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Dancing is an ultimate form of human expression. It depicts beauty, passion and sentience. Perversely, it may also convey a sense of satire and nonsense. “Dance of Democracy” is a collection of thoughts and observations on a particular form of human governance model. These thoughts have their basis on my personal affiliation towards this model without being completely married to the system.

In this article I will elaborate on the fact that despite being part of a democratic society, I will not cast my vote when the moment comes.

I enjoy the rights that my democratic country allows me. I cherish my freedom – to speak, to express, to practice my religion and to be an equal to all my fellow countrymen against all exploitation. The culmination of all these is my right to vote … which I will never exercise.

As far back as I can remember, from words both written and spoken, I have been informed that it is my right to vote and that I should exercise my rights. While I am proud of this power bestowed upon myself (and a billion other people besides) and its usual implications, I am chary of the word ’should’. To me it conveys a sense of obligation, as if by accepting this right I am somehow bound to it’s correct application — the ‘correct’ being a mundane interpretation as dictated by my immediate environment.

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I have never voted in my life and intend to maintain the status-quo for an unforeseeable time in the future. I am not alone in this – there are millions of other educated countrymen of mine who have adopted the same principles of refusal. And our numbers are growing year-by-year, one election at a time.

Why don’t people vote? Every time there is an election, one or more periodicals take general polls and random surveys to collect the usual arguments for denial. “Nothing is going to change.”, “What am I voting for? A bunch of corrupt politicans?” “Two-sides of the same dirty coin.” And so on.

I will not go any further into the statistics that highlight the failures of our democratic society. I believe that any form of governance in any era would have its own limitations especially since it is backed by a society of people with limited capabilities. Of course individual limitations do cancel each other but never to the extent of creating the ideal utopia.

I do not vote for a much simpler reason. In order to vote (and thereby exercise my rights, which I ’should’), I need a target. I need someone to vote for … and I haven’t found my candidate yet.

Now before you start accusing me of being an idealistic fool let me assure you that the leader I am waiting for need not be a ‘Mahatma’ (who incidentally appears maybe once in a millennia). Greatness in leadership is more of an afterthought, the adjudgement of which is, more often than not, posthumous in nature.

My candidate, the one I am going to vote for, must have his/her share of limitations and yet pass more than half of the following checklist that I have compiled:

  1. The candidate must belong to an age group between forty and fifty. Most of the great leaders in this world rose to prominence in their early forties. Maturity is of the essence, but too much of experience harbors orthodoxy.
  2. The candidate must be the political group and not just a representative. The essence of teamwork is one man or woman striding the world and the other ninety-nine holding him/her there.
  3. The candidate must have a deportment that sets him/her apart and easily identifiable in a sea of people. This deportment must be natural and not amplified by any artificial means whatsoever (e.g. positional prominence, audio/visual magnification and censorship).
  4. The candidate must disseminate hope and not trade in platitudes. He/She should say ‘I believe’ and the majority should share the faith without cynicism or resignation. Hope leads to faith, and faith can move mountains, or resurrect dead nations.
  5. In all aspects, the candidate must have originality that redefines all conventional parameters of success and failure. Originality is the only thing that leads to progress and is synonymous to innovation.
  6. The candidate must be aware of personal limitations and flaws. More importantly, the candidate must accept these limitations and empower others to overcome them on his/her behalf.
  7. The candiadate shall not maintain any association with any form of corruption no matter how many levels away in the leadership hierarchy. The candidate must have the integrity to publicly denounce such forms of dishonesty at the risk of self-promotion and personal well-being.
  8. And lastly, the candidate must deliver with passion and not with ambition. His or her personal credo should be: ‘people before self and nation above all’.

Do you think my selection criteria is too ideal to be feasible? Mine is a waiting game that I can afford. After all, they are nothing but a bunch of dirty politicans out there.