Egocentric Dictators Club – It looks like even we finally have our own!

Putin the Russian President was determined after his first term, when he designated his successor, to get back his Presidency by circumventing term limit rules. He is back, firmly in the saddle after a stint as a PM, but firmly in control, dissent muzzled for the foreseeable future.

Just look at his pursuits. He is using the resources of his country to the maximum and therefore will have little intention of letting go. The yachts, dachas and a fleet of aircraft, to name but a few of his trappings of power while the rest of his citizenry wallows from one shortage to another.

I am using just one example of the arrogance of power, but we know what happened to Ghadaffi and his clan after a stifling 40years at the helm. We discovered the personal tastes for Ukrainian Masseuse and female bodyguards and all the gory trapping discovered at the time his properties were ransacked and open to public gawkers.

When we have such clear examples of excess, why do we have someone who appears to be copying the same in this Buddhist country. We have a leader who is the most un-Buddhist person on the land, pretending to defend it. No one of the faith appears to be questioning! It then becomes an affront to the religion when we are silent. A person who practices one’s professed beliefs, must at least make a token effort to conform, rather than do everything in his power to be quite the opposite. The acquisition of trappings of wealth are just one clear example of acting different to his sayings.

The behavior borne out of a belief of entitlement is further enhanced due to the fear of people to challenge outright inconsistencies and reprehensible conduct. The excesses just seem to be incomprehensible to the mass of people who do not even know how to complain as they cannot even fathom the extent of plunder. To a person who is eking out an existence, the purchases of aircraft or helicopters by persons who have singularly defrauded the treasury and the country pale in the oblivion of incredulity.

It is not too soon to forcefully enact legislation by people of common sense, of a system of fool proof checks and balances, that prevent this type of abuse of power. If we do not do our duty to our citizens today, it is our children of tomorrow who will forever damn us for permitting another Ghadaffiesque plunder of the country’s resources, without preventing it. It is those who are permitting this with power to prevent who will first suffer when it crumbles.