Mediaboss Marketing

2017-02-26 06:29

Thuli Madonsela

"Democracy needs to be reviewed or repackaged for it to remain meaningful to all and, accordingly, maintain sustainability. This view was expressed by one of the South African millennials at Harvard with whom I have been engaging in spontaneous democracy dialogues since our arrival here. His colleagues who participated in the conversation, enthusiastically concurred.

The young leaders advised that they had been giving the issue of democracy and what they see as its contemporary challenges some thought for a while. One of their bold statements was that if current democracy trends continued, democracy was doomed. One of them opined that the key threats to democracy today were irrationality and selfishness among those who are public representatives and their administrative support functionaries.

The spontaneous democracy dialogues I have been having with young people have dispelled the myth that young people have no interest in politics or are some lost generation with regard to leadership and national affairs.

My dialogues with young people have convinced me that if young people tend to do nothing about concerns regarding proper use of state power and public resources, it is not that they dont care or dont have an opinion. It is principally because they tend to find current democracy avenues rather undemocratic or inaccessible to the average person.

Undemocratic

How can democracy be undemocratic? You must be wondering if this is not an oxymoron. I too had similar thoughts when former Spanish presidential candidate Pedro Sanchez commenced his address on democratising democracy at the 2016 conference of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin. As I listened to his talk, though, I found resonance between his thoughts on contemporary democracy gaps and the views I have expressed in various forms regarding the need to reimagine democracy.

Has democracy become undemocratic, you might ask. My answer is yes. You might even argue that many of the things that are done in the name of democracy only share the -cracy part with democracy and that the demos part a Greek concept meaning people is missing.

Democracy is meant to connote the government of the people, by the people, for the people. The Freedom Charter simplified democracy into the phrase: The people shall govern. Its a system in which people govern themselves directly or through their elected representatives who are accountable to them. In the simplest of terms, democracy means power to the people. Worth noting, accordingly, is the centrality of the people in a democracy, both as the mandate givers and the supposed beneficiaries of the exercise of public governance.

The philosophy behind democracy is that the collective decides that unregulated coexistence is anarchic and potentially brutal, with survival of the fittest being the order of the day. The collective surrenders to regulated coexistence with a few chosen to regulate the conduct of the group and collective resources for common good. The chosen few, commonly referred to as political representatives of the electorate, are supposed to be the most selfless and most regulatory competent of them all. The outcome of democracy must be the improved fortunes of all and peaceful coexistence.

Essential elements of true democracy are that the few chosen based on trust to look after everyones interests govern at the will of the people and are ultimately accountable to the people as mandate givers.

But lets look at the state of democracy today through the lens of the true meaning of democracy. You will agree with the young leaders views that there are serious discrepancies between what is done today in the name of democracy and what democracy is supposed to mean.

For example, public representatives are supposed to be elected by the people, but many are not.

Taking South Africa as an example, the people have no say whatsoever in the appointment of an increasing number of people to Parliament and even Cabinet today. Many of the people holding key political positions were never elected by the people or put on a list that was reviewed by the people when they consciously voted for political parties in April 2014.

Unlike in constituency elections, the public has no say about who does or does not get on the list of the parties they will vote for. Only party members have a say, but even then, within the constraints of power dynamics in each political party.

Government must be at the will of the people. But not so long ago, the executive unilaterally decided, without the involvement of Parliament or the people, to withdraw South Africas membership of the International Criminal Cour, despite having no alternative mechanism for the impunity for genocide and related war crimes the court was established for.

Furthermore, all public representatives are supposed to be impartial and selfless, but many are encumbered by conflict of interest with a few flagrantly choosing to favour actions that advance their interests, instead of the public interest.

An example is Cabinet getting involved in the conflict between Oakbay and the banks, despite the president having a conflict of interest arising from his sons part-ownership of Oakbay.

Reimagine democracy

While improved fortunes of all is an essential outcome of democracy, we must agree that social justice continues to elude many of those left behind, while the fortunes of some can only be principally attributed to their political positions or connections.

In another country, a president who came into power on the promise of taking power away from the capital and giving it back to the people has since been making major life-changing regulatory decisions without the legislatures input or the involvement of the people.

The courts, of course, have helped the people to push back against some of the excesses of the executive and other state functionaries. The high court recently decided that the ICC withdrawal without parliamentary involvement and peoples participation was unconstitutional. The constitutional administrative accountability institutions have also played some role, as seen in investigations such as the state capture report.

