We must resist the hypnotic allure of populist politics

Politics have existed for as long as social classes became pronounced in every fabric of human existence. During the aristocratic age the privileged minorities presided over those considered lowly in the pecking order of society while under democracy we have been duped to believe that the lowly masses exercise power through their elected representatives. Democracy suggests government by the people under social conditions of equality and justice. However, in reality what we have come to know is the rhetoric of populism and a vulgarised democracy. What has been entrenched everywhere else across all nations purporting to espouse democratic principles is the government in the name of the people, not by the people. There still exists a minority of individuals who portray themselves to be representatives of the people, while in truth they rise to power to advance their own political interests in the name of the majority that elected them.

The notion of equality is a condition that exists only in the mind. Those who rise to power ordinarily become more equal to those they preside over. Incessant rhetoric and populist posturing of the vanguard of vulgarised democracy become the opium of the majority, who without fail continue to reinstate these demagogues into power despite their inadequacies to fulfil on the electoral promises. The proponents of democracy proceed from the premise that there exist noble intentions among those supposed to represent the common will of the people. History is littered with countless instances of men with sinister intentions who have exploited the changing conditions of human existence and manipulated the desperation of the people to maintain their control over them and ultimately the levers of power. Populism is the evil cousin of a vulgarised democracy as those who repeat well-scripted and rehearsed slogans appear to easily capture the imagination of the majority who often are not well-informed to separate fiction from reality and exercise good judgment. The voice of honest men who are committed to fulfilling the common will of the people is drowned by populist rhetoric.

The obvious question to answer is: what equality under democracy do we speak of? Our Constitution lays the foundation for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law. The Bill of Rights further enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. These are the basic principles under which our democratic dispensation should find sanctuary. However, evidence suggests that those who have been elected to power since 1994 in South Africa have violated with disturbing regularity the rights of the people they are said to represent. The majority of the people who have entrusted the government with the task of disentangling them from the degrading conditions of poverty live in the hope of a better future, but this future, which they imagined through exercising their democratic right to vote, continues to be deferred.

How can those in power claim to uphold and protect the rights of the majority to housing, healthcare, food, water and education when there is lack of delivery of these basic services, when the arduous task of serving the people has been delegated to men and women of questionable integrity and character? The provision of adequate housing has been farcical as this has become part of the expansion of the patronage network to few politically connected individuals, while the poor are left without decent shelter and necessary amenities. The health system is near dysfunctional and the state of education does not serve as the natural ingredient to prosperity. The majority remain uneducated while those with some consolation of sub-standard education awake to the sobering realisation that the demands of the economy do not reconcile to their supposed skills. The presence of poverty should be seen as a violation of these rights. Equality before the law in South Africa can be openly contested to be a figment of our imagination. Criminals occupy all levels of government including the National Assembly where they formulate laws that they have no intention of abiding by or enforcing. Fortune favours the politically connected and those with the right struggle credentials.

Democracy cannot be purported to be a government by the people and for the people in these regular instances of blatant disregard of the common will of the people. Those who call themselves the “ruling party” exercise dominion in the name of the people for furtherance of their own narrow self-interests. One is reluctantly convinced of the dictum that in the end the people are wiser than any single individual can be; that the collective consciousness will evolve reasonable judgement and reject populism and a vulgarised democracy. Until we reach the state of political abnormality where the manipulation of public opinion and judgment cease, we cannot truly claim democracy as it should be. We can only speak of true democracy when the interpretation of reality and inferences drawn from such is a reflection of the rationality of thought of the majority and the political decisions are a fulfilment of the volition of the general populace.

The defenders of democracy and the Constitution have the strenuous undertaking of releasing the majority of the people from the hypnosis of populism and a vulgarised democracy and empower them to exercise their constitutional prerogative to elect into power those who are prepared to serve and not to rule. We must all strive towards the ideal future we had envisioned for ourselves. We cannot afford to falter in the quest to restore the hope of a better tomorrow!