Transparency in Government

The importance of transparency in any government is an issue that cannot be overemphasised, not least because it is probably the only litmus test of democracy. Therefore, a truly democratic government should be one of total transparency. Unfortunately, we do not live in a truly democratic society. If we did, the government would be totally transparent it all its activities. It isn’t. One could argue, very strongly, that majority of the policies that have been implemented by the British government over the years that have gone awry were due to a lack of transparency.

Transparency of and in government is necessary for two reasons:

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  It is necessary to build trust between the people and the government.
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  It is necessary to give members of the public the opportunity to decide their own future, which is theirs by right.
  

The public had and still has no idea of what the government is doing. The government on the other hand makes, takes and implements decisions that have the potential to affect the lives of millions of people without appropriate consultation with the public, probably because it is of the opinion that the masses would not understand the pros and cons of policy making. Or perhaps because it feels that the mandate of the public grants it the authority to carry out such decisions. Both assumptions are wrong! The public is made up of intelligent individuals, majority of whom are literate and well educated. Surely if properly presented with the pros and cons of a policy that is to be implemented, such persons could be trusted with the capability of judging whether it would be in their best interests of not. No individual has the right to take unilateral decisions on behalf of an entire people, which have the potential of adversely affecting their well-being.

With regards to the issue of mandate, the only authority it confers to the incumbent politicians is the right and privilege of articulating and presenting to the people, the arguments – for and against, of any issue that is to be implemented in the service of the people. A mandate to run government does not give any individual the authority to decide the fate of millions. A mandate does not give politicians, or any government, the authority to act unilaterally. The reason for this is that in a system that is composed of numerous elements, uniform growth can only be possible with equal contribution from all elements. It is worth noting that the key word here is uniform growth. This is because the system as a whole can still grow even with contribution from only a few elements, but the growth will be non-uniform and to the detriment of some elements within the system. Extrapolating this analogy to the human society, if government implements any decision that has not been approved by consensus of the public, this would result in growth that will be non-uniform. In other words, the growth that occurs will favour a few and neglect the rest, and will give rise to discontent, which is itself the starting point of many of the ills we observe in society today – for example, non-uniform distribution of wealth, poverty, crime, war and so forth.

In fairness, it is necessary to point out that the human race has come a long way. This is due in no small measure to its innovative spirit and ability to adapt. In the great cauldron of creation, the results of all experiments, of which humanity is one, are valid. Therefore, one could argue that the world we find ourselves in today is what it should be, since from an absolute point of view, there is nothing wrong with it. However, from humanity’s perspective, not all results are desirable, no doubt because humanity would like to see that it evolves to its highest potential. This will not happen if it annihilates itself courtesy of implementation of decisions that are counter-productive to its uniform growth. This is the impasse humanity finds herself rapidly approaching. And which is reflected in all the societies of the world – especially in the so-called developed societies, of which Great Britain is one. Therefore, it behoves us to begin to find ways to correct for this. The fostering of a transparent government is one such way. It is crucial if this nation is not to implode under the tension caused by the ever-widening chasm between the haves and have-nots. The elimination of the dominance of the financial industry over all other sectors of society is another important solution.

So how can transparency be implemented in government – any government? Well there are two approaches to be considered: the practical approach and the ideal approach.

The ideal approach

In this scenario, transparency will be total. In other words, any decision that concerns the potential implementation of policy that could affect the lives of millions of people must be put to the people for their approval through voting. When it comes to the well-being of the masses, no decision or policy can be regarded as minor. They are all major. And should be treated with respect. The issue of voting for every major decision by the public cannot be the logistical nightmare that some dissenting voices might be quick to point out. The reason being, thanks to technology, we live in a digital age today where everyone has access to computers. Voting could easily be done at the touch of a single button, for as many times, and in as many days without detracting from routine duties. All that is required before hand is that the politicians in government do what their mandate requires them to do. And that is to provide full disclosure on the main arguments, for and against the implementation of the policy for which a vote is being asked. For example, in a policy proposing the implementation of a Bill to cut tax, the public would need to know who benefits and who will not, will it be the poor or the rich, the middle class or the upper class. Will businesses fail, will commodities become more or less expensive? Another example could be the implementation of a Bill to build, say, a new airport. The public will need to know who benefits, how many will lose their homes to make way for the runway, what will be the effects of increased pollution and noise levels on local inhabitants, how will the residents of the area benefit form incoming revenue, how will the rest of the country benefit, etc. These are just a few examples of policies that have the potential of affecting the lives of millions. People must be allowed to vote and have a say. The majority can never be wrong, in the sense that they accurately reflect the best possible progression for the Group.

This is the ideal approach, which is unpractical in the society we find ourselves living in today for the simple reason that it requires full disclosure on all the secrets being sat on by the government. Exposure of some of these secrets could result in breakdown of the governmental system. With no government, there’ll be anarchy. The high level of risk means that probably the only feasible approach is the practical approach.

The practical approach

This approach does not require immediate total transparency in all affairs of government. Taking into consideration the fact that the duties of government fall into two main departments: domestic and international, total transparency could be reasonably expected in all domestic related affairs while transparency in international affairs could only be expected for situations that do not compromise national security. The only condition under which total transparency may be expected in international affairs would be if all nations of the earth were to adopt the policy of total transparency. Such a situation would be ideal but impractical in the short-term as time would be needed for all other nations to join the transparency bandwagon.

