Democracy and Elections (Part 1)

There are about 150 nations, about 20 are pure or semi dictatorships. All claim to be democracies since all have elections. When World War II ended in 1945, European nations (U.K., France, Holland, etc.) owned 4/5 of the world (Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia). The European nations because of the war were bankrupt. They had no money to sustain and control their restless colonies. They gave independence to all their colonies as “pogi” points to show they are magnanimous, conscientious great white fathers.

The Philippines was the first colony after World War II to get independence on July 4, 1946. The Commonwealth was a polite, clean world. America used to say that it is not a colonialist. The political, social and economic status were the same. We were under America from 1898 to 1946 yet we did not have American citizenship.

The differences between a commonwealth and a colony were superficial: 1. Spelling, 2. Pronunciation. In 1947, UK gave independence to its biggest colony, India, in 1948, Pakistan, etc. From the 15th to 16th centuries, the white European colonialists bled bone dry the wealth or natural resources of their colonies of silver, gold, copper, iron ore, uranium, diamonds, timber, etc. They put their mills and factories in the colonies where labor costs were dirt cheap and sold the finished products worldwide at fantastic prices in relation to production and labor costs.

For hundreds of years, native education, self governance and health were disregarded. When the colonies were freed beginning 1946 (the last was Vietnam fighting the French from 1930s to 1960s, U.S.A. 1962 to 1975) they had nothing.

Very very few natives were educated by white standards because there were few public schools and missionary (religious cleric) schools. There were very civil service workers, unprepared for decision making because the white men sahibs made all decisions. It was like throwing to the sea people who do not know how to swim and without life vests. The natives tried their best to help their countries, but there were just too many problems.

After a few years, human nature, attracted by evil, took over. Greed, pride, ignorance, stupidity, vanity drowned the well meaning civil servants. This time, it was the natives exploiting their countrymen, not the white sahibs. Ambitious military officers staged coup D’etats removing civilian officials or conniving with civilian officials controlled everything (Cont.).