Let’s give Meritocracy a chance
Chitral .. A presentation on ‘Meritocracy as an alternative to democracy’ was held in Chitral. The presentation was largely attended by Political leaders, intellectuals, educationists, Doctors, lawyers and civil society members. The popularity of the subject of the presentation can be gauged from the fact that according to the president press club it was the largest event so far held at the press club both in terms of quality and quantity.
Presenting his proposed transfer from the existing electoral democracy to the new system of Meritocracy, Wg Cdr (r) Fardad Ali Shah first compared the two systems and counted the blessings of meritocracy. He quoted Singapore as an example which has a per capita income of 61000 USD. At the time when Lee Kuan Yew took over the Presidentship and introduced the system of Meritocracy, Singapore’s per capita income was only 1100 USD. ?The present per capita income of Pakistan is a mere 5500 USD. The magical transformation of Singapore from an ordinary outland with an area less than half that of Chitral District, was due to the magic of managing it through Meritocracy, he said.
Elaborating his proposed system of government he said the basic logic behind it is to eliminate the electoral system of voting by individuals to form a government and replacing it with appropriate persons selected through competitive exams tailor made for the respective positions. He said just like introducing the NTS system of selection in KP has given a chance to the poor but capable persons to get into government jobs, similarly the system of Meritocracy will give a chance to the poor but capable people to become public representatives right from the president of the country down to the village Councillor level.
He said Meritocracy is in full conformity with the Golden principles of Islam as much as it is in conformity with the principles of socialism. A best of both the worlds system. a person selected through Meritocracy will not be detracted and blackmailed by political forces and can perform his duties whole heatedly.
He clarified that a strong accountability system is the pillar of the new dispensation and the accountability institution should be parallel to the president, not under him. This institution should have it’s authoritative offices down to the district level to keep an eye on performance of persons appointed on positions through Meritocracy.
Wg Cdr Fardad said with full conviction that Meritocracy is the system of the future that will replace electoral democracy world over. It is only a matter of time. Let Pakistan be the pioneer of this new benevolent system for the world, he said. .. CN report, 24 Aug 2017
5 thoughts on “Presentation on Meritocracy as an alternate to electoral democracy”
According to our experience the people who have been selected through competitive examination and on merits are the most corrupt elements in Pakistani society. Our bureaucrats, Judges, Engineers, Doctors etc are selected on merits basis and they are the most corrupt people in society. Look at the life style of officers selected through CSS and compare their salary income with their life style then think how much corrupt these people are? Look at the life style of engineers and sub-engineer, compare their legal income with their life style you will find them extremely corrupt but they are selected through competition. Judges and doctors are also in the same category but they are selected through competition and following the rule of meritocracy. The products of meritocracy are before us, after observing their mentality, their corrupt practices it seems selection of country head through this procedure will also produce the same result. Still democracy is the only solution which has produced fruitful result in neighboring countries like India, Bangladesh etc not to speak of Europe and USA. We suffered because we uprooted democracy time and again. We controlled democracy through backdoor conspiracies that is why our system failed to filter bad elements from the system. If we allowed democracy to function freely then bad elements automatically filtered and we have had system like India and other South Asian regions. We are castigating democracy because we do not accept people will because we have dictatorial mind. Yes there should be more reform in electoral system and assets of all public office holders both politicians, Army officers, civil bureaucrats, judges must be scrutinized and the people having assets beyond their legal means must be debar to participate in politics. And those govt officials if they have assets more than legal means must also be punished through departmental system and their promotion must be stopped. If we deeply study the system then it will be easy to understand that two persons introduced corruption in democratic system in Pakistan, one is Ziaul Haq and Another is Pervez Musharaf. Ziaul Haq made association with anti-bhutto elements and gave them huge bribes to damage Bhutto legacy throughout his tenure. Musharaf also formed Q-League and introduced NRO just to protect his uniform. We can not blame politicians for corruption, but military dictators introduced corruption in Pakistani politics in order to win loyalties of so called politicians.
@ Ahmad Azam sahib, If you go through the video, I have clearly said that without a powerful and functional accountability system, the system of Meritocracy will crumble in a few days. We have to take the concept as a whole and not consider only the ‘zhorh’ and leave out the ‘phishmak’. If bureaucrats turn out to be corrupt, it is the weak system where incapable public representatives do not have the capacity to challenge them. I am primarily addressing the public representation issue. When this is put on right track then other sectors will automatically be taken care of in the same line.
You say “We are castigating democracy and we do not accept peoples will because we have dictatorial mind”. People are like a child to the leader. If a child gets sick eating sweets but still insists on eating the same sweets which made him sick and the parent snatches away such sweets and gives him a bitter pill to cure him, will you call the parent a dictator or a well wisher of the child?
The increasing reliance of the KPK government on bureaucracy instead of the elected local govt only proves that bureaucrats who get selected through Merit rather than elected through votes have better capacity to deliver. If our public representatives are also selected on the basis of sheer merit and capability instead of votes, then the public representatives would have the upper hand and can deliver better than the bureaucracy.
Very well presented and convincing thoughts. One could only wish and pray that one day our beloved country is run by people equipped with the wealth of intellect and wisdom rather than wealth accumulated through corruption. With highly competent people leading different ministries and institutions, a system can be put in place to ensure that there is Zero tolerance for corruption, inefficiency, mediocracy, and lack of accountability.
The way it is explained by Mr Fardad Ali Shah, I think this is the need of time for Pakistan. It?s really unfortunate that our system in not running properly in times of democracy so the formula to select individuals and run the system is really required.
As nation we need DABANG and qualified selected individuals to run this country.