The loss of nobility and idealism among the world leaders is a greater threat to humanity than the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
I am reminded of the German tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin which is like an allegory of our situation.
The city of Hamelin was plagued by rats. Then came a colourfully dressed enchanter who asked the town to hand him over their gold and he would rid the city of the rats. In distress, the people agreed and the enchanter played his pipe and led the rats to the river where they drowned.
When he demanded his share of the town’s riches which the people thought was not commensurate to his efforts. He started playing another tune now and led all the town’s children into a cave never to be seen again.
Some leaders come like the Pied Piper and show gimmicks and enchant the people with an eye to loot the country for their benefit. There are no noble ideals on their sleeves and they fail miserably in their pretensions at nobility.
The point of writing this occurred in light of the Hagia Sophia, originally a Christian church, being turned back into a mosque by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, and the Babri Masjid a Muslim mosque being converted to a Hindu temple under the watch of Narendra Modi, prime minister of India.
An analysis of the political exigencies of committing these acts of embarrassment for secular humanity may console the people who cannot agree with the erection of such monuments of shame.
Why do democratic leaders resort to leaning upon a religious majority? The poverty of a developmental agenda and, or the failure of the political nerve to execute a developmental agenda forces them to turn towards wooing an existing religious majority and converting them into an electoral majority.
The strongest was to swing the opinions of the majority to their favour is the creation of an imaginary enemy—particularly a religious enemy. By inciting violence, they make the majority feel that they are under threat and that there is a moral imperative to support these new pied pipers for a just cause.
Once a religious majority is established and the minority misconstrued as enemies, a democracy degrades into majoritarianism where the rights of the minority need not be respected. They change constitutions, legal frameworks and all checks and balances provided for in a vibrant democracy.
In a mature democracy, votes swing based on the development of the country and there are no permanent electoral minorities. By establishing a religious electoral majority, permanent minorities are created. The decadence becomes complete when the pied piper emerges to dictate his terms.
So, it is a spineless political leadership, incapable of gathering a majority on their developmental planks that begs for the support of an existing religious majority. Hagia Sophia and Babri Masjid are used as instruments of galvanising an emotional political game. Make no mistake, these leaders do not believe in the values of the gods for whom they claim to fight for!
Trump, Erdogan, Modi…the list is definitely not limited to these names. Pied piper leaderships share a common factor of narcissism to varying degrees. This typically includes a proclivity to defame and belittle other leaders when they realise that they do not match the standards of the figures that they might be compared with.
Another typical characteristic is the compulsion for propaganda and staging events meant for self-promotion. They easily transfer the blame of their failures to others. The exaggerations that they make of themselves, I originally thought, they themselves did not believe. Now, I am coming to the realisation that, they are not aware that they are lying!
These ignoble, unimaginative leaders are leading their countries into cave lives like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
