Democracy... The Number 2 System of Governance

DEMOCRACY

THE

“NUMBER TWO SYSTEM”

OF GOVERNANCE

The Creator of all humans and indeed of the entire universe has ordained a system that operates everything that we can perceive and also that that we are unable to understand. HE alone possesses and retains the ultimate power to keep the system going.

The declared system of managing the collective affairs of all humans as spelled out by Almighty Allah can be summarized as “sovereignty to govern is His domain, and it is made operational through His appointees”. It has its roots in the enormous love and affection that our Creator desires and displays for the humans. The recorded history of humankind, however, reveals that they have mostly been working against this system owing to the satanic interference in their affairs. We, therefore, note with understandable concern that in the known history of humankind only a handful numbers of persons are seen in the governmental control of operating this system as His appointees.  

Humans are Almighty Allah’s proud creation and He has gifted them with (fractions of) His power in almost all spheres of life and living. Within the control that Allah Almighty exercises, He has allowed the humans to have their way remaining inside the defined spheres of life. He desires that the humans live their life to be able to qualify for the indefinite benefits that He will grant them for infinite life span beginning with the ending of this life.  

Understanding of the nature of His creation and knowledge of the performance of humans has prompted their Creator, once again out of sheer and unlimited mercy and infinitely deep love for them, to outline a “number two system” of governing their collective affairs. This system aims at ensuring their well being in the life of this world. In the “number one system” Almighty Allah retained the key with Him and in the “number two system” He desired of handing over this key to the humans. Where the “number one system” was to be operated by the persons of His choosing, in the “number two system” it were the humans entitled to nominate and choose their representatives that were to steer this system. In the “number one system” the command and control rested with Him and He was entirely responsible for the behaviour of His chosen ones too. Therefore, logically speaking, the success of “number two system” would depend on the extent of the command and control of the humans and the level of their hold on the doings of their chosen ones.   

Humans in their known and recorded history have so far tried and endured the below mentioned systems that they coined for themselves:-  

 Monarchy,     Government by a single ruler (king/queen, emperor).

Aristocracy,     Government by noblemen (hereditary).

Oligarchy,       Government by few persons.

Theocracy,      “Government by God" (in reality this means government by religious leaders)

Dictatorship,   Government by such people that have seized power by force (often: military dictatorship)

Democracy,    Government of the people, for the people and by the people. It is considered as opposite to the other above mentioned systems of governance.

Almost all forms of governing mechanisms being practiced in today’s world, do have a certain level of democratic content in their makeup. None of the above mentioned governing mechanisms has, nonetheless, succeeded in delivering the idealized outcome. Democracy, however, appears to be the nearest to the “number two system” outlined by Almighty Allah. But this too, as practiced in its various forms, has been unable to ensure the total wellbeing of the masses. It is, however, noteworthy that the success or otherwise of this system was/is and would continue to be directly proportional to the level, the constancy and the consistency of the command and control exercised by the humans in all areas of the system. In the current context “humans” may be replaced with “voters”. Close and critical examination of all the above mentioned governing mechanisms in general and the one currently operating in Pakistan in particular, with special reference to the democratic content, reveals the following:-  

1.      Voters are mostly empowered once in four or five years when the election is to take place. This empowerment attains physical dimensions only for a few minutes when the voter is going through the process of vote casting. In our context the voter is, however, constantly subjected to a number of pressures before, during and even after these moments of empowerment. Some of these are the family bondage, the burden of social environments, the influence of poverty, the culture of use of unbridled power by the mighty ones and the projected promises regarding provision of basic civic needs. In such scenario it is only fair not to consider such exercise a free, fair and impartial use of the power of vote.

2.      A sizeable majority (more than fifty percent) of the voter population prefers to stay out of the electioneering process thus rendering the whole exercise anything but democratic. This scenario gets further polluted when the majority of the absenting class comprises of the independent and educated lot of the country.

3.      Influence of the organized media, the momentum of the force of governing mechanism in place and the charm of the charismatic personality in power are some of the other distracting factors that make fun of the democratic content of the systems in vogue.

