptable by their own people nor by the rest of the world. We should condemn the bogus democracies and installed puppet democracies.

In the given scenario, holding Democracy Summit on December 9-10, 2021, is a great idea and must be appreciated. However, the hypocrisy of the US, by not inviting some of the well-established democratic nations like Turkey is beyond comprehension. It reveals that the intentions of the Summit are not to serve democracy, but to make a new block of like-minded nations. The world is divided already, and cannot afford any more divisions. There is a need to promote harmony, entente cordiale, and unity.

With regards to its participation in the Democracy Summit, Pakistan Foreign office issued a press release, saying “We are thankful to the United States for inviting Pakistan for participation in the Summit for Democracy, being held virtually on 9-10 December 2021. Pakistan is a large functional democracy with an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society, and free media. We remain deeply committed to further deepening democracy, fighting corruption, and protecting and promoting the human rights of all citizens. In recent years, Pakistan has instituted wide-ranging reforms aimed at advancing these goals. These reforms have yielded positive results. We value our partnership with the U.S. which we wish to expand both bilaterally as well as in terms of regional and international cooperation. We remain in contact with the U.S. on a range of issues and believe that we can engage on this subject at an opportune time in the future. Pakistan will, meanwhile, continue to support all efforts aimed towards strengthening dialogue, constructive engagement, and international cooperation for the advancement of our shared goals.”

No doubt, Pakistan is passing through many challenges, but the state of democracy in the country is still in a much better condition. We may not claim to be a perfect democracy, but there is a strong will to improve it gradually. Pakistan believes in promoting true democracy and is struggling hard to have it.

Pakistan stands with democracy and joins all efforts to promote its true spirit, but the country would not waste its time and energy in attending token global summits, a futile exercise by any standards. However, the country is desperately looking forward to an opportunity where it could play a vital role in promoting true democracy.