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The long game
[DAWN] THREE down, two to go. A second consecutive government inching, muddling its way towards completion. And a democracy that feels, once again, unsatisfactory -- stale, desultory, adrift.It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Transition was supposed to lead to gradual improvement, stability opening up space for structural change and a deepening of constitutionalism and democracy. Round one was the trickiest and, with it, the lowest expectations. Get to the finish line, a full term, in whatever shape and it would be success enough. Zardari delivered that, and pretty much just that. Round two was supposed to bring more. Five years removed from a military government, building on a historic achievement of a full term, the pace had to pick up. It hasn’t. It’s easy enough to see where Nawaz has screwed up. He’s got it grossly wrong on militancy -- the defining challenge of our times. On India, he seems to think hope is a strategy. And on the economy, neither jobs nor equity are a priority. But, because of the democracy deficit, he could get all of those things wrong and still end up a success -- if he figured out how to reduce the democracy deficit. He hasn’t. And there’s nothing to suggest he will. Three years, three terms, four decades of politics, six of life -- only the incorrigibly optimistic can believe Nawaz will come around to reinventing himself now. And that’s the problem: you can’t see continuity leading to the change that democracy is supposed to bring. Posted by: Fred 2016-06-19 |
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