The Quest For Democracy As We Approach The National Assembly Eelections - Op-Ed
July, 2016, Mr Regis Francourt states that ‘no one has monopoly on democracy.’ Mr Francourt was questioning the basis of certain allegations disparaging his integrity and putting into question his honesty. These issues are matters which fall within the realm of the law of defamation and can be the basis of judicial action.
As we move towards the National Assembly elections which is due on 8, 9 and 10 of September, 2016 – I am wondering what democracy means to Mr Francourt, as well as to most of the registered voters, who over recent years have thought that democracy is an ideal form of government.
Have recent developments in different parts of the world reflected the justification that democracy is indeed the ideal form of a government for most nations in the world?
Criticism of democracy are not new – and it often had ethical, as well as political overtones. The great writings of philosopher Plato, especially his Republic, contain some of the most penetrating criticism of democracy ever written and they provide an excellent framework for understanding the current problems of democracy.
I have tried to deal with this controversial issue in my book, "SEYCHELLES – The saga of a small nation navigating the cross-currents of a big world." This is what Plato stated –
Democracy encourage mediocre leadership because leaders in a democracy must constantly court the favour of the people to stay in power. In democratic systems, the premium for successful leadership will be put on popularity with the masses rather than on wisdom and training. And the most popular leaders will be those most like ordinary citizens, that is, those who are not outstanding. Also in democracy, he argued that leaders must pander to the wishes of the electorate rather than do what they think is right. If they do not satisfy the wishes of the people, they will not be returned to office. As a consequence of these features, democratic leaders are tempted to focus on short-term goals at the expense of the long-term needs of society. What happens ten or twenty years down the road will not affect the next election, which must be their primary concern. The difficulty of getting leaders to deal forthrightly with long-term policies is no accident of democratic politics, according to Plato; indeed, it is built into the system. They cannot afford to choose policies that have long-term benefits but cause short-term pains. For similar reasons, he argued, in democratic societies leaders would be more inclined to give things to the people than to ask something of them in the form of sacrifices, a consequence being that democracies have an inbuilt tendency to spend more than they take in, by giving people what they want in the present and letting the costs be paid by future generations who have no present vote.
Plato also thought that democratic citizens would be more taken up by the “images” or “appearances” of things – rather than their true substance, such that democratic political debate over time would become more superficial and focus less on substance issues. What we would call image politics would come to dominate the electoral process, with more emphasis on how leaders looked and spoke rather than on what they said.
Plato had no inkling, of course, about modern media and the extremes to which these predictions would be taken. But he was well aware that a society which focused on images rather than issues was easy prey to manipulation by those more interested in winning arguments and manipulating beliefs than finding the truth – a society in which the electoral process could be dominated by media, consultants, advertising agents, public relations experts and availability of money.
This questioning of democracy and its quality certainly provide much food for thoughts by leaders who, all too often, extolled the virtues of democracy without themselves always acting democratically.
It goes without saying that the concept of ‘one man one vote’ is becoming more and more questionable. At the moment, a man who lives, say on Farquhar Island, who has never left the shores of the island, and who has never been educated as to what ‘democracy’ is all about, is given a vote which is equal to that of a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher. It is similar to a situation of handing over a revolver to a child without first teaching him how to use it. He ends up shooting himself.
The way democracy is being played at this time in the USA and in Europe is somewhat troublesome. It is doubtful whether the Chinese who has achieved an impressive level of progress through the politics of ‘Central Command’, will ever adopt a Western-type democracy. Obviously, they would go along the road of ‘who pays the piper calls the tune’, and continue with the policy of accumulation of wealth and become the richest Nation in the world.
As Seychelles navigates through the cross currents of geo-politics and with a high level of electorate ignorance – it will be too much to expect the prevalence of an idealist democratic standard as seven political parties compete to get seats in the National Assembly.
We must therefore consider ourselves lucky to have achieved the democratic level, which we are now enjoying, after more than 15 years of One Party dictatorship. But, to consolidate this achievement, it will be important for the elected President to have behind him a Party which commends a working majority in the National Assembly. This must be the concern of all those interested in seeing internal stability and the continuity of growth.
Sir James R. Mancham, KBE
Founding President of the Republic of Seychelles
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