This indeed offers a lot of comfort. Such measures help defend and deepen democracy. The media and civil society also play a part.

The mechanisms for defending and deepening democracy are all thanks to the visionary architects of the constitutional democracy. Such architecture incorporates independent judicial and administrative scrutiny of acts of state functionaries to ensure constitutional, legal and policy compliance, among other factors.

But are these enough to plug the gaps regarding undemocratic tendencies brazenly executed in the name of democracy?

Are current measures aimed at deepening and defending democracy enough to save and sustain it as the best model for regulating peaceful coexistence?

The millennials believe we should dig deeper. One of them proposes considering the future use of robots (artificial intelligence) to govern, as theyll do so with efficiency, precision and impartiality.

I have my doubts. But I do agree that it is time to review or reimagine democracy. Democracy must work for all. Above all, democracy must yield fairness and improved fortunes for all not just some. It seems to me that the centrality of the people in democracy is the answer.

If we dont find a way to bring back the people element into democracy, democracy is indeed doomed. If democracy is doomed, peace and stability are equally doomed in the long term.

Madonsela is a Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow and chief patron of Thuma Foundation

TALK TO US

Do you believe that democracy in SA is working as it should?

SMS us on 35697 using the keyword THULI and tell us what you think. Please include your name and province. SMSes cost R1.50

View post:
Democracy could be doomed - News24

Robbie L. Rogers | Special to the Daily News

We expect our superiors to be greater than we are. How preposterous! Our elected and imposed leaders are simply a reflected mirror of ourselves from a different angle. We cry freedom for all while sitting complacent before the television refusing to vote on trash politicians. Proudly we once watched the young student in Tiananmen Square defiantly blocking an entire brigade of tanks poised to murder thousands of his countrymen.

What makes us think we have a patent on democracy? Smugly, we think we started it all. Emphatically we did not, it started the moment man became oppressed by a form of government. We are not the winners of freedom, the world of man is, and the world shall continue seeking freedom as long as there is one man in repression. We are simply inheritors of our circumstances.

This nation stands in a sea of do-nothing citizens and pork-barreled politicians. Sure its a form of democracy, but a degradated one. Democracy demands responsibility of its citizens but gets complacency and apathy from us instead.

Free enterprise is a partner to democracy and therefore an enemy to communism and socialism. They, the communist and socialist, say free enterprise corrupts man. However, it is free enterprise that the crumbling communist block seeks, not freedom nor democracy.

Greed, found in all levels of society, is only a symptom of the evil side of man. It does not govern and is not a result of free enterprise. Greed is a cancer, buried deeply within the system of man. Greed robs man of his freedom. It creates false needs for laws, laws solely based upon perpetuating certain sectors over others.

Narrow-minded regulatory laws often enslave us and free enterprise, creating powerful bureaucratic protectionist associations. Life never is as you like it, rather it is as you live it. Greed is in mankind, it did not come from freedom nor from free enterprise.

In stealing a penny or a pencil we are as guilty as those who steal millions, the only difference is in the opportunity. We individuals must begin to see ourselves as we are. Before our nation can begin to heal from the current state of moral decay, we too must realize we have a problem.

How well are we doing at changing? Not very well. Forty percent say they take supplies home from the office. What do we expect? We expect to be governed by politicians and bureaucrats who are different from us. However, only 3-5 percent of us believe our government always does the right thing. No form of government will become more righteous than the population that elects them.

Strangely enough, although we expect honesty from them, less than 20 percent of us believe them to be of high moral and ethical standard. Corrupt power, worse than greed itself, is a form of corruption all its own. It can be found in any government, club or job where power forces compliance.

This guest column is from Robbie L. Rogers, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach.

Continued here:
GUEST COLUMN: Democracy doesn't always mean honesty - The Northwest Florida Daily News

Calcutta has earned the doubtful distinction of being designated a dead city, its normal flow of life being continuously disturbed by an almost unending series of demonstrations, processions and meetings. Today it is not at all difficult for a left political party, particularly the Communists, to hold a meeting of a lakh of people on the maidan. They parade this phenomenon as evidence of their tremendous popularity and try to coerce psychologically the democratic forces of the country.

The latter sincerely deplore this increase in the influence of the communist camp in this key city and hold Congress misrule responsible for it. The faulty planning and the inefficient and corrupt administration of the Congress have imposed an almost unbearable burden upon the people, which has so much exasperated them as to make them an easy prey to the communists who are promising a millennium for them and are ever ready to fish in troubled waters.

