Pablo at Kiwipolitico tears the Authoritarians a new one, and discusses 'our culture of impunity':
"...With that in mind I ask readers if such a culture of impunity exists in NZ. I ask because it strikes me that although diluted and less repressive in genesis, there appears to be an attitude of impunity in the political and economic elite. They can buy silence and name suppression when they misbehave; with a wink and a nod they accommodate employment for their friends and provide sinecures for each other (think of various Boards); they consider themselves better informed, in the know, more worldly and therefore unaccountable to the popular masses when it comes to making policy (think of the use of parliamentary urgency to ram through contentious legislation and the NZDF command lies about what the SAS is actually doing in Afghanistan); they award themselves extraordinary powers in some times of crisis (Christchurch) while absolving themselves of responsibility in others (Rena). They use the Police for their own purposes (Teapot Tapes and Occupy evictions, the latter happening not because of public consensus but done by summary executive fiat). More generally, think of the lack of transparency in how government decisions are made and the duplicity of elite statements about economic issues (say, the price of wage goods) and political matters (e.g., recent internal security legislation). Coupled with equally opaque decision-making in NZ’s largest publicly-traded firms, or the cozy overlap between sectors of the judiciary and other elites, the list of traded favors and protections is long."
Read the full article here:
Sunday, January 29, 2012
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3 comments:
Sad to say this post is very very frustratingly true. But this has been identified possibly years ago in various election campaigns and in letters in Editors etc that it was a creeping problem in Govt and local govt ( decisions in public excluded sessions . Yet annoyingly the same manipulating individuals whom cause the problems either elected ( keep on being elected into power ) and the non elected ( CEOs/directors )keep on keeping their jobs.
To finish so who's to blame WE the community are... we elected those individuals into power !
How often did I hear as I grew into adulthood "its better to elect the devil you know than the devil you don't know" Yeah I know its a weird philosophy, but living in conservative south many of our old timers here hold to to this thinking ( and they always vote).
Now the young they are very impressed by image "Oh isn't John Keys so cool, I wonder if I can get his autograph ...." or not interested in politics couldn't care less whose in power they are all crooks any way.
A good and true Democratic state has a community that is eternally vigilant for signs of decay and abuse.
... and willing to do something about it.
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