A good number of countries will go for elections in 2024. That is a sign of the importance of democratic exercise by the citizens of these countries, a reassertion of the belief that the consent of the governed in politics, indeed in governance, is of seminal importance in these times.
The people of Slovakia have voted in the past few days. A struggle for a fair vote goes on in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, where Africa’s last absolute monarchy wields repressive authority. In Britain, with the opposition Labour leading the ruling Conservatives in opinion polls by a long stretch -- the election will be next year -- Rishi Sunak struggles to come level and perhaps even manage to secure a fresh new term in power.
In 2024, the electoral landscape around the world promises to be exciting. There will be a presidential election in the United States together with voting for certain numbers of seats in Congress and for gubernatorial positions. Britain, as noted, will go for its own democratic exercise. Here in Bangladesh, the expectation is one of a good election smoothening the path to a consolidation of democratic pluralism in the years ahead.
Pakistan will have elections which hopefully will not be manipulated by its powerful army and will throw up a government reflecting the popular will. In India, having been a decade in power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party will seek a fresh mandate at elections that must be held by May. The opposition, yet in a state of disarray, will have a hard time getting ahead of the BJP in the vote.
Democracy, or aspirations to its furtherance, is what we have before us. No, democracy is not a perfect form of government. It has its din and its chaos. It has all the noises which often shut out the voices seeking to speak rationality and common sense and which often lead to the rise of forces which then go into the bad business of undermining it. Donald Trump is an instance of how democracy wounds itself by electing to office men in whose psychological make-up democracy features not at all.
Perfection does not define democracy. But given the nature of politics in these post-modern times, it is what we must do with, even if it gives us people like Viktor Orban in Hungary. Warts and all, democracy has its charms, its appeal. And those are the reasons why democracy matters. So in broad outline what are the factors which serve as the foundations of the democratic process? What are the fundamentals of democracy as we regularly inform ourselves that society is not to be regulated by authoritarian means but must work through the flow of public opinion, through guarantees that popular aspirations will not be undermined?
Democracy begins through an imbibing of the lesson that every citizen must hold fast to the belief that every other citizen holds the same right of free expression that he has. It is not a shouting match, an exercise that will intimidate a rival into silence, for democracy is a calm, sober and educated discussion of the critical issues facing a nation.
From that broad perspective, democracy is a battleground of ideas debated in fine detail. It is never a war zone where people, and politicians in particular, resort to the abusive and the defamatory about one another. In democratic pluralism, political parties certainly aspire to go to power. But that aspiration comes from the understanding that they will explain to the electorate how they mean to administer a country if and when they win the vote. Vituperation and sarcasm directed at opponents do not help democracy. They violate its norms.
In a democratic contest, it is the interest -- the history and legacy and traditions -- of a country that will be the basis of a campaign for power. A political party which deviates from this principle, which refuses to adhere to national history and instead seeks to undercut it through throwing up, unapologetically, false narratives regarding the political background of a country -- the role of its founding leaders, the contributions of all segments of its population toward the emergence of the country -- is no instrument of the popular will.
Democracy, therefore, is an argument against anti-history. It is a proposition for a faithful reassertion of the national cause and of the various means by which the cause can be upheld. In a democracy, politicians across the divide reach out to one another even as they speak of policies that are at variance with one another. In a democratic setting, criticism and cooperation strengthen the political and moral fibre of a nation.
That is how people get to know of the calibre of their leaders.
In a democracy, the process is one of consolidating the present even as it is one of ensuring a smooth passage to the future. It is the means through which present leadership prepares the leadership of the future. Democracy has no place for political sycophants and hangers-on. It is the machinery which enables politics to ensure a smooth, undisturbed, and independent functioning of the pillars of the state. It is that bright space where the head of government and the leader of the opposition meet at regular intervals to reflect on the state of the nation.
In a democracy, the head of state or government, as the case may be, keeps the opposition and future heads of state and government briefed on policy, for these probable successors of theirs will need to hit the ground running when they replace those in power at a given time. In essence, therefore, democracy abjures tribalism. It is a revolt against factionalism, against entrenchment of power. Democracy unites people across policies and political programmes. It brings people together.
Democracy is about meaningful governance. It therefore is a means to the political devolution of power, to an empowerment of the masses. It is politics which works from the bottom up and not the other way round. Democracy which strays from grassroots politics is a guarantee that it will either die or will become the plaything of vested interests.
In a democracy, accountability of those in office is the underlying principle. Democratic politics entails a questioning of policy and action, indeed a grilling of those holding power. Democratic politics is secular politics, for it is a big tent that has room for people with their various ideas of Creation, of the gods they worship. Democracy is not about using the religion card in politics but about ensuring the sanctity of faith through keeping religion away from and above politics.
Democracy is a safeguard against foreign interference in a nation’s politics. Where the democratic voice is loud and clear, diplomats from nations overseas stay well away from pronouncing judgement on the politics of the country they are stationed in. The national self-interest, resting on a bedrock of increasingly deepening democratic roots, will make foreign regimes think twice before proffering advice to a nation proud of its democratic heritage.
At the end of the day, democracy is a blossoming of the arts, of literature, of politics. In a democracy, a sense of history dawns among people. In a democracy, conversation assumes decency and politeness as it examines the finer points of what and how nationhood ought to be.
Democracy is leadership engineered by compassion and wisdom.
A democratic society is a landscape where political leaders, in their exercise of everyday judgement on matters of grave import, rise to being statesmen. The nations they lead are a happy mass of enlightened citizens.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Consultant Editor, Dhaka Tribune.