ABU DHABI: The forms of democracy, such as ballot boxes and campaigning, are sadly empty in many countries that call themselves democracies, a local newspaper remarked today in an editorial comment on the arrest of Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan.
"Democracy needs more than ballots," the Abu Dhabi-based The National said. The arrest seems likely to prevent Musharraf from contesting this spring?s election there. The one-time military chief, who returned to the country from self-imposed exile to try his hand at electoral politics, now faces a raft of charges, including treason, instead, according to The National. "Whatever the merits of the cases against him, the drama of his return is not a positive chapter in Pakistan?s short, choppy history as a democracy ? of which Gen Musharraf, as he was then, was no friend," the paper added. And although the elections on May 11 are expected to mark the country?s first-ever transition from one elected government to another, the record is already unpleasantly blotchy: A number of candidates have been murdered or beaten. Electoral politics, according to the paper, was found to have a lower level of public support than either religious rule or a return to military control. "Clearly the spirit of compromise that is essential to democracy is in short supply in Pakistan. In this, that country is not alone ? the forms of democracy, such as ballot boxes and campaigning, are sadly empty in many countries that call themselves democracies."But few of those countries are as populous as Pakistan. Few are as poor. Few have such difficult relations with their neighbours. And few countries with all those difficulties are also nuclear-armed. "It is important to the region and the world, to say nothing of the 177 million Pakistanis, that the mandates of representative government be respected," the English language daily remarked.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.
