Staff Reporter
ACCORDING to Churchill, ‘Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’
Churchill’s famous irony does however, highlight that democracy is not without its flaws, but perhaps that it just has fewer flaws than the other systems of government.
Democracy comes from two Greek words and means ‘Rule by the People’. They are therefore, acting on our behalf to manage our tax money, ensure our security, provide services and so on.
Alan Moore, said: ‘People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.’
In Mijas we have a situation which is the product of democracy, whereby all the losing parties got together, thereby creating a ruling body which represented the ‘majority’ of the people of Mijas. This questions motivation – to be in power, or to represent and work for the people? There are nevertheless, some problems with this system.
If a government is acting on my behalf, I have the right to know what they are doing with my money and giving them a mandate does not mean I give up my rights to have a voice. The Mijas government has not submitted its accounts to the tax department for 3 years, so how do I know what my money has been spent on? The Mijas Tripartite has consistently come a resounding bottom of the league table in transparency in Spain. Their mandate does not give them immunity or invisibility, it heaps accountability on their shoulders.
When a coalition government get together, they still do not represent all the people. We have an interesting mixture of far left, middle of the road, and the lost and bewildered working together, supposedly each of them having had vastly varying commitments in their election manifestos. Yet, these are put aside in the interests of getting into power. There is another group of voters whose interests and rights are scarcely, if at all, represented. In the case of Mijas this is almost 40% of the electorate, who voted for the winning party headed by Angel Nozal.
So, surely Nozal and his councillors are still representing their voters? Given the chance, yes. But when the ruling groups refuse to discuss the issues they are raising on behalf of residents, they think they are rejecting Nozal. No, they are rejecting 40% of the Mijas electorate. Democracy? What democracy?
If democracy meant only representing those who voted for you, only those who voted for an incumbent government would have to pay their taxes. No, democracy is representing the interests of ALL the taxpayers, regardless of political inclinations. It may be the best system we have but unless a new way of thinking enters the heads of those in power, it will always feel less than satisfactory.
Our current government (Ciudadanos, PSOE, and Tic Tac) should be very afraid of the people. They have ignored the people’s voices for too long and will pay the price for it.
