Thursday 18 June 2009

Democracy and its dark secret


The recent elections in Iran has produced a wide variety of opinions and this has got me thinking about what democracy really means.

A lot of people are claiming that the voting had been rigged as there were suspicious circumstances and coincidences involved. These folk applauded the Iranian people for rising up against the government and holding a peaceful protest as a sign of their disatisfaction and longed for similar action in their respective countries against policies and directions their governments were taking. In contrast the others are admonishing the former as sore losers as Ahmedinejad was voted in by the majority and they should accept it... this is reminiscent of the Palestine elections where Hamas won, much to the shock of others.

Countries, the US in particular, have been the first to point out the greatness of democracy and have even invaded other countries to enforce this but is this what everyone wants? Democracy is a majority-rule based system where votes are cast to decide matters but there will always be losers, it's the nature of the system. At what point do you decide the will of the people? Is 2/3 of votes enough? I'm not sure I'd take action where a third of the people were against it.

Here lies the great weakness - us humans. Each and everyone of us is naturally selfish and want things our way and complain when it doesn't. This will create an inherent rebellion and you will find a loud minority voicing their disatisfaction which will affect the others. Democracy may mean the majority get their way but at the expense of others and no-one likes losing and chances are that you will lose at least once, is this really the ideal situation or just the best of the bunch to rule the people?

No comments:

Post a Comment