Role of a common man in decision making

An ordinary person plays a very vital and key role in the history of development of a state. If an ordinary or common man of a region has enough knowledge of politics, war, economy and global situation etc, then it became much easier for a nation to decide many bold and just decisions.

Unluckily, the masses from the third world were never allowed or dragged to take part in the decision making process and as a result the unpopular and a small group of privileged class has the whole task in its hands. This fact plays a substantial role in the history of those nations and after all the common man has to suffer all the agony and miseries, not the ruling-class or decision makers.   

Like many other developing states both Pakistan and Afghanistan have the very same problem from the beginning.

There are three factors involved in both the states in our recent history and these are the External Powers, the Internal Powers (governments) and the Common Men, which could brought the change in. The reasons they have not done it yet, are both intentionally and unintentional. Both the External and Internal Powers are responsible for their intentional omission while the Common man for unintentional one. The power game and greed for more and more always prevented the former two powers, to involved common man in decision making process while the later has no sense for taking part or in other words never find a way to participate.  

Decision making has three levels, which are the local, national and international. It has two forms; one is participation in any field of society such as a political party, a non-governmental organization, trade or labour unions etc, while the second is representation in legislature, federal or provincial governments and international organizations like Unites Nations, World Trade Organization etc. 

The answer, to the question that why a common man in the third world has not enough capacity to participate in the decision making process, is that the decision makers, politicians and the high ranked government officials never wanted to allow them to do so. They feared that if ordinary people stand in front of them, then he would ask for his rights and about the omissions on their part. So the common man is almost unaware of his rights as a whole.

Besides that the educational systems certainly play a vital role. Richer countries typically have better educational systems as compared to the under developed or poor nations. By the way of education a common man can understand the facts, traps and problems around him. In some cultures, parents and the society put more value on education than in the others and that is why some of the societies are advanced while others are less.

In our daily life, one can measure the degree to which, the individual members of a society value the common man through a simple indicator and it is the road traffic. 

When a large number of participants of a society in road traffic want to give way to the others because it makes sense for traffic flow overall, it means that they uphold the common good against individual advantages. Contrary to that a me-first attitude, even at red lights has the other story. Traffic chaos indicates little respect for the common good, as well as the inability of the authorities to implement rules of the common good against me-first traffic participants.

Now if we compare the flow of traffic and the attitude of individuals on roads in Europe and United States, Japan, South Korea with the situation most of African States and of course in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the picture will be much clearer.

What will then an ordinary person do, in order to have a better position in his society and participate in the decision making process with full enthusiasm? The answer is simple one while the action is as much as difficult at the same time. The basic thing is the awareness.  If a person is aware of his power as a common man in his society then he will be able to utilise his abilities. That mind set might be considered as the very first step in this regard.

The second most important thing is to get rid of the attitude of “leave it”. Most of the people in third world have the same attitude towards their participation in societies. The reason for this attitude is the problems of earning their livings. But it’s a temporary get-rid type of thing, but in fact it is there in most cases.

These and other mentioned problems must be addressed by the common man, without looking at the elite or ruling classes, otherwise there will be no change in near or far future of next generations.