Leaders, people must do more to ensure rule of law prevails

Letters

DEMOCRACY is derived from the Greek word demokratia, which literally means, the (government) power belongs to the people.
Democracy, therefore, is the opposite of governments ruled by monarchs, despots and tyrants (who rule or govern using force).
As the ultimate political power is vested in the people in a democracy, regular national elections are held for the people to exercise their rights to either affirm the leadership of the predecessor or to remove and replace with one of their liking.
And that is called accountability-the people holding their political leader accountable through popular vote.
Rule of law simply stands for the notion that law should govern a nation (supremacy of the law) as opposed to a nation being governed by arbitrary decisions of a single or few individuals who control the government mechanism.
Thus, democracy and rule of law goes hand in hand.
You may want to picture rule of law and democracy as two twin sisters or a husband and a wife.
Democracy and rule of law are inseparable. That is why you might hear some people say, every one irrespective of their status in the society is equal before the law.
Is democracy buttressed by the concept of rule of law, functioning well in this country? Well, contrary to what you may have heard, by international standards, democracy is much alive in this country.
However, our level of democracy is functioning at a much reduced level due to corruption. The people corrupt themselves when they sell their votes for favours.
The leaders become corrupt by meeting the unlawful and immoral requests of the people to get into power and by using their position as leaders to strike better deals for themselves and their cronies or accumulate more wealth for themselves.
Apart from the effects of corruption on the functioning of democracy in PNG, democracy has always
been strained by three (3) broad factors.
First, the majority of our people (up to 95 per cent) are illiterate. Due to this, the people misunderstand democracy on its vital ideals.
For instance, people fail to appreciate the importance of national elections.
It is likely that any con politician can manoeuvre them into electing him or her by bribery and doing favours.
This is what is known as the Socrates conundrum, where Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, argued against democracy saying that giving political power to the mass would inevitably lead to election of most corrupt leaders become of their mass’ shallow intelligence.
Democracy therefore demands an educated populace.
Second, the attributes of a true leader is lacking in our democracy.
In other countries, people with tainted reputation hardly ever occupy public offices, let alone getting elected to occupy political offices.
Because our people do not understand most of the ideals of democracy, persons with criminal and tainted records are still elected to occupy political offices.
Worst case scenario is where an MP from Madang was nominated when he remained incarcerated for committing a criminal offence.
Third, our various customs and culture still regulate the lives of many of us.
Some of our ways of doing things according to custom are noble indeed but many are socially, economically and politically unsuitable and destructive.
Such cultures in turn undermine the type of society democracy envisions.
If we truly want a vibrant democracy, our leaders and the people must do more to make sure rule of law prevails at all times.
The onus is on the leaders and as well as the people.
As leaders, the leaders should take lead by leading with example.

Emmanuel Isaac
Port Moresby