Shifting loyalties
create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.” What Bastiat thought of democracy at that time holds true for us more than a century and a half later.
Bastiat went on: “The system of legal plunder which many now celebrate as democracy, will erase from everyone’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. The plundered classes will eventually figure out how to enter the political game and plunder their fellow man. Legislation will never be guided by any principles of justice, but only by brute political force”.
The incumbent
prime
minister often reminds us to recount the blessings of democracy. Former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani too didn’t tire of extolling the virtues of democracy until the Supreme Court mercifully sent him packing home.
However, serious cases of corruption – Haj and ephedrine – trail the saintly Gilani family. Though discredited, Yousuf Raza Gilani still enjoys the use of an official bulletproof Mercedes while an SP looks after his security. Incidentally, Gilani also champions the cause of the Seraiki province.
Indeed democracy has blessed these two premiers (Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf) and their extended families with more than they could ever dream of. The grandeur with which Premier Raja recently toured London was reminiscent of a spoilt Saudi royal and his family on a shopping binge.
The system, which Bastiat called a legal plunder, ensures that the same old players are returned to power repeatedly. It’s instructive to note what the philosopher said: “The system of legal plunder (democracy) would also greatly exaggerate the importance of politics in society.
That would be a most unhealthy development as it would encourage even more citizens to seek to improve their own well-being not by producing goods and services for the marketplace but by plundering their fellow citizens through politics.” This better explains the emergence of wives, sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and so forth in active politics.
Why are loan defaulters, fakedegree holders, tax- cheaters and assorted political sharks crying hoarse against the Election Commission’s decision to come clean before they are considered eligible to contest the coming general elections.
With the appointment of respected and upright Fakhruddin G Ebrahim as chief election commissioner, people have renewed hope that his efforts will bring clean, sane leadership to fore. Is