Pericles, the founder of Greek democracy, was warned by his teacher, Zeno of Elea, that " politicians are not born, they are excreted". He did not want his best and brightest student to enter politics, but Pericles chose to do so.
Politics is from the Greek "polis" and means a community. Democracy is from the Greek "demos" and "kratos" and means rule of the people. In his Politics, Aristotle, described man as a political animal who reaches his full potential when he co-operates and unites with his fellow man in a political community of laws. "Law", he stated," is reason unaffected by desire". Appetites and desires must be controlled by reason. As such Aristotle felt that the people cannot govern themselves, being driven by appetites and desires. He felt that an enlightened monarchy/kingship, based on laws that will be impartially applied was necessary. " Only a God or a beast can live outside of the polis", he wrote.( Man needs to live in a community with his fellow man. Only those who have property can be citizens, and they make the laws. Those without property and women and slaves were not allowed to participate in government). This idea was to have a great influence in governlng. The British gave the vote to all adult males in 1884. New Zealand was the first to give women voting rights in1892. In the United States, Britain and Canada, women got the right to vote after W.W.1. Switzerland gave women the vote only in 1972 and recently Kuwait gave rights to women. Many countries, like Saudi Arabia continue to deny women this right. African- Americans only got full voting rights after the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. At the Philadelphia in 1787, it was established in the American Constitution, that "blacks" were to be counted as 3/5 of a "white" man, "for purpose of taxation and representation". Now an African-American Barak Obama, sits as President, and his closest challenger was a woman, Hillary Clinton, now his Sect. of State, one of his most trusted and senior advisers.
Representative democracy has become the order of the day. People vote their choices in supposedly free, fair and regular elections. These representatives not only make the laws, but must respect and uphold them, and see to it that they are applied impartially, by an independent judiciary. Too often however, this is not the case. The law is not respected, the application is not impartial and the outcome is corruption. Too many have given in to "appetites and desires" and greed and nepotism. The former president of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun, recently committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, over corruption charges. The outgoing Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert is under investigation for corruption and the present Prime Minister Netanyahu had been subjected to charges of corruption in his previous stint as Prime Minister. The former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney is under investigation for receiving payments from an arms dealer. The present Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi is again under investigation and ministers and members of the British Parliament are accused of tax fraud. In India many members of parliament are accused of corruption and the recently elected President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma has been accused of rape (he was found not guilty) and of corruption. The President of Guatemala stands accused of the murder of an opponent and the former president of Peru, Fujimori is convicted of various crimes. These are all democratically elected officials, in democracies. The non-democracies and the pseudo-democracies have no barriers to corruption, so it is the order of the day and corruption runs rampant down their streets and in the palaces. There are many others in many other governments, national, state/provincial and local that have been accused, investigated and punished, but there are many more who have yet to be subjected to the law.
Is it the corrupting influence of power or is it a character flaw? It is a character flaw that allows them to use their power in this sullied way. It is a character flaw that makes them think that they are above the law. It is a character flaw that allows power to seduce them into thinking that they can get away with it. The law may be slow but eventually it catches up with them. Laws, as Hobbes noted, are indeed like hedges, not to keep you out, but to keep you on the right path. When you stray from the path, the law will be waiting. The cynics will say that the law is toothless, that the law favours the rich and powerful, that the law is merely an inconvenience. They are wrong.
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India celebrates another successfully concluded election, while Sri Lanka digs out from civil war and Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to battle for survival and Burma/Myanmar languishes under the stranglehold of its repulsive and paranoid generals. India moves forward under the leadership of the Congress Party and its allies, while the others struggle for survival. The Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapakse must now move to integrate the 1.4 million Tamils fully into the fold. Reconstruction and reconcilation must be speedily begun with real changes that will see the defeated and despairing Tamils become a full partner, with their language, religion and identity protected, their rights respected and the discrimination which they have been subjected to, removed. They can learn from their poly-ethnic, poly-lingual and multi-religious neighbor, India. India's growth and development were achieved by a willingness to incorporate these diverse elements. A Hindu-majority (80%) nation that has as leader of the governing party (Congress) an Italian born woman, a Sikh Prime Minister and (just recently) a Muslim President. Sri Lanka with its Sinhalese, Buddhist majority must accept and respect the Hindu Tamils as well as the other ethnic and religious entities. Only in this way can their be peace and development. 50,000 civilians are trapped and possibly being used as human shields in an ever shrinking and very bloody battle zone of about 5 square kilometres of beachfront, lagoons and coconut groves. The government forces are accused of using heavy artillery barrages, that have resulted in many casualties. The die-hard remnants Tamil Tigers are running out of time and place and it is only a matter of days berfore they are completely routed. The government has denied using air strikes and heavy bombardment in the crowded war zone, but because independent journalists has been kept out, this cannot be verified. What will be the result of the Tiger's military defeat? Will they resort to suicide bombers and bring the war to populated areas? Their history and manic leadership would seem to indicate that they will not go quietly. The government must step in immediately and try and win over the Tamil population with real changes to address their concerns about their language, religion and culture and the discrimination that they have suffered at the hands of the majority Sinhalese, Buddhist majority. This is no time for victory celebration and/ or gloating. This is the time for reconcilation and healing. Sri Lanka's history created a land with ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity and has led it to its sorry state today. Most of the people migrated to the island over 2,500 years ago from India, in pursuit of trade and economic opportunity. Hinduism was the first religion and remains the faith of its largest minority, the Tamils. Budhism was introduced in the 3rd century B.C.E. and is the religion of the Sinhalese majority. Islam was brought in by the Arab/Moor traders in the 10th century and Christianity came in the 16th century, with the Portugeese and then the Dutch and the British. Budhists constitute 69%, Hindus 15%, Muslims 8% and Christians 8%, of the population. |
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![]() "Ecce Homo" ("Behold the Man"), Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem. ![]() figure 1-a ![]() (Fig 2a) The Death of Innocents Author Ishwar R. Prashad recently retired from over 47 years of teaching. Archives
July 2020
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