“Every nation has the government it deserves”, is a famous quote by 19th century French philosopher, Joseph de Maistre. Fast forward to the 21st century, although a cause for painful rumination today, nothing can be closer to the truth. Indeed this is true of many countries whose electorate take the electoral process for granted. Some leaders have earned their marks, others are Incompetent and self absorbing but yet they sit in the most powerful office. But when you think about how they got into positions, they can seldomly be blamed, they ask the people to vote them in, and they did, and perhaps they ask again, and they get a second term. So they have a mandate from the people, and when the chips are down, battered blue and black, the people are stuck with their leader, and rightly so, it’s a mandate for four, five, eight or ten years as the case may be, no turning back, and whatever form or shape bad leadership comes, “we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope” of good governance, no doubt, choosing a leader is incredibly dangerous and complex, you can get it right or very wrong, either way, the electorates deserve the leaders they elect, but do leaders deserve the people they govern?
