DEMOCRACY>POLITICS>CITIZEN

The origins of democracy though promulgated with Athens around 6^th BC,  historical evidence also point out that practices of democracy in multiple forms had existed in ancient India, Mesopotamia, and Sparta. However none have been written with such passion and depth as democracy in the Roman Empire.

With Plato laying the foundation to the concept of political philosophy, expounding the role of citizens and the state none was so tested with treachery and deceit in the politics of Rome. In what is known as the Ides of March, sixty senators conspired and assassinated Julius Caesar who was deemed to be a dictator threatening their very own positions. Caesar himself was instrumental in the demise of the Roman Republic and replaced it with a monarchy regime as later known as the Roman Empire.  Interesting to note that, Caesar was merely a powerful general serving the Roman Republic under the Roman Triumvirate Rule of law. But when conflict occurred in the triumvirate Caesar took the opportunity to seize power and became the dictator (not in the republic sense). 

Whoever thinks politics is a level playing field, is surely naïve and should never be one in the first place. Never was there a war that was fought with a referee in the middle, with the warring sides having equal strength. Its about tactics and strategy on how to outwit each other.

Sun Tzu, in the Art of War states that, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

When Gandhi faced the mighty British Army he realized that Independence for India cannot be gained by engaging in a conventional altercation. Veerapandian Kattabomman (1798), Jhansi Rani (1857), Bhagat Singh (1930) and  Netaji (1945), all fought head on with the British but all of them failed in their attempts. However Gandhi waged a different war with the British, a psychological warfare. The Satyagraha Salt March, was something that the British did not anticipate where for the first time violence was countered with non-violence. Hence that incident paved the way for the eventual independence. 

So when political parties engage in a political contest they must anticipate and be prepared for every probable move that their opponents would pursue. More so if your adversary has the DNA of Goliath, Medusa and Golem, where the probability of action grows exponentially. So contingencies are essential in this blood sport (literally or otherwise).

‘Democracy’ is a political philosophy for governance of a state, the ‘Politics’ makes this happen and the ‘Citizens’ make up the politics. The equation between the three entities (Democracy, Politics and Citizen) are deemed to be interdependent. However ideally, ‘Citizen’ should be the independent variable whereas ‘Politics’ and ‘Democracy’ should be the dependent variables. Unfortunately when 'Politics’ becomes powerful the ‘Citizen’ loses control and 'Democracy' suffers.

Whether it is the US, Britain, Australia, Philippines, India etc., I often wonder whether the citizens of these countries really have a say in the politics of their respective countries or is it a domain of a few who uses democracy as a means to further fuel their own political agenda. 

But at least in these countries there are socio-legal infrastructures for citizens to push for public agenda to be heard and addressed. If only more developing countries have such progressive systems in place, it would pave the way for establishing civil governance with better checks and balance. Hence the equation of “Democracy><Politics><Citizens” would constantly recalibrate to achieve an ideal equilibrium as society evolves.