With the Australian Federal Election coming in quick in a
few weeks, the two major parties are on all out assault on each other. I have
long decided that I will not vote for either the Labor or the Liberals, as I
did not like them a bit. However I would still exercise the power democracy
bestowed on me to choose who I want to represent me.
The funny thing with this election, and maybe other
countries’ elections is that a lot of time they have become such a two-horse
race that you really don’t know whether you have a choice at all. The situation
in Australia is similar. It is always about the Labor and the Liberals and it
feels that this is all we could choose. I actively try to seek out other
possibilities (sorry Greens, I do not share your vision either) so that I could
fully exercise my power in this democratic system. However, the upcoming
election in Australia had got me thinking – has democracy become such an old
establishment that it is now fossilised and become irrelevant?
There are lots of different governing systems. Democracy
provides the right for us to choose whom to represent us. However, as it was
proven many times in history, mankind is not great in dealing with freedom (if
you believe in the Bible, that stems from the good old Adam and Eve). Don’t get
me wrong – I am all for freedom and I think freedom is essential for mankind to
progress. However, mankind is also good in exploiting the freedom we have and
thus making freedom its own personal tool to achieve its own personal goal.
For me democracy facilitates making good visions to come
true. Those might not be visions shared by everyone but through the democratic
process, the majority’s wish is granted and hopefully being respected. This is
the core ideology of democracy. However, as the society grows and evolves, I
slowly felt that democracy has become a toy reserved to the privileged few in
the society. These privileged few possess the resource to “promote” their own
agendas as visions and through the modern publicity machine, these personal
agendas were communicated to the mass camouflaging as must have items on the
voters’ shopping lists. Whether these personal agendas are for the benefit of
the society no longer matters anymore. As a result, democracy, in my view,
slowly became more and more like a creature that once roams the world but now
only exists in our textbooks. It once had great impacts but now it is a museum
exhibit that we check out periodically and teach our kids because they need to
know about it.
Democracy might have helped to tear down individual dictatorship
and tyranny, however, it has also given birth to a new breed known as collective
dictatorship and tyranny. These collective dictators camouflage themselves as
people’s representatives but in fact behind these thin veils of democracy is a
collective desire to consume the society for their own benefits. As I watched
and read media coverage about our election, I sometimes
think, “seriously how could someone who despises the public school system and
sent his daughters to private school understand the struggle public schools
have?” Also, “how could people who got all aspects of their daily lives taken
care of understand the pain of taking buses to work everyday; or maybe not having
someone to be able to look after their kids when both parents are working full
time just to meet ends’ needs?” These people claimed to be the representatives
of Australians but how representational are they when they never experienced
what average Australians are experiencing? Would visits to school change how
they put together their education policies? If an education policy or budget is
scheduled way beyond their current election term, could it still be considered
as a commitment or it is just something to hook voters in like “ice”?
I have nothing against democracy and in fact I think
democracy is something essential to keep the society evolving. What I dislike,
especially in the current state of Australian politics, is that everyone seems
to be thinking that they have no choices but in fact they do have choices to a
certain extent. The current system seems to be facilitating the two major parties to stay in
power in an oligopoly manner. However, if more people demonstrate their desire
to change by voting for candidates other than these two major parties, then maybe
we could slowly introduce variety and thus revive true democracy in our
society.
God bless Australia.
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