Comment on article in The West, 9 April 2005, p.19
Paul Murray, in his column, gets stuck into the Premier. It's all about that enquiry into the prison/justice system. (See also Accountable -- don't count on it.) The general thrust of the article is clear in the last few paragraphs:
"So here it is, fully exposed in its awfulness.The tawdry, shabby, crappy nature of WA politics.... Those within the circus play their games, treat us with contempt and there is no net gain to the public."
I can't disagree with those sentiments!
| Thinking Lateral |
|---|
| Need new thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com |
On the other hand... perhaps we should go back to Yes, Minister. How easy is it to actually get anything done? Very difficult! If you want to get any power -- the power to do what you believe is right -- then you need to first play the game. Play the game, support others, call in favours, put on pressure, crawl to those who already have some power. By the time you have done this -- you are trapped! You have sold your principles to get the power to make changes. And if you try to make those changes, to act once again on your own principles -- you will suddenly lose all of that hard won support.
Being in politics is all about politicking. Why should we expect politicians to be anything other than political? Being "political" gains you power... and as soon as you try to use that power -- against the wishes of your "supporters" -- you will suddenly lose that power!
Ministerial Abilities
Politicians are elected. One political party has more electoral winners, that party forms a government. The government selects ministers from amongst the elected government members. Each minister is responsible for one (or more) areas of government.
How could we possibly expect to get capable ministers?!
What are the qualifications for being elected? Basically, you must be good at politicking... as described above. What are the qualifications for being a good minister? Hmmm...
When we were voting, did we think (for example): That person has a teaching degree, three years teaching experience, five years management, has defined curricula for K-12, etc, etc... therefore I will vote for that person to be education minister. No way! So how could we possibly expect to elect a person who will have the qualifications to be a good education minister?!
"The party" puts forward candidates. There are two key criteria: likelihood of getting elected and willingness to agree with party policy. We select amongst those candidates. Our criteria may include: belongs to our preferred party, looks good on TV, sounds intelligent but not too intelligent, is not a member of one of those really wacko parties... Having made our choice -- we expect the elected goverment to find capable ministers! Wow!
Back to that Enquiry
When we consider the selection criteria for ministers... no wonder there are ministerial problems. The enquiry will not include asking the minister to explain what happened. So what? No sensible person would expect the minister to have known what to do... We should expect problems at the ministerial level.
What about the public servants -- the people who are paid to manage justice and the prisons? It would be nice if they were capable of doing a good job. (Though allowances must be made for the requirement to be responsible to an unqualified minister.) That may be worth some sort of inquiry...
We -- through our taxes -- are about to pay $2,000,000 or more for an inquiry. An inquiry that will be run by an 80 year old retired judge from another state. Have a look at page 5, Voters call for wider jail inquiry (same day, same paper). Look at that photo of the ex-judge...
Do I expect a substantial, far-reaching expose of political and public service problems? No... what I expect is what I see -- nothing at all on top, and an extreme comb-over to cover up that lack of any worthwhile results.
| Independent Thinking |
|---|
| Independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com |
No comments:
Post a Comment