Is liberal democracy in its death throes?

The denizens of the lands and countries considered a heaven on earth watch in awe the misery engulfing those considered the most fortunate under the sun, whom death and hunger stalks unchecked, while their governments watch them helplessly.

Covid-19 and ensuing economic crisis is perhaps one of the sharpest turns that history ever took. Long standing certainties vanished in a matter of weeks giving way to a most uncertain future, forcing the citizens of the most powerful country on earth and in history to look for safer zones. Till date, thousands of American citizens, who could afford it, have migrated mostly to Australia in a matter of a few weeks. The others built bunkers and moved away from the cities and suburbs to save their lives from fatal coronavirus and unruly mobs.

A great revolutionary, Ted Grants, once said that it was an insult to revolutionaries to be surprised by events. They should predict them in advance. And, of course, there was no dearth of those who painted this scenario in their perspectives long before it happened.

The most pertinent question that follows is what triggered this unthinkable scenario for the most of us in the first place. Ted Grant also predicted that fall of Stalinism would hasten the demise of neo-liberalism and it took almost 40 years to reach where we find ourselves today.

At least now, it hardly requires one to be a genius to understand as to why and how it happened. It was unbound avarice and artificial expansion of the market through cheap credit to keep the assembly lines of the economy running. People bought their homes, cars, furniture etc on borrowed money and were paying their installments and one fine morning the recession rendered them jobless and in a matter of days they were lining up in their SUVs outside food banks with begging bowls in their hands.

All the economic theories that once earned Nobel Prizes became a laughing stock. Even the UN Secretary General has to publically admit that the system in place was utterly incapable to deal with such a crisis, though, quite understandably, he stopped short of admitting the fact that the crisis was created by the very system itself in the first place.

Policy makers are still groping in the dark as to what could be the solution to this crisis and even if they know the solution, they understand pretty well it won't be acceptable to their employers.

Meanwhile, discontent of the public at large is expressing itself in one after another protest movement in various countries all over the globe.

What this crisis has laid bare in very clear terms is the inadequacy of the economic and political structures in place. They are anti-people in character and content and utterly out of sync with the needs of over seven and half billion people living on this planet. One revolt after another is on the order of the day. The movements as yet are looking for the leadership which presently is not to be found but no vacuum stays forever.

Petty politics on non-issues may soon give way to sudden social convulsions like the one we saw on Thursday in Islamabad when disgruntled government employees took to the streets and clashed with police in scenes eerily reminiscent of war zones.

The meaningless wrangling between the ruling PTI vs. PDM may not last for long in the wake of pressing needs of the masses at large. Deteriorating economic conditions of the people may once again drag them to the arena of history where another battle against vested interests earnestly awaits them.

The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst.