Our love for democracy
Posted by Ahmed Mustafa , Tuesday, July 13, 2010 9:14 AM
let me tell you a little story about my country. We are democratic people, or so we like to think. We also like to think we are an islamic republic - thus the name 'islamic republic of pakistan'.
The problem is we are confused. The people that fight for democracy, the PPP, the PML, the MMA, the PTI and the MQM are completely undemocratic in their own party functioning. They have the same party leaders for the past 20 years unless their leaders have been assasinated by their husbands (PPP) and dont believe in leaving their 'kursis'. We like the idea of democracy, however thats where it stops...
Its unfortunately something my country love to fantasize, but when it comes to walking the talk...nothing happens.
Let me tell you about the new democratic scheme of things nowadays. Our Minister, Mr. Khosa tried to get his brother in law to head the ICTRD FUND which has about 20 billion rupees in its kitty. When the board refused to shortlist the candidate on the basis of a fake degree, 6 borad members were fired. The board members include some of the leading professionals of pakistan which include the country manager of cisco, ex chairman of engro, and the head of multinet pakistan.
Our respected ministers next move was to try to fit his brother in law in the USF fund, which is again lead by one of pakistans most respected telecom professionals, Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, a man that has made the USF a beacon of learning for the rest of world on how to use funds to increase telecom penetration in low growth and emancipated areas.
Democracy has also brought destruction and corruption to our countrys financial sector. The head of NIIT, Mr. Tariq Iqbal Khan another very respected individual within financial circles, who turned around the company to make it the largest mutual funds company in the country was recently removed to make way for another corrupt crony supported by Mr. Democratically elected my foot ten percent zardari.
Our democratically elected government is going back on all the promises that they made and are redoing everything that they thought was wrong with the previous government. When the media tried to bring to light the fraud commmited by fake degree parlamentarians they tabled a resolution against the media. They delayed reappointment of the judges. The list of crap being dealt to the common man on the pretext of democracy is endless...
So for a moment in time I was going towards supporting democracy but things dont really seem to be helping our case. Sure we can say that we need to give it time to develop, but i can...but what about the man on the street who cant buy food for his family? If our elections were truly transparent enough, maybe we could have thrown out and called for change but we cant. Also if this government goes, will the sharifs come back and screw our resources further? And then back to PPP and then another round of pingpong?
Can someone please explain why i should love democracy, because i truly want to, but cannot figure out a reason why!!!
Sent from my Nokia phone
