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T&T is a democracy. A democracy is defined as a state under the direct or representative rule of its people. The government rules but are the people represented?

Democracy is a factor of the rule of law. The rule of law is de facto the protection of citizens. Are we safe?

A democracy's foundation is, in practice, built on the integrity of institutions. T&T's institutions have become asylums for political kleptocracy. What form of democracy is T&T?

The commerce constituent of a democracy is the equal opportunity, fair competition and free market economic model of capitalism. T&T's State-owned enterprises (SOE's) and (government) special purpose companies have developed a monopoly/oligarchy that unfairly competes with private/free enterprise.

T&T's political system is a (parliamentary) democracy, but so is Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela. Although the above-mentioned nations are defined as democracies, in practice, they are collapsed democracies evidenced by their failed state status.

It is instructive that Zimbabwe was once the food production mecca of Africa, the Congo is endowed with vast natural resource wealth, Nigeria is rich in oil and Venezuela, a First World modern country, with arguably the biggest oil reserves in the world, all have fallen under the yoke of a false democracy ruled by political malpractices.

Is T&T a democracy? Yes, of course we are. But the moot question to ask is, what kind of democracy are we''?

I offer the argument to the question stated above, with justification supported by empirical evidence, that T&T's state of democracy is substantially illustrated in the quotations that follow

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. Plato

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 per cent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.Thomas Jefferson

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.Louis D Brandeis

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What's the state of democracy, T&T? - Trinidad & Tobago Express

By: PTI | New Delhi | Published:February 6, 2017 11:19 pm Kharge said it was not right to say that Congress did nothing over the last 60 years as Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other leaders of the party had made sacrifices for the nation. (Representational Image)

If Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister despite his poor background, it is because we preserved democracy. This is what Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said while responding to oft-repeated contention of the BJP that nothing was done during the Congress rule in 60 years.

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The claim over who made sacrifices for the countrys independence also led to a clash between BJP and Congress members during a debate on Motion of Thanks to the Presidents Address. Kharge said it was not right to say that Congress did nothing over the last 60 years as Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other leaders of the party had made sacrifices for the nation.

The Congress leader took objection to BJPs contention that all development was taking place only under the Modi government.

He said the current NDA dispensation would even go on to claim that the Green and White revolutions took place under it.

Taking a dig, he said BJP would claim that even Verghese Kurien, father of White Revolution, was born during the Modi government.

When people were facing hunger, it was Congress which gave them food, he said. It was done by Indira Gandhi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was quick to add.

Amid continued alteraction between the two sides continued, Kharge said over the 60 years, Congress had preserved Constitution and democracy because of which Modi could become the Prime Minister.

If anybody has to be given credit, it is Congress, Nehru and Indira. You are asking what happened in 60 years? If nothing had happened, you would not have been alive and Constitution would not have been protected, he said.

If anybody worked to protect the Constitution, it was us, he said, adding You emotionally exploit people in the name of the religion. You are trying to break the nation. It is because of the Congress party that democracy and the Constitution has been protected. It has played a pivotal role in preserving democracy.

He said nobody has made sacrifices from BJP and in this regard used a certain word.

The ruling side reacted sharply to the use of that word and demanded apology from Kharge besides expunging of the unparliamentary word.

We condemn this. Lakhs of people have sacrificed their lives for the nation. Congress party is not the custodian of making sacrifices, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar who was seen interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the remark was made.

He said Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of BJPs ideological parent Bhartiya Jana Sangh had laid down his life in Kashmir for the unity of the nation.

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (another Jana Sangh stalwart) also laid down his life for the country, Kumar said.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan also took objection to use of the word uttered by Kharge and said the word will not go on record.

What is wrong has be to called a wrong. There are different versions of history. There is no reason for any controversy over the issue, he said.

But the Congress too protested for expunging the word.

Some BJP members said Indira had imposed Emergency in the country.

Sonia was quick to react, we have an Emergency even today.

Kharge added: at that time, it was a declared Emergency. Under you there is an undeclared Emergency. No journalist can say anything, nobody can do anything

At another point, when Kharge flayed the government over merger of railway budget and rising number of derailments, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey questioned him as to what he had done when he was Railway Minister in UPA-II.

Hitting back, but in a lighter vein, Kharge said, I am aware that you (Dubey) love us (the Congress), but you have been married to them (the BJP). How much you love Modi ji, he will not make you the minister.

This led everyone, including Modi, in splits.

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We preserved democracy because of which Modi could become PM: Congress - The Indian Express

On Saturday, Jan. 21, I joined somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people in downtown Los Angeles as the city made its own unique contribution to the women's marches galvanizing more than a million people across the US and around the world. In LA, as elsewhere, activists fighting for a wide range of causes from reproductive rights to Black Lives Matter, from climate change to workers' rights came together in a powerful display of unity. That is why, as organizers met after the march to maintain a unified momentum, I found it somewhat disconcerting to read Oregon Senator Jeff Markley's statement that, "Trump is the cure here; he brings everybody together." Yes, it is true that Trump's persona and actions have had a great deal to do with energizing and mobilizing the protests, and it is certain that he will continue to inspire resistance as he seeks to realize his agenda.

Yet in the long term, Trump can hardly sustain a movement as a "cure" or unifier. Something much deeper has to be involved, and that something is nothing less than the reclamation of our democracy and the democratic promise of the American experiment.

