A politically charged society is bound to stagnate

| by N.S.Venkataraman

( May 26, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The problem with democratic countries is that there is too much of politics in them. With no entry barrier for people to get into politics, the politics has become an activity free for all. While those with value systems and public spirited attitude may get into politics, the ground reality is that most of them who get into politics are those with criminal background, exploitative mindset and those with greed to get into power by any means. As a result, politics has largely become a discredited activity commanding low public esteem.

In the case of dictatorship, a small group of people with greed for power and even with criminal mindset seize power and destroy the opponents brutally and by adopting any means. In this case, only a small group of people are involved.

In the democratic systems , there are many people with criminal mindset and greed for power who are in the fray and they try to outdo each other . However, like the dictators, they cannot openly destroy their opponents and can do so only by clever maneuvering and schemes that may often be unethical. People with public spirited attitude often find it difficult to compete with the greedy politicians in winning elections and often such elections become an unequal battle between those with principles and those who do not care for principles so much. The net result is that it is found that the democratic countries are also in the grip of those with criminal background and adopting unethical ways to sustain themselves in power, though they do so under the garb of democracy.

The democracies in south east Asia are now undergoing this sort of scenario ,where corruption and nepotism have become the order of the day and the people holding power are accused of lack of personal morals and having political dishonesty.

In such sad scenario, the citizens living in the so called democratic countries find that the conditions are nearly as oppressive as in countries under dictatorship. The citizens in democracies also often live with fear of government and the so called freedom of speech often mean nothing. The independent minded media often find it difficult to survive and the media with partisan attitude and willing to compromise often become successful and their “business” flourish.

Therefore, we see not progressive democracies but chaotic democracies with several groups of political outfits fighting with each other in the name of people’s cause but actually for their own cause. The common men remain disconnected.

Such politically charged democratic countries are bound to stagnate, with the development projects and social welfare schemes suffering, with atleast 20% of the government funds earmarked for the infra structure and other projects being siphoned away by the politicians, bureaucrats and business men who form an unholy alliance. Inefficiency and dishonesty in execution of the projects result in loss of resources for the country and suffering and loss of benefits for the people.

For all the corruption and inefficient administration by the politicians in power in democracies, the citizens have to pay by way of heavy tax and high cost for services.

In such circumstances, we hear desperate common men wondering aloud whether dictatorship which would be exploitation by the small group of people could be better than the democracies which have unfortunately become the exploitation of many group of political outfits and political families.

The feelings of many Sri Lankan citizens cannot be different.