This analysis intends to touch upon an analysis of the
French revolutionary political clubs and assesses the nature of power within contemporary
political parties in an attempt to tie the two discussions together to form a modestly
comprehensive analysis of the current political scenario of Pakistan.
In one sense, the political clubs formed during The French
Revolution can be seen to be the ancestors of the political parties we have
today, in a similar manner to how The Revolution in itself is seen as the first
precedent of mass political movement due to the way in which it impacted how
public participation was seen in Europe.
The Jacobins, Cordeliers and Girondins were groups of like-minded
individuals who gathered in ordinary social settings such as clubs and bars to
discuss and reflect upon the political situation of the time and seek to
formulate action plans for the betterment of a system they considered rotten
and whose time they considered over. The functional style of these political ‘clubs’
was casual in the sense that it was less structured and was very inclusive.
Since these discussions and debates on current affairs took place in public
settings instead of chambers and halls, many other individuals present would
contribute their views and be able to develop a stake in the discussion.
Political parties, in one way descendents of such clubs, especially
mass parties that seek public support, claim to be a voice of the people for
the people by the people. However, the reality of the political domains in
which they operate paint a picture quite distinctly different about the extent
to which they seem to be able to achieve this claim. Participation of 50% of
the electorate in the American presidential election of 2012 reflects public
disenchantment from these parties; half of the common populace of the country
feels that there is no political party that represents their views or strives
for their objectives, they are so distanced from these voices of the people
that they choose not to partake in the elections on behalf of either ‘side.’
Similarly, political conversation with an average Pakistani lends insight into
a populace so supremely disillusioned and disconnected with its own ‘voice’
that a large segment of the nation’s population views politicians and leaders
of political parties as the ‘others’ as if they were an entity exogenous to the
people of Pakistan. What further cements this opinion, lends it credibility and
makes the situation even more worrying is that this dynamic exists across
socioeconomic demographics. The conversational experience can be replicated with
similar results in individuals of lower income groups spoken to on the streets
as well as multi millionaires conversing in their drawing rooms.
This enterprise of political representation and a ‘voice of
the people’ that began in the bars and motels of Paris towards the close of the
18th Century seems to have reproduced such that its progeny, not in
all countries but definitely in some such as our own, an instrument of
oppression and public estrangement similar to the kind that this venture aimed
to destruct in France.
I recognize that an intelligent analysis is more complex
than what has been presented above, and it ought to consider the various
structures, cultures and objectives both, of parties and party systems, both,
across countries today and in the context of national experiences of the past. However,
I also do feel that in Pakistan, it is very true that there is very broad gap
between the people and their voices and that political parties have behaved in
a manner such that the people have dissociated with them. However, it is also
important to recognize that this is not the case with every political parties
and that contradictory evidence may be obtainable in certain parts of the
country where people do feel connected to and embroidered with their
representatives. Parties such as the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf do reflect a social
movement that is connected to the masses on the ground and power from them, and
not from their suppression or through silencing and ignoring them.
This paper will subsequently limit the scope of its analysis
strictly to the case of Pakistan.
Perhaps power structures within Pakistani parties are an
important cause of this. Our political leadership systems reflect a distasteful
hypocrisy. In a political environment where each tries to outdo its competitors
in appearing as the champion of democracy in a country perpetually annoyed by
military involvement in politics, it is startling that most of these champions of
democracy don’t pursue democratic norms within themselves. Party politics in
Pakistan is plagued by dynastical rule of certain families (in the case of the
PPP, PML (Nawaz, Quaid and Functional) and the ANP) or autocratic domination on
the basis of fear or cult-like respect (observable in examples such as the MQM
and JUI-F). What results is the absence of regular leadership changes and
intra-party accountability for its leaders who have no fear of losing their
place at the top of the food chain. It is disastrous, really, that barely any
party in Pakistan holds internal elections which provide a microcosm of what
they claim they want the government to be selected on the basis of. It is
disastrous because it makes most of these parties decadent, insensitive and
indifferent to the public and disconnected by them. It also makes the masses
uninterested in political venture. It is disastrous because the party becomes a
group of individuals tied by self interest, a cultish entity that strives to
protect its own because that is what protection of the self is dependent upon;
it creates a group that in unapproachable by and uninterested in the masses. It
is disastrous because it cuts the voice of the people from the people and gives
it an exogenous and independent nature, which results in disillusionment and
disenchantment. Perhaps this is why the clubs that began as inclusive domains
of public discussions have become near gang-type entities that most families
want to keep their children away from.
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