Pakistan: Too Hot for Democracy?

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Most of the world's newly independent nations lack the traditions and the training to make democracy work. Yet such is the magic of the word that dictators use it to justify their own brand of one-man rule. Indonesia's Sukarno and Nepal's King Mahendra call it "guided democracy," Guinea's Touré has "total democracy," Egypt's Nasser his "presidential democracy." The strongman most entitled to claim "democracy" for an essentially undemocratic system may well be Pakistan's benevolent dictator, President Mohammed Ayub Khan. His catch phrase: "basic democracies."

A Sandhurst graduate, General Ayub overthrew a discredited parliamentary government in a bloodless coup in October 1958, has since used martial law to rescue the overwhelmingly illiterate (88%) country from political and financial chaos and corruption. Three years ago, he retired to his teak-paneled study in Karachi, gave himself a cram course in Thomas Jefferson, and emerged with a plan for basic democracies: 80,000 village elders elected to panchayats (councils) that were to levy local taxes, maintain roads, run police forces. While the panchayats nurtured democracy at the grass roots, Ayub Khan continued to practice autocracy at the top. Last week he reduced the gap; he signed a new, 134-page constitution, promised the nation's first general elections in May.

Chosen for five-year terms by the village elders will be 150 male members of a National Assembly and six women picked by newly established provincial assemblies in East and West Pakistan. The President must approve all legislation, and his veto can be overriden by only a two-thirds vote; the budget must be accepted or rejected as a single pack age with no debate on individual allocations. The President can dissolve the Assembly, but if he does so, he must stand for re-election within 120 days. To placate sensitive East Pakistan—divided from the western section by 1,000 miles of hostile India—the new charter allows some regional self-government, but political parties remain forbidden. Freedom of association and expression can be suspended in the interest of state security.

Introducing his constitution in a radio speech. Ayub Khan called it "simpler to work'' than the old parliamentary system, "less liable to lead to instability—a luxury that a developing country like ours cannot afford. We tried [the parliamentary system], and it failed. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with it. The trouble is that we have not yet attained several sophistications that are necessary for its successful operation. You need a much higher level of education, prosperity, public spirit and integrity."

Expounding a dubious theory linking politics and the weather. Ayub Khan continued: "Above all, you need a really cool and phlegmatic temperament, which only people living in cold climates seem to have. Also it requires a long period of probation. The British took 600 years, and even France, which gave birth to liberal philosophy, has not been able to work it. So don't let us kid ourselves and cling to cliches and assume that we are ready to work such a refined system."