One of the most important factors that President Hamid Karzai emphasized on during the two-day Bali Democracy Forum in Indonesia was the importance of democracy and its development in Afghan society. He also recalled that Afghan people have been striving to establish democracy by giving sacrifices in their own ways. "We have had now two presidential and provincial elections, and two parliamentary elections. We saw that people participated in those elections in spite of the violence against them," he said.
Females travelled for hours on foot to vote in the polls held over the past decade, he said, recalling that in the first presidential ballot in 2005, a woman in western Farah province reached a polling station with a voting card of her daughter who had just given birth to a baby.
After being informed that she could not vote using her daughter's card, the elderly woman went back, but returned after a while along with her daughter and the newborn baby, the president told the audience.
Such examples are not very common in Afghan society, but it is a fact that Afghan society would require a democratic setup so that people have access to basic requirements. There are many people in Afghan society who do not know the real meaning of democracy and even do not understand how democracy would benefit them; it is because of the fact that they are kept distant of its blessings. It is really important that Afghan society must struggle to strengthen the democratic system in the country and must achieve all those factors that would strengthen Afghan democratic culture.
As president himself emphasized during his address, "A democratic system of government must focus on promoting justice, progress, good governance and the rule of law for its long-term success."
Afghan authorities, themselves, have to lead the people by strengthening democracy through their words and actions. They have to realize and make others realize as well that it is democracy that provides right to the people to form a government of their choice. The public representatives run the government according to the general will. The elected representatives belong to them. In democracy people realize that government has been established by them; so everyone discharges his duty devotedly.
Democracy exalts the moral values of the people. It teaches them principal of humanism, nobility, morality, love and affection. As such this form of government is also appreciated on the basis of moral virtues. Undoubtedly a good government is always helpful in improving the personality of individuals. A democratic government makes ample arrangements for it.
This system has less ambitious designs against any country. It is peace-loving because it is founded on the will of people. They are well aware of the fact that they will have to bear a great loss in war. In this form of government people directly participate in the functions of government as they are related to it. They understand that they are master of government and country and this feeling creates a sense of patriotism in them.
This form of government functions in conformity with the will of the people, and is accountable to them. Laws are made by the representatives of people and enforced by them. Therefore, it is a popular form of government. On the other hand human life has no value for the dictator or a despot. He crushes every just opposition. But in democracy, it is not possible because he is bound to honor the humanitarian values.
Equality is the base of democracy. Democracy is the torchbearer of liberty and equality. In this system every person has equal political rights. Every person gets equal opportunities of promotion and no discriminatory treatment is made with anyone. Courts are the defenders of fundamental rights of the citizens.
The risk of revolt and revolution is less in democracy because it relies upon peaceful motivation and movement. In this system people know that the peaceful and constitutional means are available to change the government, which can be easily used during the election, so democratic governments are always safe from revolutions.
Another merit of this system is that it promotes political consciousness. In this system many elections are held and every political party suggests the solutions of the problems of the country. This increases political understanding.
The merits mentioned above cannot be affiliated with all the democracies present in today's world; rather they talk about the ideal democracy. The real democracies have different drawbacks and may seem to be quite different from what has been mentioned so far. However, it should be kept in mind that with utmost and loyal efforts it is possible to establish a strong and healthy democracy within a state.
Afghan authorities and politicians have to keep this in mind that today most of the democracies of the world have the concept of division of power in their systems in one way or the other. According to the modern concept of state and government, the nature, form and characteristics of institutions of executive, legislature and judiciary decide the form and quality of the system. However, the most successful (in terms of promoting democracy) among the systems of the world are the ones that have the independence of the institutions mentioned above and their transparency and accountability.
The political system in Afghanistan has been facing certain problems regarding the separation of power and the nourishment and dominancy of the political institutions. The system is, to a certain extent, marked with the dominancy of personalities, rather than the institutions, while the institutions are ill-managed and ignored and they are not even given their due authority. The executive is not, in true sense, answerable to the legislature and even, in a sense, to judiciary, which has generated concerns regarding the transparency and the accountability of the executive.
The states of the world that are in the basic stages of their democratic setup and also have to carry diverse societies, like that of our country Afghanistan, have to keep such examples in their considerations so as to avoid any sort of discrimination and guarantee true representation to all the people of the country; as democracy is not just about making all the people form a 'general will' (as is strived by totalitarian regimes) and protect it. It is about managing the diversities in the people and making them believe that they have their rights protected and they have their say in the formation and regulation of state affairs.