{"id":341274,"date":"2011-03-26T23:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T23:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/26\/what-manner-of-democracy-2\/"},"modified":"2011-03-26T23:00:50","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T23:00:50","slug":"what-manner-of-democracy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/what-manner-of-democracy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What manner of democracy? (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Mohammed Adamu<\/strong><\/p>\n

The term \u2018democracy\u2019 was originally \u2018demos\u2019 and \u2018krasi\u2019; Greek for \u2018people\u2019 and \u2018rule\u2019 -or \u2018rule of the people\u2019. But over time, it has etymologically evolved to mean different things to different people. In our own part of the world, the transformation is breathtaking.<\/p>\n

From the Maghreb down to the Zambezi, from the westerly coast up to the horns of Africa and particularly in my dear country, Nigeria, democracy has moved from the \u2018rule of the people\u2019 to the \u2018wool of the pupil\u2019; -as in pulling the wool over peoples\u2019 eyes. It is the new universal religion that brings caviar to the tables of Western predator nations leaving empty plates on those of their expendable counterparts.<\/p>\n

The Americans have added a beautiful interpretative feather to this democratic peacock of Greece\u2019s conception: They say that democracy is: \u201cgovernment of the people, by the people and for the people.\u201d This interpretation admits of neither primacy of \u2018name\u2019 nor certainty of \u2018destination\u2019! \u2018Whatever it is called\u2019 and \u2018no matter where it ends\u2019, it is just as well that it is run for\u2019 and \u2018by\u2019 the people.\u201d Thus, to the Americans \u2018All is well\u2019 not necessarily that \u2018ends well\u2019, but \u2018all is well that abides well.\u2019 Which is un-Chinese-like! Because in China, unlike in America, although efficiency may be defined as \u2018the train leaving station on time\u2019 yet \u2018the train not knowing where it is going\u2019, is just \u2018inefficient\u2019 enough!<\/p>\n

The Chinese, more practically, believe that whatever the system is called and \u2018however\u2019 it is run, as long as it attains the public good it is just efficient enough.\u00a0 Thus to them \u2018All is well, `only\u2019 that ends well\u2019. In reply to the criticism of China\u2019s controlled system of political economy, Denxioping once said: \u201cit does not matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, we are sold a practically indigestible \u2018system of government\u2019 and which we are required to gobble raw and undiluted. We are not even entitled to a glass of water by the table! We must be slaves of the due democratic process whether the \u2018process\u2019 duly serves our good end or not; and we must be hostages to the rule of law whether or not the principle itself is consistent with the law of rule!<\/p>\n

Rogues in our midst who constitute a drag on society have constitutional rights that supremely take precedence over the survival of the state. They must not be touched except via the tedium of the \u2018due democratic process\u2019 and the \u2018rule of law.\u2019.<\/p>\n

Only the self-imposed purveyors of \u2018democracy\u2019 \u2013 namely America and its Western allies- are entitled to set aside \u2018due national and international processes\u2019 to meet their domestic ends! All secessionist, irredentist or rebellious movements in France, Britain, Spain, Russia including aboriginal dissents in Australia, the United States and Canada and the resistance against Israeli occupation in Palestine, are to be un-interferingly dealt with by the respective oppressing ally powers themselves. But any such movements in the Middle East, Africa, Asia or Latin America deserve the interventionist support of the civilized democratic world.<\/p>\n

And, as a universal imperative, all the \u2018wretched of the earth\u2019 must travel the thorny free-market road even if only for the glorification and adulation of capitalism and free enterprise. Yet, even behind Washington\u2019s closed doors it has never mattered \u2018whether the cat is black or white\u2026\u2019! Nor is the market any less tinkered with in New York than it is \u2018freely\u2019 run in Beijing. Behind Washington\u2019s closed doors, non-democratic, covert institutions brief Presidents on what democracy is NOT -namely rule of the people; and what the free market has NEVER been \u2013namely free; they are schooled on how America makes its living\u2019; -away from due process; away from so called rule of law. And, they know even Presidents are expendable who try to come in the way of these sacrosancts!<\/p>\n

Only the wretched of the earth, us, are not entitled to a utilitarian brand of democracy. We must be stuck with the sort Isaac Newton describes in physics as \u2018motion without movement\u2019 or \u2018dynamic inactivity.\u2019 Because the truth is, the \u2018cat\u2019 of our democracy catches no mouse at all.<\/p>\n

Reason I say any system of government whether democracy, autocracy or any of the other \u2018cracies\u2019 that, in operation, recoils into an ineffectual systemic \u2018cat\u2019, catching neither rats nor roaches, is not worth the trouble. Equally, any doctrinaire economic pathway strewn with thorns and pebbles and which leads only to the celebration of \u2018capitalism\u2019 and the adulation of the \u2018free market\u2019 without putting food on the table, is not one upon which the proverbial Chinese \u2018journey of a thousand steps\u2019 should be travelled upon!<\/p>\n

In fact, Kant, the philosopher, once said that democracy is like a pool in which it is desirable for every nation to take a plunge; but he warned: \u2018stay out of it if you are sure to get drowned.\u2019<\/p>\n

Back to Greece\u2019s \u2018demos krasi\u2019 which Gaddaffi once claimed was originally \u2018daimomah krasi\u2019; -Arabic for `sitting forever in chair\u2019. And, has not that \u2018cat\u2019 been effectively catching all the Libyan mouse\u2019?<\/p>\n

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