I thought politics were a competition of ideas

By Malek Arol Dhieu
Little did I know that politics is all about uniting people by dividing them. In politics proper unlike politics improper, it’s platforms that are first fought for so that politicians channel their ideas through these platforms for people to assimilate and decide on the day of elections.

A cow that has not been brought for auction can ever be competed over by many buyers; until when brought to auction can many buyers admire and compete over. It is at the auction that people who know the cow and its owner speak best about it to attract buyers and it’s at this same auction that people reveal that this cow and its owner are troublesome.

To market your political ideologies to the best of your expectations, create for them a self-explanatory platform and use this platform for selling your politics to audiences. Having done this, the headache is for the audiences, who to choose for support and who to leave.

It doesn’t take time to know whether or not your platform is growing, it only needs you to monitor the breathing of your supporters, if they suffocate, you may conclude that the fresh oxygen around your platform has now got people to use it.

How best can platforms help you succeed in achieving your political desires? Platforms are interactive in nature, meaning they give audiences and presenters chances to exhaust topics to become consumable. One major advantage is that, the angle you view your symposaic topic to discuss is not the same angle your audiences view it; hence it later gives you more knowledge on how to expose all angles of your ideas for public consumption.

But if you always launch your manifestos within the vicinity of your own shadow, how do you expect people living in farther vicinities to get baptized by your politics? Politics is all about auctioning of ideas, in that, the politicians with brilliant ideas cross over to the other side of the river while those with dull ideas move back a little bit to correct where they went wrong and come back with momentum and new refined ideas to make them cross the river.

As we speak, that’s not how politics is played. With militarized politics, the politeness and honesty required of politicians worldwide have been murdered and buried in the training fields that these military politicians have attended for military trainings.

Until the order of the president banning the active army, police, prison, fire brigade, and wildlife officers is implemented shall communities bid farewell to intercommunal conflicts and other bad practices that are triggered by militarized politics.

When this order becomes respected, the militarized politics and politicized military being practiced because of the appointment of military officers to serve in political positions will become separable, and the hygienic politics takes its course. Politics is all about taking your ideas to Dubai; I mean the international market, for sale after having coated them with unity and love to make sure they are bought.

If it takes time for your ideas to get buyers, never accuse people whom you think have charmed you to stay unbought, but refine them once again to attract buyers. Unfortunately, that proper politics isn’t invented yet; all we have is an improper politics that’s too coarse for the civilians to consume!  

The author is a medical student, University of Juba.