The Crisis of Democracy

Our politicians are having a tough time facing the nurturing of democratic culture in the country, as clearly brought out in the column Panorama (DS Dec 26). The issues and implications raised therein have to be responded to publicly by the politicians, to restore their credibility with the tired electorate. This is not a problem created by the citizens, but the latter have the right to intervene and ask the politicians to behave, in the interest of the politicians themselves, and for bringing back a sense of democratic security in the public mind. The experiments are lasting too long in a poor country whose sustaining capacity is limited due to environmental circumstances.

The clever and ad hoc concept of neutral, non-politician, caretaker government to conduct the general elections is a non-starter, because it is a negative solution of no-confidence amongst the politicians themselves. This mechanism is similar to a state of having the cake and eating it too.

Why the constitution has to be changed to accommodate some weakness amongst the political parties? The clever politicians wish to transfer the benefit of the doubt for a short and interim period, and then come back to the field and lose the benefit, and go about their old ways of hoodwinking the people. The voters have seen the modus operandi of both the major parties when each was/is in power, and the verdict is not all palatable for the political leadership.

There are several areas of problems, which did not exist before. On the one hand, there is a lot of sermonising about democracy (first comes the acceptance in principle, then the practice of the precept); while on the other hand there is more breach in practice than in the belief of the concept of democracy. This stage is lasting too long.

If the politicians are not yet ready for democracy, then let the duration of the caretaker government be extended after careful debate (political coalition won't work), to enable the political dust to settle down (to contain political asthma) for the sapling of democracy to come up against the hazards of the nasty political environment. Whatever be the type of government, the polluted environment has to be cleared, before trying out any definition or redefinition of democracy. As pointed out in the column, the mindset has to be changed, and the pressure for this change has to come from outside the political camp, as all self-reformatory exercises by the politicians have failed so far. It is also necessary to weigh some past anchors, for the ship of state to become mobile and move forward. We are carrying on a futile, static drill - marking time. What for?

However, an empty brain is the devil's workshop, hence the political market has to be kept in circulation. Once it becomes dormant, the situation might go back to square one, remembering what happened when the politicians returned to active operation after a gap of 16 years. There is not much difference between rusty and rustic, at least as seen in politics in this part of the world. Had the politicians delivered the normal service, the GDP and the GNP would have gone up steadily since 1991, and the nation could have diverted a lot of political energy towards the normally acceptable national goals.

The nation is now stuck in an orbit of vicious circle. Theoretically, considerable external force is necessary to get out of this orbit (known as escape velocity, as used by a spacecraft while escaping from the earth's orbit). This force could be friendly or unfriendly, depending on the situation at that point in time. These political cyclones did visit us before, and we are not unfamiliar with the situations created. But this energy is not like the weather, it can be controlled, depending on the political and public will. We have frittered away three decades, and even commonsense dictates that we lose no time in setting our house in order. The fate of the new generation is in our trust, and the politicians owe as much obligation to the future as they do to the present. There is no lack of motivation, but where is it hiding, and how? That is another chapter.