Witoubou Newmai
Are we in an over-democratic society or the other way round? Or is it that our society is still immature to handle democracy? Or has there been major flaws in the functioning of democracy?
A simple diagnose. Never ending proliferation of pressure groups/organisations in states like Manipur and Nagaland would mean to say that large sections of the people have been disgruntled to the extreme. It would also mean that the people are now aware of their rights/liberty. Since having inculcated the sense of democratic rights, the people tend to seek suitable platforms to voice their woes. And hence,the outcome is the mushrooming of social organisations.
Nevertheless, these are important parts of democratic exercise, albeit these exercises often cripple the smooth functioning of democratic goverments by putting the latter at the cross-road-----a failed mechanism.
But the phenomenon is still a democratic move. Freedom to express and highlighting ones grievances without hiccups are even more democratic and that the democracy prophets encourage to do it so.
However, excessive democratic exercisings hamper the democratic government vis-a-vis suffocate the society.
Call it over-democratic or is it that democracy has come too early in our society and we are not ready as yet to making use of it?
Frequent bandhs and protest retard the economical growth. But what is the panacea to contain this farce?
Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker Cordon debated in their book,”Democracy’s Edges” that democracy is a flawed hegemony. The two scholars have provokingly stated in the book that democracy is all too easily held hostage by powerful interests; it often fails to protect the vulnerable or otherwise to advance social justice; and it does not cope well with a number of features on the political landscape.
Currently, Ian Shapiro is Professor of Political Science at Yale University, USA while Hacker Cordon is a doctoral student at the same university at the time when they wrote the book in 1998.
The arguments of the Yale University duo hold well in states like Manipur and Nagaland. These state governments are the mere puppets of the NGOs and other groups.Exerting pressures from the NGOs having their ideologies and interests with differences as wide as cheese and chalk often numb the government functionaries.
And again, had not been these pressure groups the governments tend to become a dictatorial whip.
Communism was, perhaps the sole important institutional competitor to democracy until 1990-91 giving huge hope that a more suitable form of government would be deduced, if Hegel’s theory is to be accounted.
The German thinker had formulated that the collision of thesis and anti-thesis would result in the production of synthesis. But with the collapse of communism, we will never see Hegel’s synthesis in the near future.
May be this is going to prove Francis Fokuyaima’s theory. He had predicted in his book ,”End of History” that the end of the Cold War would was the end of history.
To be precise, Francis Fokuyaima was talking about the end of communism following the disintegration of the Soviet Union some fifteen years ago.Democracy became victorious in that race with the United States at the saddle of democracy.
But here in Manipur and Nagaland, where are our NGOs and politicians leading us? Hope for a more suitable form of government to crop up before we get doomed.
(The writer is the Editor of the Imphal based Newmai News Network)
