anne's dispatches from sydney

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Here is a segment from the "Anarchist Age" published by the Melbourne-based Anarchist Media Institute. It discusses an issue that I have been thinking about- the fact that Mark Latham's diaries expose how fundamentally destructive the political party is for the full development of the human. I think this is one of the most tragic stories of our time- because the people who end up leading our society are these twisted individuals who gave up their idealism in a party deal a long time ago.

IMPORTANT? Latham's diaries are important not because of the real and perceived insults, the insights into the machinations of the Labor Party or the roller coast ride through the mind of a man who believes that his thoughts and feelings are the catalyst that is needed to change Australian society. They are important because Latham has inadvertently lifted the lid on the limitations of parliamentary rule and representative democracy. The feeling among many Australian that the parliamentary process has failed to reflect their thoughts and feelings and deal with their wants and needs, is reflected in an increasing number of people's attitudes to both their parliamentary representatives and the electoral process.

The failings that Latham has attempted to highlight are not just failings of the Labor Party, but the failings of all the political parties involved in the parliamentary game. Parliamentary democracy is based purely on faith; every 3 years people give signed blank cheques to their parliamentary representatives to represent their hopes and aspirations in parliament. The person they have elected can do exactly the opposite to what they promised and the long suffering elector can do nothing about it until the next election when they can repeat the whole charade by putting their faith in another parliamentary representative who is not legally accountable to the people that put them into office.

The central problem isn't the calibre of the man and woman who represents us, or the political parties they belong to, but representative democracy itself. No wonder so few people in so many countries fail to take a few hours out of their lives to cast a ballot to elect a bunch of parliamentarians to represent them. The problem facing elected rulers around the globe is one of legitimacy; falling participation rates highlight that representative democracy has little if any to do with democracy rule of the people, by the people, for the people. Latham for all his ideas has never been able and continues to be unable to grasp the idea that the former Dr. Jim Cairns was able to grasp, that the problem lies with the parliamentary process not with individuals or the political parties they belong to.

It's time that serious thought was given to what institutions are best able to deliver democracy in a world where real power seems to lie in the hands of a decreasing number of transnational corporations that dictate how citizens can live their lives in sovereign nation States.

Venting our spleen and impotently pissing in the wind, like Latham does in his diaries, may be good for the ego but it doesn't raise alternatives like limited parliamentary mandates, citizen initiated referendums, recallable parliamentary representatives and direct democracy people making decisions about the issues that effect them and electing or appointing delegates to coordinate those decisions on a local, regional and national level, as serious alternatives to a system that many Australians believe is democratic in name only.

posted by: anneinchaosland at 17:17 | link | comments |

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