Politicians derailing democracy

EMOCRACY” in its literal sense has not been doing very well of late. As the slogan “the people shall govern” reminds us, the people do not govern yet. Instead, party leaders of varying quality rule in their name.

The UK referendum resulted in a very narrow majority (52% “leave” to 48% “remain”), generating “Brexit”. Yet the Conservative government claimed a decisive victory, saying “the people have spoken”.

Prime Minister Theresa May went further, claiming simplistically that “Brexit means Brexit”. This bizarre circular statement simply created further confusion as negotiations generated many variations such as “hard Brexit” and “soft Brexit”.

Few ordinary citizens can have much of a grasp of these complexities. In Spain the burning issue of Catalonian independence has generated violent emotions, responding to the imported national police sabotaging the local referendum with brute force and tear gas. The central government’s threat to impose direct rule from Madrid reminds older Catalans of the tyranny of General Franco and the horrors of civil war.

In Kenya the opposition has undermined the democratic process by boycotting the election. How can there be a genuine winner if there is only one runner? Crucially, these scenarios leave a lot of unrepresented, angry people.

Geoff Hughes is an emeritus professor formerly with Wits University.