4.      Orchestration of ballot box counts, employing innumerable methods of pre and post poll rigging and producing results of own liking employing various tiers of the governing mechanism are too well known aspects operating, in varying degrees, against the spirit of democracy almost in all the present day systems.

5.      Party based political activities often become hostage to the party line of thinking that is mostly guided (or one may say typically misguided) and controlled by a person or at best a family with vested interests. Thus the party bosses are able to block, deshape and destroy the real spirit of democratic culture. In Pakistan’s democratic scenario this aspect is very obvious and has been observed obstructing the process of law making and also the projects of common good of the country.

6.      Centralized control of national resources besides breeding corruption continues to be employed as a tool to subvert the democratic desires and inclinations of the voters. This attitude only helps in destabilizing and derailing the desired democratic culture.

7.      In the prevalent election culture of our country it is mostly the influential, often the corrupt, and to a large extent the dirty rich persons that stand a fair chance of imposing their desire of becoming voter’s representative. God fearing and the good lot of humans find it awfully difficult and painfully cumbersome to measure to the challenge and thus they prefer to stay out of the electioneering process.

  In the backdrop of above discussion the following may be considered as the Broader Contours of the above talked “number two system”:-  

1.      Allegiance to THE CREATOR LORD is acknowledged (at least) in the matters associated with common wellbeing of each and every voter. This is the bottom line. Humans are perfectly well within their right to follow higher levels of allegiance to Almighty Allah.

2.      The voters must retain the RESPONSIBILITY and also the AUTHORITY of creating, establishing and operating the entire system without getting involved in the routine functioning of the set up.

3.      Pyramid of the entire edifice constituting the “number two system” stands completely supported and comprehensively controlled by a Basic Unit (BU) that is composed of a well knit component of the society. 

4.      The voters exercise a continuous and consistent control over their representatives in the scenario wherein will of the huge and independent majority prevails on all functionaries of the system.

5.      Only those individuals are entrusted the task of operating the system that do not desire to accumulate wealth and also harbour no urge to play as bosses over the voters.  

6.      All tiers of the system are formed and operated in the scenario of mutual dependence but operational independence ensuring a well coordinated move forward on the path to peace and progress of the entire community and the country.       

7.      All organs of the state machinery derive their functional strength from the concept of service to the voters. Due democratic controls to implement this aspect must be put in place.

Based on the above enumerated Broader Contours an OUTLINE OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM emerges as below:-

Suggested Physical Structure: Comprises of seven tiers with each having a well defined area/role as under:-

1.      Basic Unit (BU) of the pyramid comprises 1200 to 1400 voters in thinly populated areas and up to 5000 to 7000 voters in the densely populated parts of the country. Fundamental criterion being the closeness of the community and the easy approach and access.  

2.      5 to 12 BUs are grouped to form second tier of the pyramid. It may be named as Union Council (UC).

3.      UC upwards the existing boundaries of a Tehsil, District, Division, Province and the Country serve as the other FIVE tiers of the governing mechanism. Except for the latter other boundaries may be altered to suit cohesiveness and easy access by the public.

4.      Above tiers owe their existence to service of the voters and remain in continuation like the Senate.

5.      Except for the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission there MAY be NO autonomous body operating outside the jurisdiction of given tiers of proposed governing mechanism. These two commissions may be made directly responsible to the country headperson for optimal output.

6.      Armed Forces of the country to operate under the direct control and supervision of the Country Headperson while all other law enforcing agencies function under respective tiers of the proposed system. All events of emergency in the country are tackled by the Armed Forces under instructions from the Country Headperson.   

Elections and Government Formation/Functioning:

1.      Elections are conducted under the Election Commission of Pakistan in two stages. In first stage every voter is asked to propose his/her representative and in stage two the voters cast their votes for every person proposed in stage one. All those who bag minimum 12 percent of the total votes are taken as elected representatives of the BU.

