Barun Roy: Down the yellow brick road

ASIA FILE

Both Singapore and Malaysia offer ample proof that even a strong-armed government can be good for its people if it so desires.

It's a strange feeling indeed. The Left Front's sweeping re-election to power in West Bengal is a great triumph of democracy "" having been won, for the first time, through a disciplined, closely supervised, remarkably peaceful, unquestioned and, by all means, honest electoral process, for which the Election Commission deserves our praise. It should make me happy, as it should make anyone who believes in democracy happy. Yet, I don't feel happy at all.

The magnitude of this victory, continuing a 30-year-old tradition of other massive wins, makes me uncomfortable. It's too one-sided to be democratic. A democracy must have a powerful opposition. In West Bengal, there isn't any. And yet the leftists want more. A euphoric Biman Bose, chairman of the left alliance, said they would now seek 100 per cent of the voting share after grabbing 50.2 per cent in the latest election. He might have meant it as a joke but he hurt the very spirit of democracy.

Inevitably, some disturbing comparisons come to mind. Is West Bengal turning into another Singapore? Just when the state was going through the final phases of polling, Singaporeans were casting their ballots for a new Parliament in their 11th general election. Its outcome should make Bose jealous. The People's Action Party (PAP), which rules the island republic, captured 82 of the 84 parliamentary seats. Thirty-seven of the seats were won unopposed.

Or is West Bengal becoming a Malaysia? The coalition that rules that country, Barisan Nasional (National Front) holds 198 of the 219 seats in the House of Representatives.

Of course, I can't say such overwhelming electoral prowess is bad per se. Both Singapore and Malaysia offer ample proof that even a strong-armed government can be good for its people if it so desires. But by no means can such a government pass as a democracy. Call it enlightened dictatorship, if you will. If you are charitable, you may also call it guided democracy. But democracy, pure and simple, it definitely is not. There are 23 registered political parties in Singapore, but it's the PAP that keeps coming back to power.

One knows why. The charismatic leader, Lee Kuan Yew, wouldn't tolerate any opposition to his particular vision of Singapore and has groomed a band of followers who would be equally stubborn; and when Singapore reached a level of prosperity where all its citizens felt well secure and comfortable, the need for opposition simply vanished.

What has so mesmerised the people of West Bengal that they keep returning the same group of leftists to power? It couldn't have been vision because Jyoti Basu had none for his state. In the 25 years that he ruled with unquestioned, almost dictatorial, authority, his entire effort was to serve his party and create the right political environment for it to dig in. Since jingoism is the only surest way to arouse, sustain, and spread ideological passions, bandhs and strikes and protest marches became the dominant political activity throughout Basu's tenure, and creating vote banks, by hook or by crook, became the only political objective.

Towards the end, the Left Front became an automatic choice. There was no other. The total bankruptcy of the opposition, led by mediocre rabble-rousers, only heightened people's sense of helplessness.

That's where Basu had left West Bengal. It was only five years ago, when Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee appeared at the helm, that the helplessness began to turn into hope, an expectation that Basu's blind dictatorship had a chance to become an enlightened one. And with hope came new followers, people who took heart from the fact that, for the first time since Bidhan Chandra Roy, vision had again found a play in public life and economics would be given a priority higher than politics.

This probably is what has crafted the Left Front's latest stunning victory, giving it 235 seats in the 294-member state Assembly. It's an atrocious outcome for a democracy, but apparently a welcome one in West Bengal's prevailing realpolitik. So, here's Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's chance. He has the numbers, the goodwill, and a support base far wider than the traditional circle of party cadres, and would, in effect, be starting from Square One, hopefully without hindrance, having spent the past five years moulding opinion in favour of his economic adventure. If he doesn't like Singapore and Malaysia as examples, he might look at China. That country remains politically communist but is using capitalist tools to the fullest to improve people's lives as quickly as possible. Its success has been amazing.

If Bhattacharjee can use the same formula with courage "" that is, if his fellow leftists let him "" he can wipe the opposition clean. That won't be democracy, but West Bengal will have some real progress, after the euphoria of the past 30 years.