Thread: Half of Pakistanis not keen on democracy

Monday, December 25, 2006 E-Mail this article to a friend

Half of Pakistanis not keen on democracy

* Six out of 10 people favour army rule
* More support for democracy in South Asia than in East Asia and Latin America

ISLAMABAD: People in South Asia overwhelmingly support democracy, except in Pakistan, where about half the respondents in a survey said that democratic or non-democratic forms of government made no difference to them.

Sri Lanka emerged as the country where democracy was most popular, while India was third after Bangladesh in terms of the percentage of people expressing support for the democratic system in the study, ‘State of Democracy in South Asia’.

“The people not only approve of democratic arrangements, they find it suitable for their own contexts. Seven out of eight responses in the region, higher than in East Asia, held that democracy was ‘suitable’ or ‘very suitable’ for their own country,” the report said.

The study found that the citizens of South Asia do not simply like democracy; they prefer it over authoritarian rule. “With the exception of Pakistan, about two-thirds of those who responded preferred democracy over any other form of government,” the report said.

For every one response that endorses dictatorship, there are six that prefer democracy, which compares favourably with the ratio obtained in East Asia, Latin America and post-Soviet era countries of Europe.

However, about a quarter in other countries and half the respondents in Pakistan said democratic or non-democratic forms of government made no difference to them.

Also, there is majority support for army rule in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two countries in the region with a record of army rule. “The idea that the country should be governed by the army was endorsed by six out of every 10 responses in Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said the report prepared by the CSDS in collaboration with the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm and Department of Sociology, Oxford University.

The least support for army rule is in India, the report said, adding the higher the education, the lower the support for the army.

The survey was conducted in five South Asian countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“The world since 9/11 has seen the rise of another hypothesis of ‘disconnect’ between Islam and democracy. South Asia is home to over a quarter of the global Muslim population. Muslims are either the majority or a significant minority in all the five countries of this region,” the report said. “Thus, if the citizens in this region support democracy, this would have implications beyond South Asia,” it added. sana

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-12-2006_pg1_1

Pakistan and by history Bangladesh has never experienced democracy. Musharraf's book itself is clear about this. On Pages 156 to 163 in the Chapter ''The Quest for Democracy" of his book, 'In the Line of Fire', he reveals the following:

1. It took 9 years to finally produce a Constitution in 1956.
2. Even that Constitution violated the one man, one vote basic tenet. This was avoided to prevent the Bengalis, whose population was much more than West Pakistan, to take over Pakistan.
3. This device was called 'parity principle' wherein it gave the same number of seat to West Pakistan as it did to East Pakistan even though the population of East Pakistan was more.
4. As per the book, "To justify the pairty principle, the four provinces of the western wing, comprising of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan, were cobbled together into a single unit to be called the provision of West Pakistan.
Naturally, the people of the three smaller provinces of West Pakistan felt highly aggreived by this unpopular decision, for they believed that it would not only emasculate their culture, but also deprive them of their fair share of resources (this is what is happening even now since Punjab takes the cake of all resources!)........the Bengali people there, overall felt that they had been duped because their votes wsere watered down".
5. National elections under the new Constitution were to be held in early 1959, but Iskandar Mirza, the President in connivance with General Ayub Khan aborogated the Constitution on 8 Oct 1958 and declared martial law.
6. Within 21 days on 28 Oct 1958 General Ayub Khan sent the President (Mirza) packing to London and Ayub became the President.
7. Ayub lifted martial law in 1962 and introduced another (second) Constitution, based on the parity principle and other undemocratic element of the first
7. Owing to popular unrest, Ayub had to resign in March 1969.
8. Ayub handed over power to General Yahyah Khan, the Army Chief instead of the Speaker of the National Assembly.
9. General Yahyah Khan held elections in December 1970 and even though the parity principle still applied, the East Pakistanis won hand down and won the majority of seats.
10. East Pakistani leader was prevented from taking over as Prime Minister and instead was arrested.
11. The Liberation of Bangladesh followed and Pakistan was left with only West Pakistan!

That is democracy in Pakistan for you, in the words of President General Parvez Musharraf and the facts he quotes are unenviable history of Pakistan!

Therefore, democracy is an alien mechanism of governance in the history of Pakistan!

Bangladesh is no better!

And anyway, Islam being autocratic in nature, where even the personal hygiene is laid down in the holy scriptures, the Moslems are more at ease with authoritarian leaders and dictators since their psyche is one that is prone to obey dictates!

Therefore, though the study is revealing, it is not surprising!