In saying this, I don't use the term democracy simply to refer to the formal institutions of representative government, nor to such practices as voting, nor even to the norms and unwritten rules that maintain the rule of law and the peaceful transition of power. Important as these elements are, they lack meaning without the presence of a living culture of democracy, a body of understandings and habits that bind us to one another in mutual responsibility and to a commitment to human equality and freedom. This is the vision of democracy powerfully expressed by political scientist Danielle Allen in her recent book, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. This is a vision affirming that we are all not only entitled to the "unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but also to equality of access to government as the tool by which we secure those rights.

There is a direct line of inheritance from the Declaration's writers to the marchers who crowded the streets of American cities on January 21. The writers who generated the Declaration of Independence did not compile their grievances against King George III by brainstorming their complaints in closed session, but by placing advertisements in newspapers across the country. They relied on what Allen called the "collective intelligence" of ordinary citizens to build their argument for independence. As Allen said, "In developing their list of complaints against King George and in coming to understand their situation, the colonists became the free people capable of self-government that, with their declaration, they asserted themselves to be." In other words, they were developing the habits of freedom even before the nation became formally independent. They reinforced this process by drafting constitutions for the future states even before signing the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

By the same token, the marchers of Jan. 21, 2017 didn't wait for a midterm election to enact a vision of what democracy is and can be. Despite the oligarchic, authoritarian nature of the Trump candidacy and presidency, the marchers moved boldly to reclaim their democratic heritage by reinterpreting it in the light of contemporary circumstances. The marchers I know understood that today the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" incorporates the unalienable right to decent, affordable health care. They equally understood that this powerful phrase includes the unalienable right to a healthful environment and the right to counter powerful economic interests that elevate short-term profit above the well-being of all.

Moreover, the marchers I know understand that reclaiming democracy necessitates coming to terms with the tragic distortions and exclusions coiled within the DNA of the young American republic. They know that reclaiming democracy means coming to terms with the legacies of slavery, genocide, and racism, and that democracy must now mean full inclusion of all people within the American polity. That is why, ultimately, we don't need a Trump as a "cure" or unifier. Certainly, resistance will and must continue. But it is democracy itself that is the unifier. The issues represented in the marches Black Lives Matter, immigrants' rights, Standing Rock, reproductive rights, among others are all deeply connected by the sacredness and dignity of human life, and by the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for this generation and all generations to come.

At one point in the LA march, I looked up in the blue, cloudless sky and saw a lone airplane trailing a banner proclaiming, "Congratulations President Trump on Your Inaugural." A young woman standing next to me noticed my glance and said, looking up at the plane as well, "That looks like one of Trump's tweets. But there's just one of him, and there's all of us." Looking down Hill Street at some of the hundreds of thousands of people that day, and perhaps with King George III in the back of my mind, I knew she was right.

Andrew Moss

Emeritus professor

California State Polytechnic University

Pomona, California

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Reclaiming our democracy - Progress Index

The editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel on Sunday said a front cover illustration of U.S. President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty, which split opinion at home and abroad, was a response by the German magazine to threats against democracy.

Published on Saturday, the cover depicts a cartoon figure of Trump with a bloodied knife in one hand and the statue's head, dripping with blood, in the other. It carries the caption: "America First."

It followed a series of attacks on Berlin's policies by Trump and his aides that have marked a rapid deterioration in German relations with the United States.

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U. S. President Donald Trump is depicted beheading the Statue of Liberty in this illustration on the cover of the latest issue of German news magazine Der Spiegel. Reuters

"Der Spiegel does not want to provoke anybody," editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbaeumer told Reuters TV after the cover set off a debate on Twitter and in German and international media, adding he was surprised by the impact of the illustration.

"We want to show what this is about, it's about democracy, it's about freedom, it's about freedom of the press, freedom of justice and all that is seriously endangered," he said.

"So we are defending democracy... Are these serious times? Yes they are."

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of Germany's Free Democrats (FDP) and vice president of the European Parliament, described the cover as "tasteless."

Die Welt said it "damages journalism,"while another German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said it was "exactly what Trump needsa distorted image of him, which he can use to work more on his distorted image of the press."

Karl-Georg Wellmann, a lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU conservatives, told mass-selling daily Bild: "I urge everyone to calm down and to handle this with reason, rather than gut feeling."

Merkel was the go-to European ally for former U.S. president Barack Obama, who praised her as "an outstanding partner."

But Trump has said she made a "catastrophic mistake" with her open-door migration policy, and his top trade adviser last week accused Germany of using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain advantage over the United States and its European partners.

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Der Spiegel: Trump Beheading Cover About 'Defending Democracy' - Newsweek

NEW DELHI: Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said the Congress should be thanked for protecting the democracy in the country because of which Narendra Modi, coming from a poor family, could become the Prime Minister of India.

Participating in the Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address, the Congress leader said the Congress protected democracy for 70 years, slamming the ruling party for saying repeatedly that the Congress did not do anything for years.

"I think you brought Green Revolution. And White Revolution in your Gujarat also came in your time... (Verghese) Kurien was also born in these times -- everything happened in the last two and half years," Kharge said sarcastically.

"We brought Green Revolution to feed the people, we brought White Revolution... You question what happened in 70 years, if nothing had been done, you would not have been alive, there would not have been democracy, the Constitution would not have been protected," he said.

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Congress protected democracy, so Modi could become PM: Mallikarjun Kharge - Times of India