By Fabian Lyngdoh
The concept of the ‘rule of the people’ led to the emergence of a democratic political system as an ideal condition where individual freedom and the collective order can interplay in a perfect balance. Real democracy is direct democracy where every member of the community has the right to directly participate in it. But for the sake of convenience, representatives are elected from various constituencies to represent the people. So we have a representative democracy instead of real democracy. The committee of elected representatives is institutionalised and acquired an identity and independent existence of its own with powers and authority beyond the reach of ordinary people who constituted it. This is the predicament of representative democracy which was instituted purportedly to enhance individual freedom in balance with the collective order, but actually led to the rule of an institution that is manifested not in the exercise of ordinary human will but in the grip of a system. So, the concept of ‘rule of the people’ was converted into the ‘rule of a system’.
New little kingdoms (constituencies) were created as foundations of representative democracy. The leadership in a political community, like the State of Meghalaya, is recruited from these little kingdoms, and hence, the fate of the State depends on the capacities and characters of representatives elected by these little kingdoms. Therefore, the nature of politics in the State does not depend on the wisdom of the enlightened section of the society living in the State Capital, but depends largely on the status of human development in these little kingdoms which are mostly in the rural areas. It is said that ‘in the country of the blind, the one-eyed is king.’ If the electorates in some of these little kingdoms have no idea what democracy is all about, and keep on electing the same incapable representatives again and again for whatever motives, then these so called senior politicians are the rulers in the State in spite of their incapability, and the representatives from other enlightened little kingdoms would only be followers. That is how we have a virtual democracy at the mercy of a system.
On the economic front, real economic goods are natural resources and products of labour and services; and real economic transactions are carried out in trading of real goods and services conducted through the barter system. But for the sake of convenience, money is invented on the basis of a legal tender guaranteed by the political authority to facilitate economic transactions. What we call ‘money’ today is only a representative value of real goods and services as long as the political authority upholds the guarantee to pay the bearer the value written on the legal tender. The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes by the Modi Government has brought out the reality of this truth to the fore, when suddenly by the government’s withdrawal of guarantee the beloved notes were rendered into useless pieces of paper.
The general concept of economy today is based not on real transactions of goods and services to acquire real wealth, but on the hot chase for that paper tender floating in the air which is the measure of all wealth. It is wealth in the form of a number that we are all after. A great business man is one who has the ability to fatten his bank account by deduction from the bank accounts of others. The only thing important is to acquire a cheque by hook or by crook, and once the amount on the cheque is added to the bank account it becomes legitimate wealth regardless of the nature or the method how the cheque was acquired.
So it is good to be aware that we live today in a virtual economy as well as a virtual democracy. The elected representative from any of the little kingdoms can accumulate crores and crores of rupees in his bank account by trading neither in real commodity nor in services other than signing files for allotting supply orders or construction orders to some persons or companies. This is possible only because of the fact that he is a certified elected representative of real people, and a number on a piece of paper is a guaranteed representative of real wealth; and both are legal agencies of a virtual political-economy.
It is hard for any person to give ten acres of his ancestral land to another person as a gift because it is real wealth, but it is easy for someone who is expecting some favour in return to give away money double the price of the land to another person because it is virtual wealth. It is hard for people who are trading in real wealth to become rich because real wealth is firmly established on the ground, but those who are trading in virtual wealth can become crore-patis overnight because virtual wealth is floating in the air. Knowledge on earning and management of real wealth is taught in schools and colleges, but knowledge on earning and management of virtual wealth is learnt in the streets and highways. That is why and how, some people with no formal education at all could purchase not only real wealth belonging to the educated, but also their votes to be their political representatives because they mastered the art of acquiring virtual wealth in a virtual economy. Hence, the people who are in control of this virtual democracy are not those who are concerned with the enlightenment of the people on the principle of real democracy and justice, but those have the means and the conscience to buy the will of the ignorant.
A time has also come when we will be living in a virtual society. The traditional human society is a milieu where bountiful gifts of nature exist; where happiness and joy, love and affection, peace and companionship, justice and harmony reign. It is a milieu where each one derives joy and satisfaction by giving the best to the community; where dances and songs are performed for the joy of dancing and singing, not for the money collected at the counter. But in this virtual society we have to pay for every means of living. There are monthly bills we have to pay for living our lives: bills for house rent, food and drinks, medical care, drinking water, for electricity, cooking gas, education, sanitary services, mobile connections, entertainment, house cleaning, clothes washing, etc. There would also be bills which people have to pay for psychological and spiritual counselling for maintaining their peace of mind.
Each one’s life would be hung in the wide web of the virtual global society which emerged with the development of information technology and the establishment of the world market, together with the digitisation of every aspect of human life. Globalization, liberalization, and privatization are initiated by multinational corporations to convert human society into a corporate economy. The intention is not the welfare of particular societies but the conversion of the whole world into a market place where every aspect of human life including spiritual life of the soul and love of the heart would be commercialized in economic transactions.
A time would come when some agencies may declare that the air in the environment where we live needs artificial oxygenation and that they have obtained authority from the government to do that through their patented technology. So there would also be monthly bills to be paid for the oxygen that we breathe. Some agencies with government’s authority may organise special security groups for overseeing the safety of people in the community, and monthly bills would have to be paid to them for that virtual service. Some other agencies may obtain government’s authority to impose that every person should pay for life insurance otherwise no benefit from the government and other agencies would be applicable to them. All kinds of services shall be provided for one’s living, but bills have to be paid, or else one has to die. I believe that a smart city is something of that nature.
There would be bills and bills all around for having been born to live, and even bills to be paid in advance for one’s funeral after death. May God intervene, so that all these things may not happen and people are not bound by the bills all around, but can still drink water from the springs, use their own fuel and eat their own food in the bounty of Terra Madre, and work to earn their living and pay the bills for the real things they need, but not for virtual commodities and services devised by the cunning minds.