Democracy and establishment

 By: Eesar ul haq

Is there any country in the world that possesses true democracy? Your answer might be England, Canada, America or India etc. but there is no country in this world that can declare its democracy hundred percent true, every so called democracy in the world is controlled by the oligarchy, or establishment. This word is very familiar in Pakistan as it is heard on every news channel and printed by every news agency on daily basis.

The question arises in every commoner like me that is Pakistan the only country under strong influence of establishment, oligarchy works everywhere that controls the management and the formation of new governments. In Pakistan civil bureaucracy and military leadership is proclaimed as establishment and that’s not a wrong narrative. 

The modern concept of democracy has been given by England when they made parliament more powerful and declared that the monarchy will be kept as a prestigious historic institution. England’s democracy is also vulnerable to some influential people as well as institutions. The clergy and the Church of England has been a powerful institution that has a strong influence in the system of the country, else than that, the top members of the royal family, senior civil servants, politicians, financers and industrialists are all part of the establishment in England.

Canada, America and china, these all countries also possesses oligarchy; the main component of the establishment in these countries is the industrialists. Especially while discussing the establishment in America, the weapons industry has its influence over the government. While they are selling the modern warfare weapons to the US army as well as exporting them in international market, they are not in the favor of ending wars as they are making money and sponsoring the US government not to stop the wars. In the recent Presidential elections Russia is alleged to have influence over the elections, as Donald Trump was preferred by the Russian government as the President of US.

India that declares itself as the largest democracy is also not totally free from the influence of oligarchy, Military might not be the establishment in India but the extremist religious groups have emerged as the strong influential in India recently. Nowadays the government of India is under the strong influence of these groups and there are many incidents that are reported related to the religious violence against the minority religious entities like Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Else than that the many politicians in India have links with the underworld. And when mafias support to them to win the elections they are indebted and have to work to return the favor of that mafias. 

To conclude, I might say establishment and democratic government go parallel. But there are exceptions in the world too, when the military tried to take over the government in Turkey, the people of the Turkey on the call of their beloved leader Recep tayyip Erdogan defeated the coup attempt. Establishment is an old concept, and it will prevail in the world but following the Turkeys example we can minimize its power by public awareness as public is the only tool that can be used.