Grass roots

Canvassing for votes on a lazy Sunday is perhaps not the best of electoral strategies, and this was made abundantly clear to the gentleman standing at the gate soliciting a vote, pursuant of his dream of being on the union council of the concerned sector. Perhaps a man, who does not even know why Islamabad has union councils and not local bodies, and who is clueless about what a union council does or does not do, is not someone political aspirants should be wasting time with, and this was also explicitly explained to the candidate.
Since good mannerisms thwarted the urgent urge to slam the door on a fellow, ratherobstinate,countryman, the obvious other option was to listen to his parroted dribble, which did a pathetic job of posing as acampaign speech. “Change” was his preferred theme but not just “change”, rather “real change”. To venture a guess, pretty soon the political landscape will be blessed with themes for change, which may include “genuine change”, “absolute change”, “original change” and even “change change”.
His arguments that a vote is an “amanat” (trust), expected to invoke emotional feelings of righteousness, were met by hearty laughter, something he was unprepared for, and which thankfully ended the torture. The belief that “one vote” matters is atrocious and, frankly, as world history undoubtedly evidences, even all the votes of the common man have never mattered. Since everyone is thoroughly brainwashed over this right to vote nonsense, proof is required. If votes had ever made a difference anywhere across the globe, income inequality could not have grown to the current horrendous proportion in each and every democracy; the only other conclusion can be that the majority of common men are imbeciles.
This episode got my grey matter churning; local bodies or union councils as the case maybe, have been deemed as the grass roots level of democracy. The intelligentsia, obviously in the democracy camp, vociferously proclaims that these elections empower the masses, which in turn foster accountability and blah blahblah, and therefore democracy is good. All of that is a load of something, a phrase the editor will not publish in its purest form. As previously made clear, evolution is contrary to self-belief and, to venture a guess, even after a handful of elections things will not be much different.Nonetheless, let us proceed with an open mind and decide to vote, but who to vote for?
As of today, Islamabad is cluttered with posters of aspirants to the high offices of union council, a fate most cities of the country have already suffered. Some of the photographs of the esteemed candidates on these posters are downright frightening, and one can only shudder at the thought of them representing anyone. Perhaps may not be relevant for Pakistan, and then it might even be, there is a view that looks matter in the preselecting of candidates across the globe. Even this very morning, a BBC anchor inquired of the Canadian Prime Minister (PM) whether he thought his appearance, good looks and tattoo(tattoo!) had a role to play in his electoral success. Mr Trudeau obviously side-stepped the question. Apparently, undecided voters are most likely to vote on looks; if you do not look good and do not talk good, than that is bad. From the perspective of a voter in Islamabad, who is clueless of the backgrounds of candidates in most cases, an honest, decent-looking candidate may be the first choice.
Curiously, there is research that indicates that even the placement of a candidate on the vote itself can matter. A voter, who does make an effort to vote,simply because he is conscious of his civic responsibility, is not going to diligently look at the entire vote slip to make a choice. If there are, say, 10 candidates, he is likely to simply select from the first two, or at maximum three, candidates appearing at the top of the vote. This obviously suggests that luck plays a big part in a candidate getting elected.
Education might have been the decider but somewhere along the line legislators decided, not the voters, that education should not be a condition for getting them elected. And when this decision was reiterated the great civic society and the amazing free media was on vacation somewhere. The conclusion is that the uneducated are expected to put their weight behind educating the nation.Nonetheless, as of now, this diligent voter is exercising his right on either looks or the placement on the vote. On the flip side, education may not be the decider for the uneducated voter and they are far too many in comparison to the educated voter for the latter to ever make a difference anyways.
Perhaps for some voters, it is easier to toe the party line and vote for the candidate selected by the party. But then in this case that is not an election but rather a selection. And why make the effort for a dumb vote? Let the other party stalwarts carry the flag. For an apolitical person, the choice is still left to looks and positioning on the vote.
A bit of retrospection raises further concerns. Election campaigns are not cheap and even at the union council level the costs can run upto a few hundred thousand. So what exactly is the motivation behind so many candidates spending money for a position that in essence is public service? At this point, what exactly the union council does becomes relevant; where do they get the funds and the quantum of these funds and do the elected members get a salary?Albeit, common sense suggests that the chances of election funds being reimbursed, even in the case of the successful candidate, are bleak. So, are all these people investing in their elections out of pure righteousness and the spirit of public service?
At the end of the day, if these are the roots, that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and with the grass.And how this evolves democracy at the national level is even more mysterious. Perhaps it might be simpler, and cheaper, to win a lottery or throw darts!The concept of the ruled electing who will rule them has always appeared to be anomalous but looking at the roots it transpires that in essence the system only makes the ruled believe that they are electing the ruler. And, as far as accountability goes, if the incumbent does not perform,in the next elections the choice is the next best looking guy on the poster.
While the nation is engrossed in local bodies, the world is in turmoil. For the record, lesser incidents provoked WWII.

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant