By M.K. George S J

Rome: Sr. Ann Rose Nu Twang. Everyone knows her. If you still do not, you should get to know her. The video of Sister Ann, in a white robe and a black veil kneeling on a street in the northern town of Myitkyina, Myanmar, pleading with the military, ‘Do not shoot and torture the children… shoot me and kill me instead,’ went viral moving hearts of millions.

Why is she on the road, instead of the holy precincts of her chapel? May be she heard Tagore, ‘Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path maker is breaking stones…Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!’ Yes, she came down on the dusty soil, to protect democracy.

Why should democracy become a point of activism?

There are three major reasons why religious activism should now urgently turn to protecting democracy. The first, while democracy may not be the perfect system of governance, it is definitely the most humane of them assuring basic human dignity for all. Practice of democracy may have been flawed, but it is not the reason to throw it out.

“Democracy does not give the people the most skillful government, but it produces what the ablest governments are frequently unable to create: namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it and which may, however unfavorable circumstances may be, produce wonders.”, said Alexis de Tocqueville. History is full of stories of kings, autocrats, even benevolent ones, and despots who have eventually turned out to be tyrants making men and women slaves.

The second, democracy is failing. Freedom in the world 2021 report says, ‘Democracy is under siege.’ The number of not free countries has increased to 54, from 45 in 2005. Partly free countries are now 59, and sadly for the first time India is among them. Only 82 countries remain free, a decline from 89 in 2005.

The report adds, ‘These notable declines in the world’s oldest democracy and the largest (US and India) are hugely significant. They represent a serious democratic erosion for a combined 1.7 billion people, which translates into large-scale human suffering and restrictions on freedom.’

The third, Christian faith in its most original and pure form, as depicted in the Acts of the Apostles, was democratic in spirit and practice. Over the two millennia, there have been huge failures in the Church’s own practice of democracy. However, one can say that ‘almost all churches and theologians now think that the form of government most compatible with Christianity is democracy and that the historic opposition of the Christian tradition to democracy and to various forms of liberalism was a mistake,’ says Robert P Kraynak.

An analysis of the contemporary situation is important

I found the following analysis from environmental activist Vandana Shiva on the current social reality very insightful: ‘Globalisation is not just an economic phenomenon. It is mainly a political phenomenon where corporations now control states and dictate terms. They decide what will be the rules of governance, whether the forest will be owned by local tribes or corporations, whether the minerals will be public or privatized good, whether the water will be free or owned by Suez or Veolia. So these are new mergers between the state, which was supposed to be public and the corporations. Out of this merger emerges the corporate state. And the only logic of a corporate state is to usurp the resources of the planet. Greed is the only driving force. People of course will not give their resources like that. They make a living on the land. So tribals fight back, peasants fight back. And then the corporate state uses military power to crush the democratic aspirations of the people. So by necessity, because the corporate state is privatizing the planet and the government, it is undermining democracy. People do not want to give up democracy. Therefore, for a short time the corporate state becomes a militarized corporate state. Mussolini and Roosevelt, both said, “when governments start to get privatized that is fascism”. So a corporate state must move towards fascism. Thank goodness there are democracy movements, that will not let it happen.’

Pope Francis’ call

Over the last eight years of his pontificate Pope Francis has called for a more humane system of governance in the world. He argues that Christians have a “grave responsibility” to “speak out” and take action.

May many more religious and other believers like Sr. Ann have the courage to kneel on the streets for democracy!

(Father George Mutholil heads the South Asian section at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome.)