Given below is a set of clues. Identify the Prime Minister based on them. He is known for
- Leaks to friendly media
- Lying to friends, country, Parliament
- Sidelining the Cabinet
- Being “Lightly encumbered with political principles
- Being indifferent to suffering
- Wanting a country that would glorify and gratify him
- Being indifferent to principles
This could be confusing because the description fits more than one world leader. But in fact they are taken from the British media coverage of the COVID-19 inquiry into the sins of omission and commission by Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister.
The writer and academic Rory Stewart, said of Johnson, “He’s probably the best liar we’ve ever had as a prime minister. He knows a hundred different ways to lie.”
It could apply to another leader too. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is having his own reality check. In a television interview he said that if he came back to power he would be “dictator for a day” and do exactly what he wanted to do, before presumably settling down to lead democratically.
Trump is redefining democracy. This happens sometimes when your politics is neither right nor left but centred. Around yourself. Democracy in that case is what is “best for me.” It is a form of government that decides just how much he can get away with.
According to a data base compiled by The Washington Post, Trump made more than 800 inaccurate claims about the election from the time the polls began closing in 2020, to the end of his presidency.
Perhaps we need to tweak a cliché and talk about lies, damned lies and democracy!
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter, said Winston Churchill. Or perhaps a three-minute conversation with your average leader (some of whom are pretty average). Democracy is a device which ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve, wrote George Bernard Shaw, and there are probably as many definitions of ‘democracy’ as there are those who oppose it. “Misappropriation of the word is a testament to democracy’s appeal,” as one writer has said.
After Vladimir Putin became President of Russia, he said modestly, “I am the world’s only true democrat.” Perhaps there was a supplement: “…and anyone who disagrees will be thrown in jail.” Xi Jinping has said that China has “Chinese-style democracy”, and clarified that “Democracy is not Coca-Cola, tasting the same across the world as the syrup is produced in one single country…”
The greatest threats to democracy often come through elections. Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Viktor Orbán (Hungary), and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkiye) were elevated in free and fair elections.
The Economist calculated in 2022 that eight percent of the world lives in a full democracy and another 37.3 percent in flawed ones. More than half the world suffers from either authoritarian or hybrid regimes. Interestingly, both the U.S. and India figure under ‘flawed’ democracies, while the U.K. is seen as a full democracy.
Taste the feeling, as Coca-Cola says.
