Peace and democracy must reform so that the people at the bottom gain some share in wealth.

By Kamala Sarup

The failure to recognize and treat dangerous social ills does not create conditions favorable to the development of peace. It is hard to vote intelligently when hungry or without shelter. It is also hard to make informed decisions without the information provided by a responsible political organization. It is most difficult to exercise peace and democratic rights when the basic security situation affects life.

The cornerstone of any successful nation lies in a constant educational ethos: literacy, universal free education, and ongoing educational opportunities for adults, including job retraining for changing economic circumstances. If the education is available, people will find the way to make it useful to them and, in the process, create the conditions favorable to a democracy suited to their needs.

When political deadlocks cause a static condition, or the elected representatives only care about their own personal wealth and accomplishments, such a peaceful democracy can easily give rise to a condition which is ripe for social unrest, even revolution or rebellion.

The societal conditions which help foster a successful peace include a responsible and vibrant press, some type of universal public education system, and a populace literate enough and with enough political awareness to take advantage of the press and education system to educate them politically. If these conditions exist, the electorate can effectively judge the politicians they elect and not re-elect them if they find their actions inadequate or not productive enough to solve social ills.

All forms of government are difficult to inculcate and run successfully because of human nature. Democracy is no different. Nor is peace necessarily successful the first time they are tried in different locations and cultures. If the histories of peaceful democratic experiments in Europe and South America are any guide, sometimes several variations are necessary before a people create a workable peace and democracy.

There is and always will be incompetence, non-cooperation and corruption in every government, but when brought to light in the media and literate people are informed of them, they can pressure the legislators to eliminate at least the worst faults.
The United States of America, often held out as the most successful democracy in the world based on its economic success and power, is no exception to the rule that democracy is a process rather than a static state.

The American Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in American history, was fought primarily because of the economic conflict over slavery. What emerged from that war was a democracy far different than the one which gave rise to it.

Moreover, repeated cycles of boom and bust in the American business cycle eventually gave rise to the Great Depression of the 1930s which resulted in a great transformation of American democracy known as the New Deal. The New Deal gave more rights to unions and the common person, thus enabling more participation in the American democratic experiment.

What can a nation, such as Nepal, where the democratic tradition is not as developed as in America, Europe or South America, learn from all this?

Local conditions and the cultural background of each nation must be taken into account. In creating and fostering a peaceful democracy, a nation must also allow the ingredients which “grow” and nurture peace: literacy, education and a vibrant press and women’s rights as a necessary adjunct to any successful democracy in the 21st Century.

The creation of a peace and democracy is a process. People must be prepared for setbacks in the democratic experiment and not yield to the temptation for a “quick fix”. Successful and long-lasting peace all takes time to develop. If a step approach to the realization of a democracy is necessary to achieve certain social needs in the process, perhaps the European models are more easily adaptable to Asian conditions as are the democracies in place in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, all different, yet demonstrably democratic. There may very well be an evolutionary approach to ultimately achieving an American-style democracy.

We should remember, if these labor reforms had not taken place, then war might have broken out between the rich and poor classes and the US democracy would have been threatened.

There is and always will be incompetence, non-cooperation and corruption in every government, but when brought to light in the media and literate people are informed of them, they can pressure the legislators to eliminate at least the worst faults. This happened thousands of times in the US at all levels of government, but especially at the local (municipal or city) levels where laws are more easily circumvented.

Peace and democracy must reform so that the people at the bottom gain some share in wealth.

(Journalist and story writer Kamala Sarup writes on peace, gender and development issues and can be reached at [email protected])

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