Democracy... Step by Step

Once upon a time there was a king …” these were the fairy tales that we listened to with rapt attention as children.

- ESME DA CUNHA

Yes, that was quite a long time ago. There are hardly any kings and queens left. And the few there are, are figureheads of their ‘kingdom’.

We have evolved into a form of democracy, if that is supposed to mean a government of the people, by the people and for the people. (A newspaper recently quipped: Off the people, buy the people, for the people!)

‘Of the people’: Yet the trimmings of royalty cling on. Those in the fray are the wealthy, the affluent … with hardly any representation of the ‘common man’. And if a ‘common man’ does come up, he just joins the ranks of the wealthy and powerful, forgetting his humble beginnings. The once ‘oppressed’ person becomes an ‘oppressor’.

‘By the people’: Such governments are supposed to be chosen by the people themselves, through some kind of voting system, thus representing the voice of the people. But what if these ‘votes’ are ‘bought’ by that ‘upper cream’? Who chooses whom?