2.      Elected representatives of each BU adhere to the process of nomination followed by election and pick up/formulate the following:-

a.      Headperson.

b.      Secretary.

c.       Coordination and Planning Body (CPB).

d.      Law and Order Body (LOB).

e.      Zakat/Revenue Collection Body (ZRCB).

f.        Civic Facilities Body (CFB).

g.      Education and Sports Body (ESB).

h.      Judicial Body (JB).

i.        Agreed number (may be 5-7) of elected representatives to be sent to the UC.  

Notes:

·         These bodies may be added or deleted to suit the peculiar environments/needs/aspirations of particular areas/people.

·         Proper secretariat staff to assist the Secretary may be arranged locally or got posted from higher tiers.

·         Performance of each body is scrutinized in quarterly coordination meetings besides providing guidelines for the future.

·         Suggested responsibilities/duties of above appointments/bodies may be examined for further input at Annex A.  

3.      Above process is repeated to constitute the required bodies at the remaining six tiers of the governing mechanism. At all tiers of governance the whole business is conducted through the various bodies formed for the purpose. There are NO ministers at any level. Existing Ministries and Divisions serve as secretariats of various bodies made responsible for various government functions.

4.      In addition to the existing disciplinary rules/procedures all elected representatives hand over their resignations to the Headperson of respective BU who would invoke the same after following the due procedure. This would happen when more than fifty percent voters of the BU declare an elected representative as persona non-grata. The fact as to at which tier of the governing mechanism such an elected representative is working would have little effect. 

5.      Existing administrative set up is retained with due modifications and made answerable to the elected representatives through respective corresponding heads at various tiers. Experts taken from existing administrative set-up are tasked to assist the voter’s representatives in routine functions besides keeping records of all matters.  

6.      Law making process is initiated at the level of concerned body and follows a procedure where every representative working at the tier serves as a concerned party. Every tier is, however free to make laws and rules relevant to its functioning but without causing any interference in the operation of other tiers. Coordination and Planning Bodies of different tiers will coordinate to remove any frictions.

7.      Higher tiers do not interfere in the domain of lower tiers except for extending a helping hand to complete the planned/intended development projects and/or boosting its efficiency/capacity in unusual circumstances.

Resource Creation and Control:

1.      Zakat, Sadaqat and other agreed taxes are collected at the level of BU by the ZRCB. Each higher tier posts qualified person(s) to maintain records of all financial matters at the immediate below tier.

2.      Seventy percent of the generated revenue is utilized at BU level on the planned projects in agreed areas of voter wellbeing.

3.      Thirty percent of the generated revenue at BU level is transmitted to the higher tier (UC).

4.      Each UC retains seventy percent of the received and also the generated revenue for agreed purposes. Out of the remaining amount twenty percent is transmitted to the next higher tier and ten percent distributed amongst the constituent BUs to ensure equitable progress of all areas.

5.      Above process is repeated at every higher tier of the governing mechanism. Downward transmissions may follow the criterion of uniform development of all segments of the country and the society.

6.      Resource generating areas are clearly spelled out for various tiers to avoid any friction amongst the governing tiers and to save the tax payers of any duplicity.

7.      Monthly internal audit of all financial matters at each tier and six monthly audits by the one step higher tier are so arranged that audit authorities remain busy round the year. Audit teams comprise of elected representatives and the experts drawn from existing administrative set up. All audit reports are made public for voter’s consumption. At country level a separate but autonomous audit team (like the public accounts committee) is created to undertake the required job.  

Common Instructions:

1.      The proposed system in a viable shape may be opened for debate for about a year before giving it a workable profile. Draft along with all the details should then be viewed by the experts in various walks of life before finalizing the same. In its final shape it may then be placed before the parliament seeking its endorsement. On authorization (or rejection) from the parliament it should be put through a referendum in the country for final ratification.

2.      Before making the system operational, available administrative structure in the country must be made to build its capacity to support smooth implementation of the proposed “NUMBER TWO SYSTEM” of governing the affairs of humans.

3.      A cell may be created at Senate Secretariat to follow through the idea and keep track of all input from various quarters. The cell may remain functional for a period of 5 to 7 years to sort out some teething problems that are likely to come up during implementation. It may also arrange training of the elected representatives to ensure full grasp of the system for optimal results.