Editor, RE: “Rwanda’s democracy: Insist on defining ‘the good life’” (The New Times, January 25). As usual, Mr Rugira makes a very persuasive argument to support the notion that “democracy” should, first and foremost, be about being responsive to the expectations of the governed; to deliver the “good life” to them to which they believe to be entitled. This brings us to that political truism most often ascribed to the long-time former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the late Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill, who stipulated that all politics is local. The successful politician (and more generally the effective statesman) focuses laser-like on the needs (preferably the expressed needs) of his or her constituents. The preferences of non-constituents should in no case ever take precedence over those of constituents. Only in a non-democratic polity, in which a dictator’s unilateral decisions over-ride every other consideration, including constituent sentiments, do the views of outsiders hold sway over the expressed demands of the locals. Democracy, in the end, requires a continuing and close relationship between the people and those who govern their affairs. This intense relationship ensures a never-ending dialogue that provides both form (two-way communication, government accountability to the people from whom it gets its mandate and regular renewal of its democratic mandate) and the democratic substance (popular input to the content of government services to the people). But when all else is said, the most basic question related to all governance is: what is its purpose? Is it adequately responsive to the people’s aspirations, and does the governance system—whatever you choose to call it—provide a sufficiently effective mechanism for popular participation in their governance, ensuring especially the people’s involvement in the most critical decisions affecting their fundamental interests? If the answer to this question is affirmative, then you have real democracy, not the empty ritualistic vessel so beloved of the lesson-givers that do not and have never really given a hoot about democracy, as long as their own preferences take precedence in the choices of those who govern in our names, even if those preferences are inimical to the interests of we the people. Mwene Kalinda.
