Missgovernance!

 

     

timurdata

Created from poll data gathered by Sirdar Timur Hyat-Khan and Contact Youth in Islamabad Pakistan, June 2005. Mark Rosst processed the data with NetDraw. Groups were colored using the Newman/Girvan algorithm. Image is public domain.

Conventional solutions for the reorganization of existing institutions would entail preparing plans for them. The solution offered is not conventional and as such does not run along these lines. The plans are for new mechanisms to replace existing overstaffed, incompetent, out of date Ministries, Departments, and other organs of governance.

For meaningful and positive change to take place, a different approach will have to be used. Take the example of a large and rambling structure with many rooms and halls. The structure is obsolete, has ill-served the inhabitants, assailed from within and without, and is falling down. Is it possible to remodel the existing structure with all its baggage? Is sudden change viable? Does it not entail disruption of existing governance which, despite all its shortcomings and sins of commission and omission, yet serves to employ thousands of Pakistani citizens and (miss)regulates day to affairs, no matter how inefficiently?

The beauty of the proposed change is that it is non-disruptive, evolutionary, and in complete conformity with the Spirit of Islam. The All-Mighty Allah, being the Divine Creator, Best Knows His Creation and shows us an evolutionary path towards progress. This is true physically, mentally, economically, socially, and spiritually.

We are all agreed that the current setup is totally unable to deliver progress and prosperity. We also know that there is a fundamental gap in Governance at the very basic level of society that leads to a free for all dispensation, exploited only by the Power Elite for their own purposes. Are we also aware that there exist Statutory Laws enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan to cover this gap? I refer to the Local Government Ordinance. Here Governance is supposed to be devolved to the Village/ Mohallah level as a prerequisite to Union; District; Provincial and National representation, which precede elections of Minority, Female and Senatorial seats.

I suppose that from the top of Mount Olympus “Grass Roots” would be the District level. However, Grassroots are Village/Ward or Mohalla level Councils. The Devolution of Power to District Level on the part of the previous Government was a step that did not go far enough to address mal-administration and incompetent Governance. This is nothing but a manifestation of a ruler and ruled mentality. If we truly wish to empower our populace we must take this fact into account.

            The V/MDC's geographical units are small enough to render close proximity and participation between Governance and Governed. This ensures that the administration is held accountable by being only a few minutes away from those who are immediate affectees of administration. The establishment of mutually competitive small-time potentates is no solution to our problems. Persons who are responsible for the development and expend funds must reside in an area that is small enough to be within easy access of the inhabitants of that area. Secondly, they must be of a level and stature that is approachable by the people.

            When the inhabitants of a Union Council can reach the door of their representatives within minutes. When these people can react to wrongdoings on the part of those elected by them. When Administrators have no alternative or means of avoiding those who have elected them. When social cohesiveness has been attained through Associations and Networks. They will perforce have to keep a clean nose.

            When elected representatives have smaller problems to deal with. When population levels are small enough to be dealt with. When ostentation and lavish expenditure cannot remain hidden. Then and only then will Devolution be of any consequence.

            Tiers of Governance from Union Council to District to Regional to Provincial and finally Federal Level will impart the necessary Checks and Balances and provide ample opportunity to ensure monitoring; supervision and external audit. At the same time, the threat to provincial autonomy will be removed. National integration will be ensured and true development will result. In order to achieve all this, we will have to work out the duties and responsibilities of each tier of Governance. This does not mean unnecessary duplication and red-tapism. It means that Human Rights will have to be respected. We at the Khidmat Foundation (NGO) have worked out such a plan and wish to be afforded the opportunity to present it.

            Further to the above concept, there is a major issue of true representation. True democracy or the rule of the maximum number of the populace is not served by eliminating those who garner less support than others. Does this not signify the disenfranchisement of large chunks of the populace? This leads to disaffection on the part of those who fail to achieve representation. For example, in a population of 10,000 souls, we witness the following results. Come election time only 4,000 people cast their votes. Of these say 1,000 vote for the leading candidate, 800 votes for the second place, and 700 for the third candidate. The rest is divided into small numbers. Do we mean to say that the candidate supported by 10 % of the populace is a true representative of the area? Certainly not! A representation that is meaningful will include the first three in a council of representatives with voting rights in proportion to the number of votes that they receive This is democracy and true representation! Opposition members will be able to keep a strict watch upon the activities of each other. To avoid deadlocks the leading member will the casting vote. This is enfranchisement! To claim otherwise is merely an eyewash.

            I strongly urge the “Powers That Be” to review their intentions and make sure that they know what they are doing. The process of “Selection” and manipulation has got to stop. After all, it has never worked before.

            Those who uphold Western Democracy as an ideal are perhaps not aware of the fact that they promote the rule of the largest minority instead of the majority. The first and foremost hurdle that we encounter in any Development oriented situation is “Who will Bell The Cat!” Populist Democracy as practiced by most Countries rapidly degenerates into an Oligarchy or rule of the rich. This is due to the fact that a materialistic society is soon enthralled by a display of wealth to attract or even to purchase votes. Secondly, it is apparent that in a polarized society, actual voter analysis soon draws the conclusion that this Democracy is actually the rule by the largest minority and not one of the majority. This is exposed in a situation of say one hundred registered voters, forty-five percent turnout, and five candidates. The leading candidate gets twenty votes, the second gets sixteen votes, the third gets five, the fourth gets three and the fifth gets one vote. Are we expected to believe that twenty percent is a majority? Are not eighty percent unrepresented?

