The real change

This refers to the article ‘The changes we need’ (July 6) by Malik Muhammad Ashraf. The writer advocates proportional representation as a solution to the problem of the political system being dominated by the small elite. Unfortunately, while this idea is well-intentioned, it is not the solution, and neither does a magic wand exist. In a country where political parties are undemocratic and are dominated by personalities, proportional representation will not miraculously result in new and better people from the lower strata of society making it to parliament. The leaders will simply hand pick their kith and kin, and then the entire legislature will essentially be a kitchen parliament with the party leaders behaving even more autocratically. There is also the fact that proportional representation is extremely unlikely to be passed by any of our parliaments. So pushing for proportional representation is a recipe for putting in an enormous amount of effort on something that will most probably not happen. And even if it does, it will only make parliament and the political system even more unrepresentative than it currently is – rather than solving any problem. Ultimately, the real solution to the elite capture of our political system lies in grassroots democracy through local governments. This is how new people can enter the system and potentially rise through it over time. This too will be a slow process, and there will not be any instant results. But it is our best bet. Since none of our mainstream political parties are serious about local governments, what we desperately need is a movement to make this happen.

Aqil Sajjad

USA