People and the electoral process

Globalisation has failed humanity! The era we are living in is such that minority political forces are squeezing the majority populations to their limits, in terms of the austerity they are imposing upon them, and in terms of fascist decision they are making in their place.

Those who thought that globalisation will spread welfare, equality and transparency have found that it has only spread the webs of power and control, deep inside every state, every household.

Democracy — which came with the appeal of ridding the human civilisation of despotic, dictatorial kingship, that brought the hope that eventually now the ‘people’ will have the power and the whole system will work for the interests and welfare of the people — has been a hoax. What has really happened is that the minority, rich elites with vested interests have somehow made the majority poor to believe that they are their true saviors.

The power that comes from the ballot is abducted by this elite, by all means — persuasion, bribe or rigging. Huge slogans are erected, narratives are built, processions are made one after another to lure the public into thinking that now, eventually, they are looking at their long-sought saviour. And time and again, the betrayed, the exploited, the exhausted voter finds itself in a choice between several evils — compelled to make one of these evils its entrusted saviour.

For even if it distances itself from the process, ‘the electoral process’, one of those evils will come to power, and will come back to impose his/her will upon them, because they, the people, have given him/her the power to rule over them. And now, they have the mandate to inflict the people with all sorts of bad decisions, and all sorts of extortions.

This majority, that came out to express its will and power, at the ballot box, on the election day, has been rendered silent for the rest of the five years! Once it has slipped his/her vote into the ballot box, it has no way to question whatever decisions will be made on its behalf in the next five years.

The majority has been rendered silent, and the two mechanisms, of media and politics, are now being used to constantly keep them framed. Both these mechanisms are unilateral, they impose their points of view upon the people and there is no mechanism for the people to impose their point of view upon them.

Though the internet has brought several platforms for the people to express their point of view, all these avenues prove to be ineffective in moving the political elites away from their unilateral, self-interests. You can think and express yourself as much as you want, but you have to obey the system — one that you have already willingly handed over to the political elite.

Yes, people do express themselves and they can be aggressive in this expression. In fact, there has been an emerging global trend of a stronger expression of ‘people power’, wherein people resort to street protest, and even rioting, all around the world. We saw this in Brazil and Chili inflation riots, and in Hong Kong pro-democracy protests; in fact we see this everyday all around the world.

Interestingly, we saw the 2011 Occupy Movement, wherein the protests spread into 95 cities in 82 countries, and culminated in the ‘15 October Global Call’ when 900 cities in 4 continents rallied in a single day — world’s biggest show of people’s power — but what happened, nothing! The 1% is still ruling upon the 99% of the world!

We saw this before, in 2003 too, when 400,000 people came out in Hyde Park, London, against the possible attack on Iraq. Following which, according to a report, 2,976 Anti-Iraq War protests were held around the world, gathering 35.5 million in the first four months of 2003 — but to what avail? Iraq was still attack, invaded, destroyed, destabilised for decades to come!

What then of the protests and processions led by the political elites themselves, how are the people to believe in them? How will the people ensure that through the ballot, they will vote out those who have abducted their vote before — an elite that is not joint with the needs and welfare of the people, but instead are jointed with an international capitalist web, that has constantly-evolving designs to suppress and exploit the ‘people’. How can the ‘people’ vote the men-of-the-capitalists out and vote the man-of-the-people in?

Will the people be able to do such a stunt, or will they lose all hope in the electoral process? The truth is that people’s confidence in the power of their vote is diminishing, and an overall apathy towards national issues and negligence toward the global matters that constantly impact us is increasing.

The hope and trust established via the ballot box is dying down! The media tell us everyday that we the people are being cheated upon, but the same media never tells us that we are to derail democracy, that we are to smash this sham system of electoral democracy to the ground, and bring about a new system truly based on the welfare of the people. We are kept constantly bouncing between one bad choice to another, so that the game can be carried on — and exploitation can find it way unobstructed.

Who has the real power then. We use to say that the ultimate sovereignty is in God, we use to think that power is with the people. But no, sovereign power rests with the IMF, and the transnational capitalist elites. And the people are the ‘gentiles’ who don’t have a life of their own and whose sole purpose is to serve the aforementioned elites!

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2022.

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