The Worst Win

The second term MP election is about a few weeks from now,and people, by now, must have matured the politicking canniness, shrewdness, and tactfulness affairs. The voters should have some qualifications of the right person already in their minds. People had very good choices. They had four parties in their hand. And hope they selected the best two in their preliminary round.

With powerful and influential candidates, people’s minds were loaded and taken over by DPT in 2008. That was good. People’s choice was right. DPT ruled the country with much peace and happiness. They brought development to many rural sides.  On the other hand, DPT taught Bhutanese people the value of money, and this is good. Bhutanese by nature were spendthrift and didn’t care much about balance and saving. The financial crunch did. It was a blessing in disguise.

Now the two political parties’ promises look lofty and wonky sometimes. If their manifestos were to come true, every Bhutanese needn’t work. We will be spoon-fed. Government budget to each gewog, a health centre in every chiwog, community-based services, blacktopping farm roads, 100% job, etc and etc.   

But, if lessons were to be learned, there were scores of very bad examples of the elected members who have joined the politics for the love of power and money. A few of them turned out to be worse than statues, stealthily, filling up their stomachs. Some have even bought three or more bulldozers and excavators and are running a business in projects like Punatsagchu. A few of the elected members had used lip services and faked promises to garner votes. People knew. These types of malfunction especially by the ruling party will downsize our small nation.

Bhutan didn’t know much of these would happen in the 1^st election. Now people know; there are tensions lurking between the horse and the bird; there are blame games being played; there are differences, and trying to come to a common conclusion. There are talks in every small gathering and sorts like that about choosing a leader of good heart, responsible, capable, understanding, etc. The group, who needs to remain apolitical, civil servants, are by name only, they are the most politically active in the faction of the society. They influenced the voters the most. The majority of voters think that educated people's choice would be right, not going by grassroots need. And similar is the case with the religious body. In the name of religion, religious anti-political people become very much politic. For example, to conjecture to the people that if anyone votes for Mr.X, he/she will bring good luck, good power, good things, etc to the place.

Politicization is important. Therefore,voters shouldn’t be moved by any shaft of hope. People must, by now, also know that the individual mustn’t decide the candidate, but, rather it is the responsibility of people coming together and deciding on their representative. Democracy is sometimes described as communities of people coming together, and it imagines many voices pouring into a unified whole. Democracy should permeate the world beyond politics, making itself felt in the ways people think, speak, work, fight, and even make forte.  No nepotism, no relations, no bribery, nothing, but electing through the collective decision is the true principle in democracy. Because it’s for the greater goodness and well-being of the whole, not an individual.