Jum'ah Journal--Democracy vs Justice

  Democracy is considered as a form of Government in which supreme power is held by the people and exercised either directly or through elected representatives. (Government OF the people BY the people FOR the people)
 It is said that Plato and Aristotle distrusted pure democracy fearing that majority rule would lead to 'mob rule'.(Have we not seen that?) As for 'human rights' and human dignity humanism renaissance enlightenment etc. are all very pretty sounding words considered to be part of democracy but there is a lot variation in interpretation of these words in different peoples of the world and we see that champions of democracy use autocracy when it suits the political purpose and all human dignity and humanism goes down the drain. Majority rule sounds good but if Hamas gets majority the democracy is thrown out of the window and majority is condemned by the same champions of democracy that propose elections and support fair elections.
I have said nothing about 'autocrats' for they are not counted even though Mubarak was 'elected' by 99% majority and yet he ruled as autocrat and Zardari was elected in Pakistan by "democratic majority" and is doing no different from Mubarak.
 In the heat of arguments Islamic teachings are thrown out as they are considered "theocracy' (Sharia law is however NOT theocracy). The emphasis in Sharia is on Justice and balance in governance. Justice is what is needed for balancing in power of the Governer and the governed. The law must see to it that there is no oppression at all levels, governmental, organizational and even individual. Call it whatever you like but if that is not provided in democracy, the human being remains at the mercy of other human being/s

 There is plenty of Gas, plenty of Electricity, and plenty of Water in Pakistan but "load-shedding" is ridiculously widespread for all these simple daily life essentials, utilities, because of the "distributing authorities' are making sure they get their share of money/power.
 I must hurry to take my bath before water supply is suspended, and must make sure to do it such time when gas was available and water was heated and then also see that you can shave while electricity is available. In many towns women folk get up at 4am to cook all the dishes for the day because there is no gas during the day it is only available during nightly hours.
   Coming back to USA was so much relief and while bad weather caused one minute suspension of electricity, I almost had a heart attack--- Not Load-Shedding here for God sake.


Please visit my Urdu blog at http://saugoreebsc.blogspot.com/ and my Hindi blog at http://wahajuana.blogspot.com/