Individual in Democracy

According to Abraham Lincoln, an individual is the, “pivot of an ideally democratic state and it is he who builds, moulds and betters the social destiny of a nation”.  Many times, we often take the role of the individual for granted. We speak of the role of people, society, community or nation. They are at best very general terms. In fact it is the individual, which makes up the society or nation. The individual is part of the sum total and without the part there will be no common identity. So in other words, if the individual fails to play his or her proper role in the state of affairs, there is bound to be many problems. As such we need to give importance towards moulding and harnessing the individual to play its part in the overall functioning and success of democracy. First and foremost, an individual must be guided by an ethical code, that which will help in making a responsible and useful citizen. To fulfill this requirement, education is very important. We must ensure that our education system works so that our young people are encouraged to stay in schools. As we all know, presently we are facing a number of challenges on the education front—poor infrastructure, abstentee and proxy teachers, controversy over bogus teachers appointment etc. When those who are supposed to run the education system or teach the children, they are caught up in such hullabaloo, one can well imagine the plight of students, who may feel hopeless to continue with school. It is well known that school dropout is a major concern here in Nagaland. Youth indiscipline in general, criminal bend of mind, extortion and easy money, substance abuse etc. has thrown our society into a moral abyss. One can well imagine our future hope, where instead of enlightened, healthy and useful citizen we churn out just the opposite—to become a liability. We need to make our education system work if we want the best.

Another important ingredient required to make our democracy work is to promote freedom of thought and discussion. An individual in a democracy must be able to ventilate his or her own views on the affairs of one’s State, society or nation. According to a recent Morung Express opinion poll on the question, “do you feel free and safe to speak out the truth in public?” an overwhelming majority of 59% responded no while only 8% stated that they felt free and safe to speak out in public. Doesn’t this reflect the sorry state of affairs of our democracy? For democracy to work the individual must have the freedom to state the truth from falsehood. Citizens cannot exercise their right to vote effectively or take part in public decision-making if they do not have free access to information and ideas and are not able to express their views freely. An individual in democracy must also think independently, otherwise as is often the case with us here in our society, we end up as mere tools for other people.  A person who cannot think for him or herself will just do whatever some other person tells them to do.  And this is precisely the kind of democracy we have become—where might is right or populism, money power (not issues) and promises (not performances) win you election. Freedom of expression is therefore essential in enabling democracy to work properly—transparency, accountability and promoting checks and balances. In conclusion perhaps an apt proverb to reflect upon: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” -- Edmund Burke