The People’s Republic: Constitutional basis

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

The third is that the inalienable rights of the people are recognized and inviolably preserved; and the fourth is that members of the Executive are not given any opportunity of developing tenacity of office, or of usurping the sovereignty of the people, either by force or stealth.

To these ends identical means have been fashioned respectively as follows:

(1) General elections which are free and fair, and in which any interested persons or political parties are free to take part, are held in four-yearly, five-yearly or seven-yearly intervals.

(2) There is separation of powers between the three organs of Government.

(3) The constitution – whether written or not – has in it entrenched provisions for the recognition and impartial enforcement of the fundamental rights of the citizens.

(4) There is a recognized convention as well as a code of conduct which obliges the members of the Executive to regard themselves . as nothing but the accredited and privileged servants of the people, for a limited period of time.

The foregoing outlines of objectives and means call for some further elaboration.

It is clear from what we have said that in order that the persons elected, by whatever method, may be regarded as the accredited representatives of the adult members of the State, the electors must be allowed to exercise their right of choice without let or hindrance.

They should not be intimidated or coerced into making an unwanted choice; and they should be allowed to make their choice in secret so as not to be subjected to any fear in casting their votes, and not to be exposed to hatred and hostility from those who have not been favoured by their votes.

In devising its method of representative democracy, every State in which this form of government is in vogue has always borne the following postulates in mind:

(1) Every person has the right to freedom and to the unfolding of his personality.

(2) Every person has the right to hold, express, and canvass any opinion he likes. (3) All persons are equal in the eye of the law, and are, therefore, entitled to equality in the enjoyment of the rights of personal liberty, of association, and of free movement.

(4) Every adult person is entitled to have a say in the manner in which the affairs of his country are being or should be conducted.

These postulates automatically spring from the rights which a man enjoys in any given family; and, as we have already demonstrated, the postulates are quite valid, and incontestable on any rational ground. It is pertinent to stress, therefore, that the acceptance of these postulates automatically rules out the legitimacy of the so-called one-party system.

Because of heredity, upbringing and other factors, there are scarcely two men, in any community, exactly alike in their thinking, opinions, and affections. It is, therefore, too much to expect them to belong to only one political association. Indeed, it is a matter for great praise that the people in a state do form themselves into political associations or parties each of which extends beyond the  confines of their respective families, and in which, in Burke’s words, the people ‘are united for romoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle upon which they are agreed’.

In other words, one of the quintessences of democracy is a multi-party system. It is under such a system that the individuals are able to exercise their right of association, their right to the unfolding of their peculiar personalities, and their right to hold, express, and canvass any opinions they like.

It must be proclaimed from the house-tops, therefore, that democracy and the one-party system are absolutely antithetic. This is so, because under the one-party system the citizens are compelled, by a process of coercive regimentation of thought and opinion, to belong to one political association. Alternatively, they are coerced to refrain either from holding any political opinions at all, or from expressing and canvassing any such opinions.

Those who are engaged in constitution-making, in any country, should be reminded that one of the lessons which political history has tirelessly inculcated is that any form of government other than democracy is doomed to failure and disaster, and can only be sustained, in the short run, by fraud, intimidation, and force.

Six of the arguments in support of the one-party system are worth examining at this stage.

FIRST: It has been suggested that the one-party system does not prevent the holding of divergent and conflicting opinions by members of the one party. Agreed. But it does preclude the canvassing and separately organizing in favour of such opinions outside the one party which, in our view, amounts to an unwarranted restraint on the liberty of the individual. Indeed, in the family unit, which is the basis and cornerstone of our analysis, there can be no question of the members thereof organizing themselves into opposing groups or parties for the purpose of achieving common family objectives. But it must be borne in mind in this connection that the inherent, instinctive, and spontaneous love which members of the same family have towards one another, is non-existent among members of different families which constitute a state. Any affection between members of different families must be deliberately and consciously cultivated, on individual not on state basis. Furthermore, by and large, members of the same family tend to think alike on matters of common interest, more than do members of different families.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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