I am quite surprised to hear many of our potential
candidates to the presidency of Maldives
are promising a lot of presents they would give to the people of Maldives if
elected. Among them unfortunately are not such things as truth and commitment, or
reliability and inspiration, or a nation where we can stand up on our own feet on
the path to independence; rather such that will make us reach out for hand-outs
and continue to be dependent.
I can well understand that there must be something that
leaders must promise to the masses in order to move them. In an autocracy where
the condition is total patronage, the king or an authoritarian leader dispenses
handouts to the subjects. But in a democracy, this is antithesis. In the case I
cite here, the servants seem to be seeking to throw handouts to the bosses –
the people. Such behaviour that is so pervasive in our political system stymies
the very essence of the democratic ideal. Yet, we cannot blame the public for
being so easily persuaded, for it is very difficult to acquire a new democratic
mindset quite so soon, even though this has been legislated for. The mind just
doesn’t work as fast as the pen on paper. This dissonance is no doubt so
deceptively utilized by selfish politicians. Once the vote is secured and the
race won, the process of winning votes for the next round seems to be already
on. Prudent national governance is very difficult to move in such situations of
selfish pursuit. The sops do nothing more than give a momentary thrill to the
recipients, and when the novelty wears off or the money doled out all spent, what
we wake up to is the fact that the real promises of building a nation for
tomorrow seems hardly off the tracks. Such events give the impression of a total
disconnects with the understanding of what democracy is.
Democracy is a tool that liberates us from the yoke of servitude
and raises us to the heights of us being the master of ourselves. Our right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the foundation and the goal of
this kind of governance. It would be in fact deceptive and even silently
intimidating to offer such sops as hospitals, personal nurses, computers and
the like to persuade a hapless public to relinquish their votes towards such
offers. In a democracy, the vote is the only real legitimate power we have as a
community to keep self-serving leaders from causing the social havoc that keep
societies mired in their problems term after term.
Good leaders must promise truth, not sops.
2 comments:
Yes, the essence of democracy is to be able to caste your vote or elect a representative freely, frankly and fearlessly, without inducement or any kind of coercion. These representatives are supposed to serve the people who elected them to the position and not the other way around!
Jai (presently teaching at UCLA)
Jai, Thanks for the further clarification -- awareness that we need to continuously impart to our democratic polity if we are to make this paradigm work. And glad to know you are at UCLA.
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