Melville Cooke 'Democracy: A form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power, typically through elected representatives; control of a group by the majority of its members' - Concise Oxford English Dictionary
THIS NEWSPAPER recently announced that the People's National Party (PNP) is being congratulated on it by the public. It is George that son of a Bush's clarion call, rallying cry and ideological battering ram. It is what the people in Portmore are clamouring for, as they protest against the prospect of being charged to enter and leave their communities.
It is democracy and, in practice, it does not exist.
It is interesting that the democracy that Bush and Co. now purport to be spreading through mass murder came about because of a power struggle in Athens.
Isagoras was leader of Athens after the invasion and subsequent withdrawal of the Spartans, but he was opposed by Cleisthenes, who turned to the citizenry for popular support and got it. In 508 BC he installed a system whereby the citizenry would have more say in the direct running of Athens, calling it 'demokratia', or democracy, which included voting and term limits.
NICE ILLUSION
And 2,500 years later, this is the concept that comes to Iraq with a bomb attached.
There is no such thing as the rule of the majority. What passes for democracy is the majority being persuaded to choose one or the other of a minority to rule them. It is a nice illusion to live in but a mirage is small comfort to a person in a desert who is dying of thirst.
It is ironic that a section of the world built on the notion of minority is intent on spreading their dangerous illusion at all costs. For capitalism and democracy, the concepts of Adam Smith and Cleisthenes, go together like the small glove that OJ Simpson tried on in court on his rather large hand.
The part of the world that we live in is built on the rule of the minority, whether that minority be based on wealth or colour or both. Do not confuse discussion and elections with the much vaunted "rule of the majority". Said majority make no decisions, with all the gnashing of teeth and speaking of minds in the world.
The church is not a democracy. The pastor interprets the word of God and there is no question and answer during the sermon. The businessplace is not a democracy; take a look at the pyramid of any organisational chart and that should be sufficient to dispel any notions to the contrary.
Our world is built on supporting the wealth and privileges of the few which is certainly not democracy. Any attempts at doing otherwise Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba are condemned by the very persons who are promoting this supposed democracy.
And that is why the wealthy left Jamaica in droves during the latter years of Michael Manley's 1970s Prime Ministership.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
The freedoms that we supposedly enjoy are protection for the privileges of the wealthy. Freedom of the press is a farce actually, it belongs to those who own one. Sure, there is accommodation for supposedly 'radical views' in these newspapers that are one of the pillars of supposed democracy, but in the long run that is simply an outlet that shores up the illusion of democracy.
But take the laws against libel, for instance, the freedom of a person to sue another for sullying their reputation. A wonderful freedom, it would seem, but in reality it is the wealthy who can effectively sue where it matters most and can dismiss attempts by the majority to speak the evils that they did.
In theory, democracy is wonderful. The democracy described by Nelson Mandela during his formative years in 'Long Walk To Freedom' is a wonderful thing. What we have now is a system in which the majority are fed a slate of supposedly opposing candidates who are divided over everything but one the right of the wealthy to be more wealthy. And that effectively makes the process of going to the polls a farce.
An election is not democracy.
Mel Cooke is a freelance writer.
