Misconceptions that ruin democracy

Misconceptions that ruin democracy

A common misconception on how democracy works is that it relates only to the act of voting for leaders. Everything else is expected to fall in place perfectly with a silver spoon to the constituents. Vote for the right person, and absolute justice is expected with a perfect bureaucracy that does not need anything else to work.

Having given my part back to the community I have lived in for more than half my life, I feel it is such an unrealistic perception that creates an immature dependency on others. It feeds the dole out mentality and perpetuates laziness.

Democracy is not a perfect system, but neither is any other ideology. It is only in a democracy though that the people are given the right to participate not just in the policy making of the state, but the procedures that apply such policies. In a dictatorship, one person makes the rules and applies it according to his or her whim. A democracy allows all those willing to participate to create their laws or ask their representative to make the laws they want. If the implementation is bad, the people have the venue of the judiciary to right a possible wrong or prevent such wrong from happening again.

I stress, a democracy isn’t a perfect system, but it’s the best we have with respect to giving everyone a chance to be heard.

That being said, we should take into consideration the balancing of the many interests especially for those that have been vested rights by the constitution. When should people be allowed to speak their mind? To what extent? Can one person lie about another person and get away with it using freedom of speech? Or does human dignity play a role in respecting the rights of a person? People tend to lose their patience with democracy forgetting that it isn’t as simple as fighting for one right. There are many rights protected by our 1987 Philippine Constitution. Some may conflict with others and it is the duty of government to make sure neither rights trample on others.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that for a democracy to work, it requires the active participation of everyone involved, all those who have interests, not merely at the voting state, but at every stage required to implement and protect the rights afforded to these people.

People want instantaneous justice, but sometimes they forget such can be given but at the cost of due process afforded to every person. Due process is there to protect the truly innocent. The philosophy behind that is it would be better to let many guilty people free than to imprison one truly innocent person. Why is it such? Well, I guess it’s a conservative logic to protect the good. I didn’t make that up though. I’m just living by the same rules made by people born long before I was a thought in my parents mind.

Justice, like freedom, is not for free. In a vibrant democracy like ours, JFK’s words ring stronger and even more true when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”.