DEMOCRACY
Democracy, Monarchy and Caliphate are systems which are used by men to select from among themselves, their leaders. Democracy is a system which was developed and used by the ancient Romans to choose their leaders. In order to become a leader in a democratic country, majority of the peoples must votes for him or her to become their leader. It is natural that a person will vote for someone he or she likes to become his or her leader. In democratic system, a person who wants to become a leader must express his or her desires to become a leader by standing for an election. Everyone in a democratic country has the right to vote or not or to stand for an election. In case there is only one person who wants to become a leader and willing to stand for the election, he or she will automatically wins the election and become the leader of the community. When there are two persons who wish to become the leader, the one that wins the majority votes will become the leader. Irrespective whether that person who wins the majority votes is qualified or not to become a leader, is not important in a democratic system. Whoever wins the majority votes even by only one vote will become the leader in a democratic system. In other words, in democracy the truth and the best are decided by the majority and the main principle in democracy is; majority rules. Majority rules are a principle in democracy, which is entirely against Islam and the Quran. In Islam, the truth is the Quran and one can only rules with the laws of the Quran. Majority is the main icon in democracy and to become a leader in democratic countries, a person needs to become popular in the society.
The more popular a person is, in democratic countries, the better chance he or she stands to become a leader. Many famous actors, actress and artists in democratic countries turn to become politicians and later on become the leader of their countries. Irrespective whether a person has or has not the quality of a leader, the one who obtain the majority of votes in democratic countries will become a leader. Democracy is directly opposite to the Islamic system in choosing a leader. In Islam, we are not allowed to choose someone to become a leader, who has in his heart a wish to become a leader. In democracy we are choosing leaders from among those who want to become leaders and willing to contest between each other to become a leader. Democracy places the voices of the majority as the basis to choose a leader while in Islam base on the qualities of the person and not on majority as in democracy. In democracy a person who wants to become a leader must convince others to votes for him or her to become a leader. In order to convince others to vote for him or her, he or she must give promises to the people, such as, that he or she or the party will be able to give them almost anything they want in case she or he or the party wins the election. In Islam this is strictly forbidden. Allah has ordered us to love Allah and not power and wealth. Allah forbids us to love power and wealth more than to love Allah. Allah has ordered us to make Allah as our lover, as our objective and as our goal and not power and wealth as the objective and goal of our life. There is no one who can give promises to the peoples other than Allah. When we give promises to peoples, we are trying to become God to the peoples and this is strictly non-Islamic.
In democracy, leaders are selected on the basis on how many people like them to become leaders. The more peoples who like him or her to become a leader, the more chances that the person in a democratic system to be chosen as a leader. In democracy, the decision to choose someone to become a leader is on the hand of the majority but in Islam the decision to choose someone to become a leader is on the hand of the leader of a group who has been assigned to choose the leader. In democracy, the person who wins the majority of votes is regarded as the most suitable person to become the leader and each person in a democratic system carries only one vote irrespective whether that person is an intellectual or an ordinary person. When the majority of the peoples vote for a person to become a leader, he or she will automatically become the leader of the country. In other word in democratic system, the majority rules, and that is the reason why Anwar Ibrahim says in Malay; “Suara rakyat, suara keramat”. When a person who stand for an election, can convince the majority of the voters that he or she is good, he or she will has the greater chance to obtain majority votes and to become the leader of the country. In democratic system, it is not the quality of the leader that become the determining factor in selecting a leader, but the ability of the person to convince others that he or she is good. A person who can deliver convincing speeches to the public is the person most likely in democratic system to be chosen as a leader. In order to convince others that a person is suitable to be chosen as a leader, another quality required in democratic system is the ability to portray a good image.