Though this argument may appear plausible, it is however wrong to presume so. For it is really not unbearable misery, which generates discontent in the minds of people and tends to incite them to revolt. Those who live on the verge of starvation are too weak to resist or welcome any change or take any risk in life. In this sense we may speak of the conservatism of the poor, which is no less responsible than the conservatism of the privileged for the perpetration of the status quo.

It is an improved condition which leads- a man to protest and revolt. A taste of a few good things makes him hanker after more and more. Thus it is found that both in France and Russia there was comparative prosperity on the eve of the revolutionary outbreaks there. It is hope that rekindles hope. To say, therefore, that the contemporary mass movement in Calcutta under the leadership of the Communists is the consequence of an ever deteriorating economic condition of the people is not true. Had it been so, the same phenomenon would have been evident in several other parts of the country also since economic hardship is not a peculiarity of this city alone, while mass movement is.

The clue to the contemporary mass movements of this city has to be found not in the economic condition of the people but in their peculiar psychology. It is an oft-repeated dictum that man is a social being. In fact, however, he is more than a social being. He is a community being. A social life is possible even on impersonal cooperation. But a community life connotes a direct and personal relation among the members of the group. It is because man is a community-being that if he is released from the context of his particular community and its moorings, he becomes a victim to the terrible sense of loneliness and insecurity. The insecure and lonely individuals then seek a communal refuge of this sort or that and coalesce into anonymous faceless mass. That is why dictatorship has a great appeal to the masses.

During the post-Independence period there has been an unprecedented concentration of East Bengal refugees in Calcutta and the surrounding districts. They offer a spectacle of a huge mass and uprooted humanity. Family and neighbourhood constitute the two most important communal ties of man. The family life of the refugees has been mostly blasted. They live in colonies where neighbours are no better than mere night-dwellers. East Bengal had her own characteristic culture. These refugees have been divorced even from that cultural context. As a matter of fact, they have lost all the moorings of their life. In this part of Bengal they find themselves in an environment which is also not very friendly to them. Over and above this, many of the refugee families are also without an assured income and have hardly any prospects in life. In the circumstances it is but natural for these unfortunate people to turn into sprawling masses and serve as cannon fodder for the Communist movement. Truly speaking, the Communist movement of Calcutta is largely a refugee movement. This explains why the so-called mass movements constitute a characteristic of the post-Independence period.

It is not the correctness of the Communist doctrine which attracts these refugees. Rather they join the Communist movement because they find a psychological refuge there. A mass movement led by any other totalitarian party could as well serve their purpose. In fact, the refugees are often found to transfer their allegiance from this left party to that. That is why it becomes possible even for a small party like the Socialist Unity Centre to organize huge meetings and processions in Calcutta. The truth is that these left parties make their appeal to the same type of mind and draw their support from the same type of people.

The moot question then ishow to free the city from these disturbing mass activities of by the left parties. Our diagnosis shows the way in which the solution is to be sought. We must try for the integration of the refugees in the social life of Bengal as quickly as possible. This means both their economic and psychological rehabilitationrehabilitation in the fullest sense of the term.

Read the original:
From The Archives: Why Communism Thrives In Bengal - Swarajya

In my desperate attempt to avoid the clich that is person-sitting-in-coffeehouse-working-on-laptop, I opted for a slightly different food and drink outlet to write in: a bar. Not very imaginative or dissimilar to a coffee shop, you may think. And youd be right. But this bar caught my attention for a very specific reason: it was a celebration of all things communism.

Its walls were adorned with communist iconography; posters of Lenin and Mao, images of Fidel Castro draped in Cuban flags. Even Stalins picture made an appearance on the front of the bar. The dcor was also rather peculiar, with the bar itself made entirely out of wooden pallets, and camouflage netting suspended from the ceiling acting as a room divider. Sandbags and oil drums were also placed at varying spots on the floor to finish off the pseudo-revolutionary feel.

As I ordered my drink and took a seat, I became increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that there in front of me were pictures of the most vile human rights abusers, collectively responsible for the suffering, misery and death of many millions (granted, Stalin and Mao are in a league of their own in this regard). And yet, the members of staff and fellow patrons never batted an eye. The food menu, too, read like a list of crass jokes: The Mad Mao and The Totalitarian. What next? Goulag Goulash? Pol Hot Pot?

This whole experience provoked a serious question: given the great suffering communism has inflicted, why does admiration for this totalitarian ideology frequently go unchallenged?

