EX-Greek PM: Wisdom of citizens better than bureaucrats

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister of Greece George Papandreou on Friday said that the wisdom of citizens was often much better than some of the best bureaucrats and experts, and society must be prepared to deal with crisis. Taking part in a panel discussion on the topic 'Thriving in turbulence: How nations can build lasting resilience' on the last day of the Invest Karnataka- 2025 summit here, Papandreou emphasised educating citizens to mitigate turbulence and said countries need to repose more faith in them to make the society resilient.

"We are facing a time of uncertainty, of unpredictability, of major changes, possibly for the better, possibly for the worse, and I think what we need is to prepare for societies that can deal with crises." "I believe that societies must be much more open, much more democratic, participative and where we actually educate our citizens to be citizens. We don't do that very much. We educate for professions and not for being citizens," Papandreou explained.

The wisdom of citizens was often much better than some of the best bureaucrats and experts. "I believe when we talk about resilience, we really need to make our societies resilient and ready for the unpredictability and a sense of solidarity, community and welfare in our society," he said.

Taking a dig at people putting faith in ‘strongman', he said, "I don't think any leader, no matter how much we sometimes put our faith in a so-called strongman – I don't like the word because I don't really think that they are strongmen when they come to power." "I think we must put more faith in trusting our citizens as a resource in dealing with resilience. So that's what I tried to do – make reforms in Greece that would bring citizens to the fore," he said.