lundi 18 octobre 2010

Democracy and US.

By: Khairi janbek



The democratic way of political life is not an easy one, but, you don’t need me to tell you that its’ rewards are great. Although, no form of government is simpler than autocratic dictatorship; yet all history stands as a record of the abuse of power so concentrated. So, democracy requires from its citizens a level of political intelligence, experience, maturity, public spirit, self-restraint, and demands the exercise of ingenuity in finding solutions to problems, in addition to the development of a political machinery appropriate for the desirability of freedom, responsibility and efficiency.
We have to understand that, the strength of democracy is that its’ way of life fosters and encourages these aforementioned qualities. One is not really writing to expound on the virtues of democracy, rather hoping to remind our officialdom, that only with such a catalogue of virtues, the Jordanian citizen can appreciate the need for experimentation in attempting to find solutions to the many current problems we have, without having to feel as if being treated as a specimen in an experimental laboratory.
Unfortunately, each time the term democracy is mentioned in our midst, lectures, speeches and conferences are organized by our officialdom to tell us that, education is the lynchpin of democracy. In other words once we are educated then we are democratic. I am sorry, but really, much more than education is required for the cultivation of democratic attitudes, because democracy has also requirements from the government and not only from the citizen.
Undoubtedly, democracy flourishes best, where there is a feeling of economic well-being and security. A person whom lives under conditions of potential civil strife or violence, is all too likely to consider order, even if brought about by a strong dictatorship, much preferable to the uncertainty and potential risks of a freer society. Likewise, the person whom suffers from grinding poverty, and the anxieties of unemployment, finds it difficult to be detached and reasonable in his/her opinion, to weigh judiciously the fate of the whole country, when their own children go hungry. Life teaches all, that desire for human dignity does not cease even under conditions of misery and discrimination, therefore, the citizen is concerned with the system which provides purposes and results, rather than the technical means of accomplishing them. It always requires a technocrat to plan and build a scheme, but it is the citizen whom knows better than anyone else, whether the government is satisfying them or not.
Therefore, it becomes very dangerous for the future of our democracy, when the government decides not to listen to the people. It will send the message then, that it is becoming ruthless in its assessment of the political incapacity of the people, and is becoming more and more credulous in its willingness to attribute supernatural qualities of wisdom and integrity to the higher echelons of the state and administration; regressing thus, to a totalitarian type of a discourse.
There is an old political wisdom which says that, in a democracy “what is not prohibited; is permissible”, while in a totalitarian system “what is not prohibited; is compulsory”. We only seek the permissible.

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