It is so disheartening to see and so many of my countrymen believe that individual voice, individual freedom, rule of law, and other basic human rights are not important and not needed.
In the posts some of my friends have quoted Allama Iqbal, and one of my friends has given quotes from various historic figures talking against democracy............
Before we answer the question of whether we should have democracy or not, lets first ask what actually democrcay is: In my humble opinion democracy is a system in which peopel are aware and active (politically) to change the leaders when the leaders dont do what they were supposed to do. So basically the the single most important thing is that peopel are "ETERNALLY VIGILANT" and keep eye on the rulers.
The quotes from international historical figures are very compelling but has anyone seen that almost all of them are from people who belong to democratic countries i.e. the American presidents, British thinkers and prime ministers and of course the Greek philosopher. If democracy was so bad then why do they still have it?
Quotes form Allama Iqbal are nice too. But tell me without understanding Iqbal's complete philosophy how can you just put up a few excerpts and deduce that he was against democracy?
With all due respect to all who actually quoted Iqbal, Iqbal's poetry was far to complex to be interpreted or undestood after reading just a few verses. For example, he also talked about "khudi" and "mard-i-momin". I dont know what do you understand by khudi but I think that if you have khudi then you would also have an independent voice and you would also have the will and strenght of character to say what you want. I also dont think that mard-imomim as seen by Iqbal was someone who would bow down to corrupt rulers and not defy them.
Why dont we take this message from Iqbal that he wanted us to have integrity, independence, voice, awareness. I believe that same message is given to us by Islam, why do you think that Islam puts so much stress on education and understanding the world and the religion. Do you really think that someone who understands the world and religion and is a thinking person can really be happy when he has no voice.
Now lets come to the main issue: why is democracy bad for us i.e. Pakistanis?
I am a Pakistani, and I love my country, but here is what I think: we as nation that lets these corrupt, criminals leaders rule us either in the shape of a military dictator or in the shape of a political dictator. We sit back and watch them plunder the resources of our country and we dont do anything about it. In elections less that 25% people vote (tell me is this expression of khudi by the mard-i-momin). When these vultures are in power we use our connections to get the most out them. We dont come out on streets and tell them to get off the seats of power and do something about us. We sit on our behinds and wait for someone to come and deliver us from these *******s..........In my opinion for people like us there is a message in Quran, when God Almighty says that I put on nations the type of leaders they deserve.
Why dont we get of our behinds and do something about it instead of cribbing about it.....180 million people cannot get rid of a few thousand usurpers. If we cant do that then we deserve what we get and to tell you the truth even if you can come up with the best form of government the people of Pakistan will still have nothing.
For God's sake wake up.............its still not too late
