Dictators too have their heart set at the right spot, they may sympathize and empathise, but they do not shed tears in the public realm. They do not need to. But, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has come to demonstrate he is a different dictator. He wept openly while he was paying tributes at a military parade to troops engaged in works related to national disasters and the Covid pandemic. When leaders cry in public, this is often seen as no more than a shedding of crocodile tears to win the hearts of the poor masses; something that is required in a democracy.
Dictatorship is different and has the tendency to run roughshod over people’s sentiments and act as per whims of those at the helm. ‘Either obey or be jailed or killed’ is the unwritten code. The three generations of the Kim family’s rule have left North Korea a dark spot on Earth if only for the denial of basic freedom to the people, lack of economic progress, and forced labour. What happens within the country is normally kept a secret. Kim succeeded his father in 2011, meaning he’s at the head of the nation for a full decade. The national economy is in shambles, requests to the UN for free food shipment a periodic obsession, and the iron curtain refuses to be drawn up or removed. If tears can be a compensation for all these and keeping the people shut from the outside world for generations a credit, this will still be small comfort.
A problem however is, a weak heart is not the right endowment for a dictator. Those around could be smarter and turn the ‘leader’ around, now that he is demonstrating his weak spot in full public view. Dictators must be made of sterner stuff.
The history of the world has always shown that those who are dictatorial and cruel towards people eventually fall and are forgotten. It is a matter of time. No one is permanent.