Crude democracy getting cruder by the day

CHITRAL: The amount of people participating in political gatherings is increasing exponentially with every passing day in Pakistan. Any political party which can afford the expenses can gather huge amount of people without much ado.

The hordes of people in any political demonstration only speaks of the fact that the population growth in Pakistan is out of control. The basic decree of democracy which ordains a ‘one man one vote’ encourages political parties to show their strength by gathering as many people as they can by hook or by crook. This appetite of politicians for numbers show has given rise to organised business of ‘rent a crowd’ where on payment the ‘contractors’ undertake to populate a public meeting. The spirit in the people composing the gathering is immaterial. Most of the participants do not know, nor do they care to know the purpose of their gathering but are only interested in getting paid for a task and have some fun in the bargain.

In Pakistan, we should learn two lessons from the ever swelling public meetings of any one and every one who can pay the price. Firstly, the population explosion should be checked immediately . How it is to be implemented can be studied and researched by experts .

Secondly and more importantly, governments should not be formed by those gathering maximum number of people whether at a public gathering or the polling booth.- Instead government should be formed through competitive exams of educated and capable people also known as the system of Meritocracy.? That will stabilize the situation in the country and every body will try to get educated and be eligible for being? a part in the government (the best of basic human right and equal opportunity) instead of wasting time with absurd politics, mostly spent in clapping for others. .. CN editorial, 01 Nov 2019?

One thought on “Crude democracy getting cruder by the day

  1. The defence minister Pervez Khattak while referring to the ongoing ‘dharna’ by Molana Fazlur Rahman said today that “I alone can bring more people than what are in the dharna”. This shows the loss of value of gathering people in jalsas these days. Few decades ago when a large number of people would gather to protest, the government would get nervous and take it seriously, but of late large crowds in public protests mean nothing to the government because any one with money can manage a large crowd and such crowds are mostly “empty crowds”.

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