      Those who claim that Islam has not enunciated a clear method of Governance are sadly lacking in insight and knowledge. Vested interests soon usurped power and cast the true methodology of Governance into obscurity. Islam promotes participatory and egalitarian systems of Governance by consensus as opposed to exclusivist, highly competitive oligarchies (rule of the rich) disguised as democracies or representative Governance. For example, in a population of one hundred (or any number) if they are five candidates and forty percent abstain from voting. If twenty-five percent vote for one, fifteen percent for another, and the rest (twenty percent) are divided between the remaining three candidates. The person who garners twenty-five percent of the votes is deemed to be successful. Is this not unfair to the remaining seventy-five percent? This system soon degenerates into voter buying, conflicts and rivalries, and promotion of divide and rule policies on the part of external and internal vested interests. Technocratic responsibilities are undertaken by those who are unqualified for these positions and the question arises as to why they vie for election and the holding of power. Can we divorce human psychology from practical matters? As referred to before those who are under the sway of the lower or animal self commanding to evil, the Nafs-e-Ammara, are usually at the forefront in seeking election and dominance in direct opposition to Islamic injunctions. Those who object to this statement by citing the example of so-called “Religious Parties” in the fracas that is called Politics, are easily answered by the words “Beware Lest The Nafs assume the garb of Piety”. This situation is the worst condition that a person can fall into, in other words, that of being wrong and yet convinced of being right and that too with Divine Sanction.

      As an alternate, a system that uncovers the Centrality or Nexus of Trust within Society is called for. This fairly or unfairly competitive atmosphere that prevails within society has to be eradicated if we are to exist as a society. The questionable intents of those who pitch themselves into the Political arena; the vast expenses incurred upon elections; voter buying; coercion; subversion by local and foreign intelligence agencies; the ill will generated by competition and the requirement to recoup expenses incurred by those who win, show ample need for reform. Page Rank Algorithm is one such method for uncovering centrality. This algorithm is used to rank websites. As a graphic illustration in the society of one hundred voters cited above with the same turnout, each voter is required to select a minimum of five individuals. At the end of the exercise, the results go through various software of statistical and social network analysis. A graphic illustration of selection and grouping is made. The person who received the most votes and also the trends of voting as well as the interconnectedness of each voter is graphically displayed as an interlocking grid or network. The centermost five individuals in the network are selected to form an executive committee to run the affairs of the community. They are free to form sub-committees of those qualified for various activities pertinent to that society (agriculture, trade etc.). Accountability is inbuilt into the system as a repeat of the exercise immediately reveals whether the committee members have lost the position of trust due to any reason or retained it by excelling. This method relieves society from division and promotes cohesion. Here consensus and taking society along is rewarded and the opposite is soon exposed and disposed of. 

Structural Deep Democracy or SD2 as named by Mark Rostt, the originator of this method, uses PageRank as a centrality algorithm to analyze votes to determine the center of TRUST and CONSENT in a human trust network.

PageRank is an algorithm that allows the participants to determine who the best leaders are, eliminating the popularity game of conventional populistic-democracy. SD2 uses PageRank to select the top three or five to lead such an organization with one of them as the executive and then keeps those leaders accountable with frequent rank recalculations. This creates a small and efficient locus of trust and accountability.

PageRank allows members to vote their conscience without wasted votes and analyzes the deep structure of votes to find the coordinators that would be most likely to represent the values of the community as a whole.

The philosophy of SD2 is "Deep Democracy" - which centers on the idea that minority opinion should be respected. SD2 takes this two-steps further - not only will leadership be replaced if it doesn't respect minority opinion, but minority opinion can actually be decisive.

Our Political scenario almost always has aggressive "strongman” types - who are more than willing to bully and steam-roll peaceful people. "Strongman tactics can often impress ignorant common people, and can often lead to "strongmen” acquiring leadership positions with populistic-democratic selection processes. SD2 is ELITIST and non-populistic - SD2 is designed to MARGINALIZE would-be bullies and "strongmen” oppressors and give spiritual/intellectuals a selective advantage. This is ensured by uncovering the *flow-betweenness* ranking within an interactive grouping.

If this method were used in the very basic population grouping of Villages or Wards (urban) it would be true Devolution to empower such organizations to ensure self-rule and “Localization”. With inspired Leadership and an agreed minimum agenda, self-reliance through basic economy generation can be ushered in and maintained through a rapidly evolving “Globalization” via the IT Revolution.

This should serve to unmask the charade of “Devolution” to Union Councils, which are not the Grass Roots! This exercise has merely served to ensure that all the inherent flaws, drawbacks and evils that existed at Provincial and National Levels are transferred to Union and District Levels as well as creating tension between the two. The effort towards Devolution should have been taken to its logical conclusion to the real Grass Roots at the Village or Neighborhood level. Vested interests may hide behind a screen of campaigning for Provincial Rights and declaring scarcity of capacity within local populations to be a limiting factor rendering them incapable of being masters of their own fates. An appeal is made to all right-thinking individuals to cast aside the veils of prejudice and self-interest and take into account the sorry state of the environment and the fact that over 30 % of our population is faced with malnutrition! If this was a condition that was inescapable, it could be borne with resignation. When there is plenty of room for improvement and only a matter of getting our act together under a reappraised and visionary program for the attainment of Prosperity that is in conformity with 21^st Century requirements and capable of overcoming the challenges we face as a Nation. If present trends are taken into account we are likely to face stressful conditions in the near future, conditions that will persist for a long period of time. Fortunately, humanity is even today quite capable of rising to meet these challenges in an adequate manner. All that js needed is to harness and tap the vast potential that lies within our Human and Natural Resources.