The representatives of the people are the second most important part of a Government, second only to the people.

Under the present setup, the only requirement for a person to be the representative of people is to be above the prescribed age and to be the citizen of the Country. Then if the public votes for him/her with relatively maximum number of votes, the person gets elected. The whole procedure ends up in making representatives of people out of illiterates and uneducated people who have the gift of gab, or highly resourceful people and their relations, or goons and crooks and other similar people who are well adept in armtwisting . The present system provides no safeguard against the entry of people who should not be holding public office.

No representative in a Perfect Democracy should be less than 30 years of age, and must have completed at least 15 years of basic education i.e. graduation in any subject, should have completed a basic orientation course as discussed below. Needless to say that he should be a sane citizen of my Country and certainly not a criminal undergoing punishment for a criminal offence.

All potential candidates who are desirous of representing the people through any public election must attend and successfully complete a basic course of let’s say six months duration, which should teach subjects like the basic principles of governance, the duties of representatives, morals and ethics, basic laws, the Constitution, custom and philosophy of the land, public behaviour and administration.

The age of 30 is important because this is the time when one becomes a bit stable in his ideas and opinions, a person learns the basics by this age and his true personality comes up, even the earning become stable and the society starts recognising a person in his individual capacity. This is the time when a persons’s spirits are at all time high and yet not dampened by the experiences of hardship, the spirit of experiment and finding new paths is also high, the individual is yet not corrupted and he/she is desirous of making it big in life.

Neither I am advocating an upper age limit for representation nor this is a case against candidates who are aged above 30 but a generalisation. I feel and know from the analysis of history that people up to 45 or let’s say 50 make good and efficient administrators and thinkers. Exceptions, which prove everyone wrong always exist.

The basic education of 15 years i.e. graduation is indispensable, if a person is not even that much educated, he is bound to find problem in understanding hundreds of things with which a public office deals, his low understanding and low level of education will make him dependent on others, who may or may not be sharp enough and honest enough, and who certainly do not have public mandate to decide and act.

It is possible that people may exist who have no formal education but are otherwise intelligent and popular, but if concession is granted to such people then even the not so deserving people may also pass through the system. So basic minimum criteria must be set, and in this case it being at least graduation. Now another possibility of crooks and not so intelligent people who otherwise qualify the conditions may also pass and contest the election, but they can not be screened as it will defeat the purpose of election, but, when we are talking only about literate and educated voters, then it can be said that the voters can themselves pass their judgement on such aspiring representatives without restricting them to contest beforehand.

Once a person decides to contest for a public office, his conduct must be followed closely, and no leniency should be afforded even in case of slightest misconduct because from the time someone decides to contest an election he becomes an official public figure and a role model for the public and the new generation. Slightest misconduct if ignored and left unattended will set an example and spread chaos in the society.

The basic training is very much required. The people who aspire to hold a public office must be clear in their objective, they must know what it is to hold a public office. They should be aware about the basics of Constitution, laws, philosophy, teaching of different religions, they should have cultural, ethical and moral understanding and must know about public behaviour and administration.

The basics of these subjects can be put into a capsule course and anybody should be able to learn/know them at his pleasure without any cost or with a very minimal cost. The course should be of a short duration and should emphasise a basic understanding and not rote memory of these subjects, as the purpose is not to screen scholars or to make scholars but to initiate a process of understanding and start the process of deliberation for common good and reduction of evil.

The ideal case which I would like to have is even more demanding, wherein everybody desirous of holding a public office must also clear a test of I.Q. and must fit in the psychological getup of a public man (to be assessed by a test), it should be so easy to pass that every person of average intelligence and general desire to do public good should pass it.

But I understand that it would be too much asking for it, for more than one reason. The first and foremost being that it will dilute the process of democracy, apart from it the art of psychological understanding and evaluation of intelligent quotient itself are doubtful and questionable.