In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
DEMOCRACY IN ASIA
– A QUEER MIXTURE “YES & NO”
[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]
Democracy in Asia is on trial. It
is no where in its perfect form. It is being practiced in some countries from Indonesia to Israel: somewhere it is in its full
fledged form where, in terms of Poet Iqbal, the
“heads are counted, but no weight is given to their verdict.” Somewhere it is in limping form as in Central
Asian countries and somewhere it is in the state of suffocation as in Pakistan where
it is hijacked and usurped by the military dictator Perveez
Musharraf. In Afghanistan it was introduced in a
truncated form with the election of its President under the domination of
foreign military vigilance and control. Elections to Assembly are yet to be
held in September 05. In Iraq
the situation is quite different. Elections were held on January 30 under
strict control and supervision of 150,000 Allied forces with a continuous
haggling and bargaining to elect its President and two Vice- Presidents. Sunni
are still standing at margin and Kurdish are demanding their lion share to have
autonomy in their region with their own militia. There is yet to go a long way
in Iraq
to have a democracy worth its name that says with courage to the occupied
forces “good-by” and people of the land take the affairs of the country in
their own hands.
Recently elections were held in
the two Central Asian Muslim states. They were farce, and stand disputed and
both the countries are facing violent demonstrations. In Nepal
democratically elected government was overthrown by the king and election will
now be held in three years placing the country in the state of chaos by Marxist
gorillas. China and North Korea who inhabit the greater chunk of
Asian population are barren in the name of democracy while Japan is
enjoying limited democracy under the protection of occupied American forces.
The Middle Eastern Arab world has just started to breathe a distant breeze of
democracy. The only exceptions are that of Turkey,
Malaysia, Iran, Israel
and India
In these countries elections are
held at regular interval. They have elected parliamentary governments and Prime
ministers to run the affairs of the states. But the nature of democracy in each
country is different. Turkey
is controlled by constant interference of its military hierarchy. They have
massacred its elected government many a times in the past and that sword is
still hanging. Malaysia
is controlled by a thin majority of Malays. They retain the ruling power under
their constitution. Iran
is having regular elections after the departure of Shah but the supreme does
not lie in the hands of the people and their representative but in the hands of
Ruling Council that can do or undo any law that does not suit its will. Thus it
has rendered itself as an “oppressive” theocratic” state on the pattern of
Israel which is secular in name only but is totally run as per dictates of
their Jewish faith, believes and centuries-old myths and Biblical stories where
the Muslim minority is treated “untouchables’ of India and second-grade
citizens, a farce in the name of democracy.
Now India is the last country left to
be examined on the criterion of democracy that West values most. No doubt in
the free world, it is the greatest democracy with 1.2 billion population and a
huge electorate where elections are held in stages to make it manageable
administratively. West has a great respect for it and acknowledge India’s
supremacy in democracy. It has a secular constitution and a secular government
to run its affairs. But India
is a huge country with big size minorities whose rights are guaranteed in the
constitution. Unfortunately, these securities are on paper only. Scheduled Cast
constitutes about 200 millions. They are the untouchable in the Brahamanic dominated Indian political hierarchy. So is the
case with Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikhs and many other microscopic
minorities whose human rights are always ignored, side-tracked and practically
denied in spite of the fact Indian constitution uphold them. If anywhere in a
democratic country the human rights are denied in the most perverted from it is
in India.
Muslims are being killed in planned Hindu-Muslim riots. Dalits
are mockingly exploited at every level of their social, economic and political
life. Women rights are ignored and are not treated at par with the men folk.
Sikhs are coercively treated as Hindus whereas they are neither Hindu nor
Muslim.
Thus India
do commands as the most sophisticated democracy in the world but equally it is
most underdeveloped one where democracy is knocking to each nook and corner of
the country at every door but its blessings that are admissible to Europe and America are far
from realization. People of India
are living under the shadow of a “hoax” democracy and West is magnifying in its
ploy to defeat the rising head of Chinese dragon.
The scenario of the
democratization of Asia that President Bush
and his Secretary of State Dr. Rice are advocating day in and day out are just
befouling themselves and simple minded “ignorant” American people. Democracy in
its truest form will dominate Asia only when somewhere Islam becomes a
political identity in some Muslim land and it displays what are the human right and how they can be protected, preserved and
enjoyed equally by the have’s and the have-nots, the
rulers and the ruled, the majority and the minorities. Till that time democracy
as an “ism” is a “misnomer” whether it is the West or the East.
Shamim A Siddiqi
March 21, 2005