Is democracy the enemy of the majority?

By admin-s Last updated Nov 10, 2014

Democracy is a numbers game that benefits the majority. So, why do Malay-Muslim ultra-nationalists fear and oppose electoral reforms? How can the majority lose if the will of the majority is upheld?

Wong Chin Huat, The Malaysia Insider

Democracy as political adulthood

Many people in this world don’t believe in democracy. Talk to Russians who support Vladimir Putin, Chinese who defend the Chinese Communist Party and Muslims who go to battlefield for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).

Democracy is a system that supposedly allows you to choose your government. It does not guarantee you a good government. It only gives you the government you ask for. If you vote villains or idiots into power, democracy can’t change them into angels or geniuses.

So, the virtue – or the setback – of democracy is that we become the master of our destiny. With democracy, we will truly deserve the governments we have.

We cannot blame God(s), luck, the Americans or the Jews any more for our choices and their consequences.

In that sense, democracy really means political adulthood. In authoritarianism, we are kids and the authorities are our parents.

And the “parents” know best what books we can and cannot read, which parts of a movie we can or cannot watch, whose speeches we can and cannot listen to, what animals we can and cannot touch, and most of all why only they can be “parents”.

Why do ultra-nationalists hate democracy?

So, why do Russian, Chinese and pan-Muslim ultra-nationalists hate democracy? Why don’t they want their people to be the master of their own destiny? Why do they see democracy as the West’s Trojan horse to destroy their fatherland, nation or community?

There are at least three related reasons.

First, they reject political equality – which is core to democracy – and believe some people are simply more stupid than others and cannot be given the power to make decisions. The “stupid people” should just simply follow the smart ones.

Sometimes, the “stupid people” self-servingly refer to others. Sometimes, they count themselves in the “stupid people” before some larger-than-life authoritative figures.

Second, they hate open-endedness and diversity that democratic decision-making promises, seeing that simply as a manifestation of ineffectiveness, inefficiency, chaos and division.

Goal-orientated, they admire uniformity, unity and discipline. Don’t be surprised if they see ants as the role model species in the universe.