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By Hazratullah Habibi
Democracy is a type of political system that requires a popular vote (representative election) to elect leader of a country and representatives who are accountable to their people. Democracy in itself is a flexible and soft system in which each candidate has to caress and compete openly each single eligible figure to achieve power; however, prominent politicians, men and women, owners of companies, high profile figures, leaders, sub-leaders and family holders are cunningly made or cleverly encouraged to use their votes. Voters are easily deceived during election process whether the election is held for presidency, parliament or provincial councils particularly in the poorest country or in the country whose large number of people are absolutely uneducated or unware of the rules of Democracy or in the country whose people have not practiced Democracy based on transparency, meritocracy impartiality and independence.
Furthermore, during campaigning, elections contenders give empty promises to the voters in order to canvass their votes, once campaigning ends and the candidates find their ways to the official ranks, then they forget their exaggeratingly given commitments and pursue their own objectives rather than what they address to people during their elections rallies , so this creates a huge gap between the government and the people who vote for their favorite candidates and lose their trust in democracy, as we witnessed the low turnout in the previous presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, the so-called commitments which had been given to voters in the past were not fulfilled and people boycotted elections, which harmed the legitimacy of the elections and sparked reactions nationally and internationally.
To come to another significant point of democracy, machinery system of voting that always creates problems among voters deliberately in which fake votes are added in the digital voting tally centers and national and international cyber hackers try to target votes while the election commissions in the developing countries are not able to tackle with such problems and prevent cyber-attacks on the digital voting tally centers. With so many ouch`s I can opine that there is another massive waste of time in the system of democracy” vote of confidence or vote of no confidence” in which new ministers should legally gain required votes of confidence.
It is crystal clear that democracy leads the way to corruption in which individual voters first demand money it provides the opportunities with corruption while new ministers are introduced to parliament thirdly, the chances of corruption are very high in (IEC) Independent Election Commission, for the people who are governed have no legitimate processes through which they can express their legal and basic rights how their government functions. The democratic leaders reform the constitutions and apply judgements and decisions for their personal interest so as to stay in power.
Opposition parties (opposition political parties) can create many ups and downs anytime because they usually abuse of their power and use their followers for their personal benefits rather than national interests. Tactlessly, we usually observe four instigated and integrated “CRACIES” in Afghanistan that rule over Afghan people, namely “DEMOCRACY, AUTOCATCY THEOCRACY, PLUTOCRACY”, which have weakened and embedded the system of democracy in Afghanistan.
It is a known fact that Democracy is not the last choice to a large number of Afghans and the Afghan government has not been working for their mindset so most of whom don’t know its how`s what`s and when`s. The word Democracy is derived from the Greek words: Demos meaning “People”, and Kratos meaning “Power”. Autos means “Self” in Greek. The political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives’ ideology, political orientation, political system or the theory that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation.
The second term Plutocracy, that derives from the Greek word ‘Ploutokratia.’ ‘Ploutos’ means “wealth” while ‘kratia’ means “rule or power.” Thus, the full translation of this word “the rule or command by the wealthy” has found its place in the System of Democracy. Plutocracy is, therefore, defined as a state, society or government controlled and ruled by the wealthy or a wealthy group. Now, we can see a particular group of people in Afghanistan who govern a state or society because of their wealth in the system of democracy directly and indirectly about which we have got hands-on examples. Now –a- days some political analysts are talking on technocracy but I personally believe that Afghanistan does not reach the peak of technocracy to have system of governance where decision-makers are designated on the basis of their expertise in their capacities of responsibilities.
The third term is the system of Autocracy that rules over people for the following verdicts: In the System of Autocracy or in an autocratic government, one top figure “the Autocrat” possesses all the power and makes all the decisions. No attention is paid to laws or constitutions that contain the authority. Another interloping is some leaders, commanders, who call themselves autocratic and fight for gaining powerful chairs via democracy, compel the democratic leaders to create them some top posts forcefully. This might be one of the reasonable reasons, which affects the basics of democracy.
Theocracy has more power in Afghanistan so it is not easy that democracy is applied without Islamic laws that is why the power of Theocracy has been countersigned in the system of democracy for the last 15 years, for all laws and regulations of Afghanistan originate from the rules set forth by some particular fundamentals of Islam. A group of religious figures, who claim political authority in the name of religion and desire for influential chairs, affects the system of democracy directly and indirectly if they lose any election, then they misuse Islam against democracy.
So a very tough question is to be answered how it is possible to include Islamic laws into democracy though a large number of figures in Afghanistan want Islamic laws to be applied. If not; no state cannot stay stable and peaceful in the country. So many countries have observed different forms of democracy, but what makes a democracy different from all other forms of government is the participation of the people in decision-making thus, the nation keep high expectations from their democratic leaders to make them cheerful, rich and comfortable and their state promoted.
But unluckily, all mottos which are promised by candidates remain unchanged not fulfilled. Democracy is believed to be one of the governmental systems in which everyone personally gets indulged in and has a lot of freedoms and people are equally treated.
One of the main conflicts is that the poor and the rich are not equally treated, the educated and the uneducated are not equally preserved the imperial and the partial are not equally valued. Furthermore, the democratic leaders prefer owners of the houses to renters, customers to sellers, teachers to students that is why a big gap has been created between the state and nation in Afghanistan.
My personal research, which was carefully scrutinized on the participation of people whether Afghans are happy with democracy or not, has observed the following findings:
Evaluations Titles Evaluations Findings
- People Participation in the Practices of Democracy 10% out of 100%
- Laws Implementation over the poor 90% out of 100%
- Laws Implementation over the rich 10% 0ut of 100%
- External Interferences 90%out of 100%
- Internal Interferences 90%out of 100%
- Defined Democracy Practiced 10 %out of 100%
- Autocracy System observed 50% out of 100%
- Theocracy System Interference 50%out of 100%
- Plutocracy System Interference 25%out of 100%
Many of the most successful countries in the world operate under a democratic form of government. Democracy is noted as one of the most efficient government systems ever. If our government intended to practice the System of Democracy appropriately, then this system would have the following benefits:
- It cares for the interests of citizens.
- People identify their government to create a stronger level of patriotism and unified nation.
- Democracy does not create a centralized power base for ruling over the people.
- Democracy usually grow faster economically than other forms of government.
- It encourages centrism more than extremism.
- It prevents monopoly of authority.
- It promotes equality.
- Democracy provides people with chances to become personally involved with their government.
- It imparts political education to the people.
- It brings a feeling of obligation towards the citizens.
- It makes a responsible and stable administration.
If our government expected not to practice the System of Democracy systematically and precisely, then Democracy would face the following teething troubles:
- It might create the opportunity to misuse of public funds and time.
- It risks the erroneous high-quality of public servants.
- It may focus more on emphasis in quantity, rather than quality.
- It can take long to make decisions.
- It may include immoral practices during election.
- It avoids monopoly of authority.
- Democratic government may follow the “a chicken in every pot” system.
- People are fortified for federalism to prefer their nationalities, languages, cultures and area celebrities.
- It can take long to make decisions.
- It instigates corruption.
- It divides the nation into different groups or tribes.
- The structure of democracy is a person-first process in which power is given to each single person.