All of us know that a person who can portray a good image does not necessarily a good person. In order to become a leader in a democratic country, one need to portray a good personal image and the party that he or she belongs and this is extremely important in securing power. In democratic countries the political parties need to spend millions of dollars in trying to potray a good image of their candidates who are contesting in any elections and spend millions of dollars in trying to potray a bad image of their opponents. In order to portray good images, all political parties in democratic countries have their own newspaper, and all the news in the newspaper are aiming in portraying good images of their candidates . In order to remain in power, most parties which rules in a democratic country will use all the available media in the country to portray their parties’ good image. In democracy, power to decide who should rule lies in the hands of the majority and the majority will choose the party that portrays good images. In order to portray good images of their leaders, newspaper own by the particular political parties will only published stories that will upgrade the good images of their leaders and would not published stories that will degrade their images. In the system of democracy, a person will not be able to become a leader, unless he or she wishes to become a leader and be a member of a particular political party. In democratic system a person who is having a very good quality as a leader, but he does not wish to become a leader and he does not join any political party, he will never be able to be elected as a leader.
In order to become leaders in countries that practice democracy, a person must convince the peoples that he or she is a person of good quality and in case he or she is chosen to become the leader, he or she will be able to accomplish all the wishes of the peoples. In other words in democratic system a person who wants to become a leader, he or she must be able to act as a God to them, who is able to solve all their problems and to bring them to everlasting happiness. In order to win an election in a democratic system a candidate of an election must makes many election promises. The more promises the candidates can give, the more popular the candidate will become. The more popular the candidate is the more chances the candidate will be chosen as a leader. In order to rule a country in a democratic system, the party must have majority seats in the parliament. All political parties in democratic countries want to have more seats in the parliament. The party that has more seats in the parliament will rule the country. Laws are passed by the parliament in democratic countries. Laws are pass according to the wishes of the majority. In democratic countries, laws are made according to the opinion of the majority of the parliamentarians. In democratic system, the party that has two third (2/3) majority in the parliament will be able to made laws according to the wishes of the party. This is against Islam, as in Islam laws are from the Quran and Sunnah and the basis of all laws being formulated in Islamic countries must come from the Quran and Sunnah.
Democracy gives the power to choose leaders and to pass laws in the parliament to the peoples. In democracy the wishes of the majority of the peoples will determine the leaders and the laws of the country as Anwar Ibrahim often says in Malay; ” Kuasa ditangan rakyat, suara rakyat suara keramat”. In Islam, the wishes of Allah will determine the leader and the laws of the country. Anwar believes in democracy and Anwar wants to portray his image as a good leader but Umno and Barisan National would not let Anwar to have the image of a good leader. All the weaknesses of Anwar will be revealed in the newspapers, radio and television channels own by UMNO and BN, and because of that Anwar will be having a very hard time trying to portray his image as a good leader. Anwar on the other hand will use all other means available to portray his good image and to tarnish the image of Dato Seri Najib, the president of the ruling party. The ruling party will make promises to the peoples and Anwar on the other hand will make better promises than the ruling party. The ruling party will try to discredit all the promises made by Anwar. Whoever read newspapers belong to the ruling party, will be influenced by the stories that meant primarily to upgrade the images of the government and whoever read the newspapers own by the opposition parties will be influenced by the stories that meant primarily to upgrade the image of the opposition parties. Newspapers, radio and television plays a very important role in portraying good images of leaders and parties in countries that practice democracy. However with the introduction of internet, when news can no longer be the ownership of only the ruling parties, the task of portraying good images of politicians has become more difficult to accomplish.
With internet, the world has entered an era where there is no border to the spread news. The world has becomes borderless. With internet there is no limit to the sources of news. With the introduction of internet, all peoples are able to know the truth, which previously were kept as secrets by some peoples who are interested in maintaining power. With internet, peoples can read news from newspaper in the internet owns by independent bodies and with internet, peoples can write about anything they like and spread it all over the world. With internet, many can read the other side of the stories and know about the real truth by reading many blogs in the internet. With internet, either good or bad news can spread all over the world in matters of minutes. Governments in the so call democratic countries in this world can no longer portray themselves as good, because all the news whether bad or good about the government can be read by all the peoples in all over the world on the internet.
