GEORGE Orwell’s satirical novel ‘Animal Farm’ tells of the rebellion of the farm animals against their human owners. Led by a pig named Napoleon, they managed to drive the humans out and installed themselves as the new owners of the farm. The farm came under a new regime with Napoleon and his fellow pigs as the rulers. To assert their ‘animalness’ and to distinguish themselves from humans, they adopted a new ideology called Animalism. This was encapsulated in seven principles that were inscribed prominently on the side of the barn.
The seven principles were:
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animals shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
As time went by, the pigs increased their control over the animals and awarded themselves increasing privileges. The other animals also noticed that the pigs became more and more like human beings—walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothes. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, known as the Seven Commandments became reduced to a single principle reading, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon, being the ruler, was, of course, more ‘equal’ than everyone else.
This story was written over 60 years ago and Orwell originally titled it ‘The animal farm – a fairy tale’. The publisher decided to drop the qualifying phrase — ‘a fairy tale’. As it turned out, the decision was spot on. Recent history has shown that the storyline – young charismatic leader takes over the reign of government; hailing a new era, stays on for too long and metamorphoses into a dictator — is no fairy tale.
In 2005 Hollywood used this storyline on the big screen in form of the movie ‘The Interpreter’, starring among others, Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. It is about Edmond Zuwanie, the president of the Republic of Matobo, a fictional African country. Zuwanie, Initially a liberator, over the past 20 years he has become as corrupt and tyrannical as the government he overthrew, and is now responsible for ethnic cleansing and other atrocities within Matobo.
It is certainly about art imitating life. There are scores of real life examples and the one that epitomises this (goodie turned baddie) and of course, the most current, is the case of Muammar el-Gaddafi of Libya. In 1969 the then young and idealistic colonel overthrew a moribund monarchy in a bloodless military coup and purported to usher Libya into the modern era. The 42 years in power saw him transformed from a liberator to a tyrant. His ascent to power was bloodless but that can certainly not be said of his present descent. Even as I write there are reports of bloody massacre perpetrated by troops loyal to him.
This horrifies even his long time allies and friends. Among them the Libyan ambassador to the UN, Abdurrahman Shalgam, an ally of Gaddafi since the pair were teenage radicals in the late 1950s. He denounced the embattled leader saying, “Slavery and the rule of one person is finished – it’s finished.” Abdurrahman Shalgam has stuck with the Colonel for over 50 years and now decided, “enough is enough.”
That’s the question. “When is enough, enough” for all these dictators of various shades and degrees? It seems that even after decades on the golden throne and being treated, and behaved, like gods, and having accumulated wealth of unimaginable proportion, these powers nonpareil just cannot let go of the reign of control.
It is certainly not about the need for money, for having treated the national treasury as their own personal treasure trove, they have stashed away billions (yes, billions — nowadays we don’t talk about millions anymore) in foreign accounts and properties. It is reported that the recently deposed Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak and his family have spirited away as much as US$70 billion. I am sure he is in good company of many.
These dictators (or enlightened despots as some of them imagined themselves) are addicted to something more powerful than money. They are addicted to power itself.
When I was a kid I read of a story about a sailor who was shipwrecked on a deserted island. There he met a witch who told him that if he drank from a magic fountain he would have power and eternal youth. He did that and went on to become the ruler of his country. As in many of these myths, the temptresses never tell the whole truth. Firstly, the gift from the fountain is addictive. More tellingly, this addiction grows in intensity with the passage of time. Secondly, the concentration of power and youth in the one person means the denial of power and life (youth) in the people of the kingdom. (It is like a zero sum game where a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero).
Perhaps such is the story of Gaddafi, Mubarak and company – to have more than their fair share of life, they have denied life to their people; to assume absolute power they have deprived their citizens of power over their destiny. There was an interesting interview with a youthful Egyptian protester on the news flash. It went something like this:
“You seek to bring down the present regime, what if the next one is as bad as this one?”
“We just want the right to decide. If the next group of leaders are not good we want to have the power to vote them out too.”
It seems to me the insatiable addiction to power is related to the hankering for eternal youth. Having being treated and behaved like gods for centuries, many rulers begin to believe that they are actually gods. They believe that they are indispensible and without them at the helm their nations will collapse.
However, one reality they cannot deny – age is unrelenting. In the past many persisted in their delusion they can last forever. They scoured the land for the mythical elixir of life or the fountain of youth. Of course, modern leaders are smart enough not to believe in such mumbo jumbo. However, while they have to accept the fact of their mortality, they still cannot quite purge it from their psyche. This is what I find intriguing. All the dictatorial leaders for whom there are clamours for their departure from the seat of power have been at the helm for decades. They each have lived a full lifetime as the king of the hill. They have acquired what can be acquired in term of worldly wealth. All of them professed to believe in God by whatever name they are called, and by implication they accept that there is eternal life.
I believe all religions have the equivalent admonition as that is written in the Christian bible: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
I would have thought, being clever people (you don’t get to become the supreme power without being clever) these dictatorial rulers, having had more than their fill of worldly success and achievement, would devote their twilight years to prepare for the next life.
Well, maybe the addiction of the fountain of power is indeed too powerful.
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