When we look around the world as the pandemic racks people life, economy and most importantly freedom, one common feature is what we hear or see on television; lockdown from small, medium and large country democratic or autocratic, North or South. It shows this coronavirus pandemic doesn’t look any country in the eye, it ravages as it goes, as far as it can, if by chance you were caught sleeping on duty. The last word is what matters, ‘sleeping on duty.’ Where we caught napping? The word North and South, highlights the socio-characterization of our divided world or countries. Wherein the north is the rich and developed, the south is the semi-developed and or poverty stricken states. Back to the topic, democracy gone rogue or is it South?
The choice of this topic is driven in part by what I observe and can be termed bandwagon mentality that characterized various countries response to the pandemic. It is true it came as a sudden shock but we cannot deny that actions in China never happened in realtime. One thing that’s common is the near total level of lockdown that is implemented, only a few countries decided against it, Sweden. But the one thing that got me thinking is, the adoption of autocratic approach to an issue that is not humans cause but human victim (this can be debated if emotions don’t run amok)-deployment of military for law enforcement purpose in democratic countries is worrisome. According to Maas (German foreign Minister) “China has taken some very authoritarian measures.”
Wait a minute, China did it, now Italy has taken a leaf, and so did Spain, and so also a whole host of other countries did so too. If Nigeria, Pakistan adopts such an approach, I can understand because there has been long simmering issues on the ground. I avoided mentioning a host of other countries because time and space is of essence, anyway it did not surprise me.
What can caused such heavy handed approach in democracy? I don’t want to say it. Say it! Ok! Here is my thinking as raw as it can get. At a point in time, the people stopped listening to their government because they feel, these guys are a bunch of ‘A...h, these politician are actually taking chances. We the people are their labs, where they conduct test. It is the lab of politicians opinion against the popular saying “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Why should we trust them?
In France, on the eve of his maiden address, Mr Macron the president termed the pandemic invisible enemy. For that reason, he deploys the army. In the world biggest democracy, India, after a day of trial, the next move by the government without prior notice was total lockdown. In Italy, after weeks of indecision, when the Chinese finally arrived, the government decides to deploy the army to enforce lockdown. Spain also did the same. From the above analogy, one thing is very clear, trust is missing. The description of the pandemic as our “war” with an “invisible enemy,” Thomas L, Friedman says such imagery of “war metaphor is wrong and misleading.” This has lead to over handedness on many democratic, quasi democratic and authoritarian states, turning the pandemic into power grabbing opportunity. When democracy stops trusting that the people who entrusted power to a select few can think and support a given agenda for the benefit of the whole, democracy dies. Trust deficit leading to questions of legitimacy is the beginning to a much bigger problem in a democracy. Democracy cannot point fingers of success in autocratic state as a pretext for its actions.
In democracy leaders are representatives of the people. All actions and decisions must be align with the desire of the people. In autocratic states, leaders lord it over their subject. In democracy we entrust the affairs of the state in the hands of a select few representatives. Humans we must remember will always be human. If we fail to keep adequate tab on their actions, we might pay a heavy price. From military deployment to use of technology to monitor us? The growing trend on facial recognition as apparatus for deployment should be concerning. South Korea, it is reported intends to keep up extensive testing and vigorous contact-tracing using security-camera footage, credit-card statements and mobile-phone location data. South Korea is different from China we are meant to reason but human nature is not science that can be work out in the lab to decide what are their motivation. What happens when such mechanisms is misused? Reasons to be vigilant. As government around the world tries to maintain control both by directing and framing the narrative, a dangerous trend might be brewing, surveillance and law. This is no longer a tool in the hands of autocrats even democracy are taking a leaf out of it to advance their social causes as a practice. A reason to watch and act, I didn’t say pray. These can be democracy gone rogue or south.
In this contested space of power, state verses the people, anything can go wrong. When democracy dies the people suffer. So it is of essence to question, don’t just trust, sometimes doubt can yield some positive outcome as people in authority start to question themselves. We need to preserve this hard won battle of freedom.
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