September 23, 2004

Hilary Clinton sent an e-mailed report to a Pakistani member of her constituency regarding what achievements she had made and what she planned to do. Jawaid Bukhari wonders if ours MNAs and MPAs will ever learn to be accountable to the electorate

Theoretically, democracy enables the common man to exercise his sovereign right to rule through representatives. In periodical elections, people vote for their representatives whose majority forms the government for a mandated term. The representatives are accountable to the electorate. Depending on their performance, they are either re-elected or are rejected at the next polls.

But democracy is not functional in Pakistan. Through extra-constitutional interventions, elected governments are not allowed to complete their mandated term. The verdict of the people at the polls is not respected. And representatives thus escape democratic accountability by common citizens.

In practice, the voters remain unrepresented and ignored. They are shunned by their representatives after elections. The problems of the people are not resolved and thus continue to pile up. In democracies like the United States, where recent curbs on civic rights brings the future of freedom and democracy under clouds, elected representatives still hold themselves accountable to the electorate.

The US senators and congressmen are not only fully aware of the problems in their constituency but also keep their voters informed of their efforts to resolve them. A recent example is an update sent by Senator Hillary Clinton, the wife of the former US president, to a young Pakistani living in New York (her constituency) “on the year’s achievements and the challenges that remain”. The Pakistani is a young business executive, Taimur Khan.

Sent through e-mail on August 18, the message deals with issues that “matter to the New York families”. Hillary’s concerns listed in the update are about the economic future of New Yorkers, the costs of health care and the safety of their friends and families in the post-9/11 world.

She also spells out the measures she has taken to address their concerns about losing their jobs to outsourcing, the security of their pensions and the general uncertainty of the American economy.

“My top concern continues to be the economic well-being of all New Yorkers,” Hillary assured her constituency and added: “I fought for and won extensions to the Unemployment Insurance. She supports expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance which provides jobs to 80 per cent of the industrial and services sector.

Hillary is also working on the Non-traditional Student Success Act to allow New York workers to learn new trades and reinforce their skills. This would help them adopt to a changing economy. She organizes meetings of leading inventors/innovators with investors to bring jobs to the state of New York.

To create the common man’s stake in democracy, the Pakistani MNAs and MPAs could emulate the example of Hillary’s interaction with people in her constituency. It would not only help solve the common man’s problems but also stabilize representative democracy.

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