Misinterpreted democracy

Bill Clinton, after Richard Nixon's death, eulogised the deceased rival party boss as someone whom he used to turn to for advice and expressed his grief for loss of a great counsel. The CNN-viewers of Bangladesh must have watched that. Mind it, Nixon sacrificed his first chance to win presidency simply because he valued American interest above his personal interest, and the Reader's Digest later showed had he told Americans of plans against the USSR, which would stymie the plans and damage national interest, he could have won.
Khaleda Zia, after Hasina's arrest, shed her tears and appealed for Hasina's immediate release! Mind it, too, that Hasina had never shown any Nixon-like interest for the country but for self-interest pushed the country to the brink of all-out violence. And Khaleda expressed this unprecedented feeling for someone she had been blatantly at loggerheads with --never while she was a sitting prime minister.
The two ladies say they uphold democracy and love people. Then we have to redefine democracy as getting power and amassing wealth at any cost. No wonder, they get steeped in apathy, indolence, embezzlement and transfer of funds abroad.
Contrast that with the age of presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley and the rise of tycoons like Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller-- all put in genuine hard labour for economic development and social progress in the US.Economic development and social progress do not follow from misinterpreted democracy (Singapore is an example).