Future of Democracy
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 05 2015 -

There have been umpteen debates across the world over the direction on which the future of democracy could blow in future.

While identifying the outlook in political philosophy, few have also been able to stress on how one seeks legitimacy over rationalisation of power by the State.

Whether one puts such a perspective in context depends on how the idea of pragmatism has been propounded.

There are many scholars who also have suggested that the understanding of the limits of political empiricism raises certain questions on the importance of political morality as distinct from the social and the religious idea.

Under such an “ought to be” world, any law has to be validated by the weight put on acceptable morality.

This becomes all the more important in a multi ethnic society like that of contemporary Manipur as distinct from the nascent stage of plurality understood earlier.

There is a need to evolve a mechanism for the representation of smaller communities so that justice is delivered.

One of the suggestions alluded to this proposition has been the idea of proportionate representation, where there is a constituency for every community.

A future democracy which has to function in a multi-cultural set up cannot afford to misplace certain mechanisms of achieving the ideals of social justice.

While searching for a model of workable democratic polity, one should also not lose sight of the current economic dimension of the State of Manipur.

The crisis of governance in the State has led to a stage of predatory politics. As a result, Manipur has been witnessing multifarious ethnic regimes all claiming to protect and fight for its citizens.

In the process of pigeonholing “own little houses”, there seems to be a mass amnesia on the recent history and dynamics of global capital and its intrusion into areas not considered traditional market.

Whatever path any groups of people choose, the discourse on economic development and nature of democracy as experienced in Manipur has the smell of shape as determined the redundant frontier model. It is time for a reality check now.