Many governments in the Arab countries claim to be practicing democracy. In reality they are not practicing democracy but monarchy. In order to show to the world, that they are democratic they pretend to hold general elections but the result of the general election is already known to them. They hold general elections but they will make sure the winner of the general election is their own party which is currently in power. In the name of democracy some of these governments had ruled the countries for more than 30 to 40 years. In democratic system, the power lies in the hands of the peoples and many governments had manipulated the system in order to remain in power. In democracy, the more seats the party wins in the general elections, the more powerful the party becomes and the party that wins the majority seats in the parliament will rule the country. In democracy, the wishes of the peoples are translated in the form of ballot papers. Each ballot paper represents the wishes of each individual in a democratic society. In order to know which party wins, they counts the number of ballot papers and the party which has the majority of the ballot papers will win the election.
Counting ballot papers as a method to determine which party wins in an election is a very weak system and can easily be manipulated. Ballot papers can be changed or altered according to the wishes of the government which is in power. Which government does not want to win an election and to remain in power? None of the government in the world wants to lose an election, which mean to lose power. Government in power will try to remain in power. They will do whatever it takes to remain in power. In democratic system which uses the counting of the ballot papers as a mean to know which party wins, can easily be manipulated by the government in power. Government in power can increase the number of ballot papers on the government side and decreases the number of ballot papers on the side of the opposition. Basically all men, love power and material wealth. Democratic system of selecting leaders is a weak system and highly prone to manipulations of those who are in power. I would say with certainty that the result of all the previous general elections in the so call democratic countries in the Arab world is a manipulated result. In case all the governments in all the Arabs countries win the election by such a large majority, why there is an Arab spring in all the Arab countries? Democracy is a system developed by men and it is full with weaknesses. The results of the elections conducted using the democratic system can easily be manipulated by those men who love power and love to maintain power within their cronies, party or families.
Allah says in the Quran that men love power and material wealth. Because of power and wealth men are willing to do anything. Men love power and love to maintain power within their clans, cronies, parties or families. Democratic system can easily be manipulated by those who want power to be maintained within their clans, parties and families. As for an example, power to rule India, has remained basically in only one family, known as Ghandi. Nehru Ghandi started the hierarchy of power by becoming the first Prime Minister of India after independence. After the death of Nehru Ghandi the power was passed down to his daughter, Indra Ghandi who was in power for more than a decade. Later on, the power was snatched by the BJP but return back to the family of Ghandi, when Rajiv Ghandi became the Prime Minister of India. Now India is ruled by the Congress party headed by the wife of Rajiv Ghandi, Sonia Ghandi. Sonia is planning to pass down the power to her son by the name Ruhul Ghandi. India is supposed to be a country with the largest population in the world that practice democracy. Although India is supposed to practice democracy in selecting their leaders but due to human weaknesses, men manipulate the system of democracy and turn the system into the system of monarchy. A monarchy is a system of selecting leaders only from within a certain family or clans or parties.
One other example is in so call democratic country of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, basically there are only two families that determine the hierarchy of power. One family belongs to Hasenah Wajid the daughter of the late Mujibulrahman, the father of Bangladesh and the other family belongs to Khalidah Zia the wife of one of the late President of Bangladesh by the name of General Zia. Bangladesh is supposed to practice a democratic system in selecting their leaders but in reality the leaders in Bangladesh can only comes from so call the two royal families of Bangladesh. Although the system supposes to be a democratic system but it has slowly turned to become a monarchy system. One other example is in Malaysia which supposes to be practicing democracy. In Malaysia, the power to rule the country in the last 56 years remain with the members of only one party, known as UMNO. In reality Malaysia is practicing monarchial system in selecting leaders and not democracy. Suharto, Ghadafi and Hosni Mubarak remain in power for a very long time in the so call democratic countries which in reality are practicing monarchy.
Prof. Dr. Nasoha SaabinJune 2012
Dean of Faculty of Optometry
International University College of Technology Twintech
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Source http://mthago.com/
About Prof. Dr. Nasoha Saabin
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