These attitudes are in no way restricted to South London taverns, either. Communists and their apologists are found throughout society. Only recently, and to many peoples bemusement, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell read from Chairman Maos Little Red Book in parliament in an effort to goad the then Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative MP George Osborne. To be clear, thats a British MP, belonging to a major British political party, deeming it acceptable to read from a book authored by a man responsible for the deaths of at least 40 million people. Despite McDonnell receiving criticism for his actions, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott sprang to his defence, stating: I suppose, on balance, Mao did more good than harm. McDonnell responded to his critics, claiming it was just a joke a rather unsatisfactory retort.

Other political areas such as the May Day trade union parades have also come under fire in their failings to deal with the Stalinist and Maoist banners that still feature in the march. One must wonder as to how onlookers would have reacted if Nazi or fascist emblems had instead been flown. I suspect passing liberal-leftists would have, quite correctly, openly expressed their disgust and contempt at the rallys participants, with arrests being made shortly after. But this didnt happen, so why the double standard?

These same hypocrisies seep into other spheres too, with music and the arts being particularly blind to the ideologys ills. LA rock band Rage Against The Machine, who performed at many anti-Nazi and anti-fascist events, frequently sported the red star, hammer and sickle, and other symbols synonymous with communism. Speaking as a huge fan of the band, I was always mildly confused as to how a music group could directly quote George Orwells 1984, a polemic against Stalinist totalitarianism, all the while decorating their equipment and clothes with Soviet iconography. Cognitive dissonance at its very finest.

Communism, like other totalitarian ideologies, is troublesome because it treats people as infinitely malleable lumps of putty. But, as any cognitive scientist will tell you, this isnt how the mind works. As the great Steven Pinker puts it, we arent blank slates that can be forever shaped and moulded. And it is for this reason that so many perished at the hands of these dogmatic ideologues.

So why, then, is communism let off the hook? Why in contemporary culture are communist leaders not despised in the way fascist or Nazi leaders rightfully are? There doesnt appear to be a simple answer. Clearly the overall death count of these regimes isnt a deciding factor in peoples minds, particularly as the communist dictators body count is far largerthan any Nazi or fascist government. The great WWII historian Roger Moorhouse suspects Nazi Germany is thought of in a more negative light due to the putrid, pseudoscientific side to the killings carried out by the Nazis. Furthermore, even in its Nazi guise, Germany was a fundamentally civilized and educated society, adding to the shock when such an advanced country slid into dictatorship and genocide. Others, such as renowned entomologist E. O. Wilson, said of Marxism: Wonderful theory. Wrong species. My guess is no one would ever say this about the repulsive ideological underpinnings of Nazism.

Personally, I suspect that to many people communism represents an anti-establishment and rebellious ideal. Can you imagine Rik Mayall portraying a comedic Nazi version of his poetry-writing, anarchic character in The Young Ones? Me neither. But while to some communism remains a symbol of rebellion or nonconformity, this doesnt make up for the masses of bodies it has left in its wake. Its time to cease the flirtations with this totalitarian ideology. The double standard must end.

Read the original here:
It's Time To End The Flirtations With Communism - Conatus News

Re: Budget puts NDP in a jam, editorial, Feb. 22.

Your conclusion rests on unproven assumptions.

For example, you write: The trick for the NDP would be to pay for new promises without raising taxes. There is no reason taxes should not be raised.

For example, the sensible way to eliminate the Medical Services Plan premiums in one fell swoop is to roll them into the income-tax system. The revenue replacement would come from leaving the lowest tax bracket as is, moderately increasing the middle bracket (but most would probably pay less than their current premiums) and more steeply increasing the rate of the highest bracket (or even adding one) so that those who have been getting an undeserved bargain on their MSP premiums for so many years would finally pay a fair share of the costs of health care.

That would be one NDP promise kept.

Research suggests that $10-a-day daycare would pay for itself through enhanced economic activity and the ensuing tax revenues. Theres another promise.

Stopping the Site C dam, and ending all subsidies to the oil and gas industry, would free plenty of money to be invested in the untapped resources that are the disabled and those living in poverty. Raising their rates to a livable level would, alone, by increasing purchasing power, benefit local economies, leading to increased tax revenues.

Altogether, socialism will pay for itself with a little help from each and every one of us not only in financial terms but in personal well-being and creativity.

Elizabeth Woods

Victoria

Read this article:
Socialism pays off financially and personally - Times Colonist