It is unfortunate that the practical approach has to be given more weight than the ideal approach. This is due in no small measure to the web of lies, spin and deceit spun by the government for decades. Deception is a vicious cycle that has no corrective antidote. The only solution is exit with full closure. For a societal system that has its foundations built on deception, the only way out is to implement a strategy of exit in parts. This could take years, but in the end would be worth it because humanity would have put itself in a better position to remove the threat of self-annihilation.

The deception of Politicians in Government

To most people who lead regular lives, by that I mean people in the middle class working category who work 40+ hours a week, pay their taxes and respect the law of the land, the word politics is synonymous with lies, deception and broken promises. To people in the lower class working category, the perception is even worse. Politicians are regarded on the one hand as beacons of hope and on the other as the embodiment of lies, intrigue and abuse of power. To people in the upper class echelon – the business moguls, CEO’s and the filthy rich, politicians are seen as pawns, tools to be used in advancing personal wealth. Looking at all these different perceptions, one thing becomes immediately obvious, in no class are politicians regarded with respect. They are instead looked upon with disdain for trying to provide an important service to society, and this especially if they are directly involved with government.

Why is this the case? Most would agree that the mechanism of government is vital for the smooth operation and cohesive progression of society since any system must have a focal point from which the coordination and organisation of the system is exacted - or else they’ll be chaos. The government constitutes such a focal point and as such is of vital importance to the continued growth of any societal system. Growth in this case would mean that every member of society would enjoy equal access to economic wealth and prosperity. In other words, the distribution of wealth must be uniform. This clearly is not the case today with the gap between the rich and the poor widening daily. The wealthy upper class never had it so good while the poor and lower classes languish in abject misery. In a system that gets most of its sustenance from taxes levied on the middle and lower classes which together make up over 90% of the workforce, it beggars belief as to why the wealthy who make up less than 10% of the workforce should be allowed to make away with the spoils of growth and progress. That this should be allowed to happen is a bitter pill to swallow.

So who is to blame for this sorry state of affairs – the government of course! Who runs the government? The politicians! So why are politicians, despite their best intentions, the object of such vitriolic condemnation from the two most important work sectors of society – the middle and lower class?

To understand the answer it is probably best to consider as a case in point, one of the leading figures in British politics for the last 70 years – Tony Blair. In 1997 in the run up to elections and just before he took office, Tony Blair came across, without exception, as unique among politicians. His zeal and firm convictions of equality, justice and liberation were firmly etched on his face for all to see. There was a sense of hope for the future that was augmented by a landslide victory at the elections. As a politician there is no stronger statement of ones mandate than a landslide victory. Fast forward ten years to 2007. Tony Blair who has just left office – 23 days ago to be precise, cuts a very different picture from the bubbly, dynamic personality with positivism oozing from every pore that stepped into the Number 10 ten years ago. Today Tony Blair is a broken man, a figure of mockery both here in the UK and abroad. The reason for this is not because of the things he achieved while in office, and they were quite considerable. No, the reason is because of the things he promised to achieve but did not. The reason is because of the lies, the deceptions and the unilateral decisions he carried out in the face of all opposition and in direct contravention of his promise to listen to the voice of the people. The reason is because by the time he left office he had lost all respectability. The realities of office brought Tony Blair crashing back to earth, so that in the end, he became not “the unique politician” but an ordinary politician just like the rest of them.

So why did one of the world's most respected politicians leave office with his reputation in tatters? Did Tony Blair underestimate the enormous demands of his office? Did he underestimate the strength of government? Or did he simply overestimate his own ability to bring change to government and the people? The answer is that Tony Blair and all politicians for that matter, overestimate their ability to effect change in government and consequently society. This is in part due to ignorance in the art of governance and the dynamics of government, and partly due to mastery in the art of deception through the use of white lies.

The ignorance stems from the inability to recognise that any ideology becomes limited in expressing itself the moment it steps on to a given path. This is because a path by definition is constrained by the boundaries that define it. And these boundary conditions by default extend to anything that seeks expression on the path. Consequently, in relation to politics and government, the politics constitute the ideology and the government the path. Therefore every politician must use the tools of government to express their ideology with the result that the expression of any new ideology has the potential to be severely restricted in its expression. And so someone like Tony Blair comes in to office thinking that he has everything under control only to find that the task of supplanting the existing ideology with his own is a lot harder than anticipated. And this is where the white lies come into full play – the use of half truths, promises that couldn’t possibly be fulfilled in the time spent in office and the enactment of convoluted Bills that are made to look like something new and beneficial but in reality are no different from pre-existing Bills. These white lies are a blatant attempt by politicians in government to cover up their inability to fulfil the promises made on the campaign trail.

So why do politicians make promises that they know are likely to be broken since history has shown that this is what their predecessors get up to every time they find themselves running government? The answer – Greed and lust for Power! Politics is a career that demands servitude to the masses. Ironically politicians are less concerned with the servitude aspect as they are with enhancing their career prospects.

And so we come back full circle. What is the solution? One could argue that the fallibility of the human nature in a sense exonerates the human being from its actions, but only if the consequence of the actions adversely affect the lives of only a few people. Where it becomes inexcusable is when the actions have the potential to affect the lives of millions. In such a situation, total transparency is not only the best medium for running the top political job in the country, it also constitutes the direct link between the government and the masses. It is the only way government is likely to get support for any of the decisions it makes, since no major decision would be taken without the express will of the people. In this way politicians would be seen to perform their duties fully as it should be, in service to the people.