Is it time to disbelieve?

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I believe that a majority of the people who are loyal to this beautiful country have shown mixed feelings towards our democracy, especially what has happened over the past few days and last Tuesday’s events inside the National Assembly. They were saddened by the stands adopted by the Council of Ministers and the Parliament. There is no doubt that they are talking privately and publicly about the extent to which we are governed by a democratic system. Are we really qualified for it, or are we miles and miles away from the democratic practice?

Undoubtedly, the enemies of democracy have succeeded by leaps and bounds to portray a miserable picture of democracy by making it a means for illicit enrichment, a way for accomplishing illegal transactions and making way in senior positions for friends and family, to such an extent democracy has been given no role to pay in the area of participation, monitoring and legislation.

I had ‘fierce’ discussion with the late MP Nabil Al-Fadhel on the importance of democracy and its validity in our societies. I thought that with time we would develop for the better, but I admit that after more than half a century of experience and participation in almost all the parliamentary elections regretfully most of the candidates I voted for did not win a seat for known reasons, perhaps Nabil Al-Fadhel and the current MP Ahmad were exceptions.

I have not lost my faith in democracy as the best way to run the country, to oversee the work of the executive, and to be a single legislative tool, though none of these goals have been achieved well, I put my faith in it despite all our social, economic and moral regression.

Then came the black Tuesday and I discovered I was wrong to believe that individual rule is what we deserve, which is the most appropriate and the best. We remained unworthy after democracy gave us the National Assembly half of whose members to not believe in the right of the homeland to exist, let alone other serious issues, and therefore some members did not hesitate to ‘tear’ it apart premeditatedly.

Yes, I say I am despaired and pronounce my disbelief in democracy and everything related to the majority rule. We all failed in our quest to mature democratically and this could have been overcome but all of our situations have worsened. If we look back at all those who have won the parliamentary seat we shall see that our understanding and our choices are going down with each parliamentary election.

One may say that the government needs these MPs who deliberately obstruct the administrative development so that a citizen can complain and turn to his deputy to ask him to beg the government to give the citizen his rights.

In this way such MPs (the Services MPs) shall become a tool in the hands of a minister as a result of which the monitoring role of the MPs vanishes in thin air. This is ‘perhaps’ true and hard to deny the fact that a majority of the voters do not know about it, but they did not try to change the situation, because they are satisfied with the situation. This is another proof that we are not ‘democratic’ and do not deserve democracy.

Yes, we declare our disbelief in democracy, and we will continue to do so if the situation remains the same. How can we support a MP who has stormed the Parliament building? How can we support someone who has been convicted by the judiciary? Yet, we see some of MPs (colleagues of MPs who are stripped of their membership) intervening to defend them and to help them continue their membership as lawmakers.

“They have succeeded in that and they are thanked for their honorable position even by the pro-government MPs.

Captain Faisal Thunayan Al-Ghanim has died. He was a professional and honest person in his work. He did favor for many. He was one of the first lovers of my writings and urged me to continue and persevere. We send our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

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By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

This news has been read 15864 times!