Beware the tyranny from within

Editorial, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday 30th July 2012

TYRANNY does not come from abroad. It springs from within.
Contrary to popular believe, tyranny is not solely resident in evil, scheming, arrogant individuals.
It can be found in the most ordinary individual.
All one needs is the right atmosphere when an ordinary person is placed in or assumes a position of power over somebody who cannot or dares not fight that power.
Slow insidious changes are made as day by day the powerful learn new ways of using their influence and might over the powerless.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” an English baron once said.
People with power might start out well-meaning, intending to use their power for the good of others, but as it normally turns out, they will almost always end up abusing it.
That is unless there are checks to those powers.
That is the very reason for a parliamentary system where there is an executive which imposes policies, rules and regulations and decides on the use of the nation’s treasury and why there is an opposition in parliament to ensure that those policies, rules, regulations and the use of money within reason and not excessive.
Remove the opposition or weaken it sufficiently and the executive government can basically run riot, grow immensely powerful and forshake its mandate and duties and responsibilities to the people.
This is not theory.
It has happened in this country these past nine years and it will be repeated unless there is a credible opposition in parliament and unless there is also sane voices of reason in cabinet.
In the years since 2003, PNG had unprecedented economic growth recording 7% to 8% annually.
Record inflows of revenue created occasions where there were two or three supplementary budgets in the one year to adjust budgetary forecasts upwards.
An amount of K6 billion – the size of PNG’s total accumulated foreign debt –  was parked in various trust accounts at one stage.
Yet, somehow none of this wealth made any impact on PNG where it matters – in infrastructure, in the social sector, and in health and education.
This at a time when executive government was at its most powerful, when parliament became a mere rubber stamp for executive authority, when the public service operated in fear of the government and did its whim – right or wrong.
This newspaper wrote in this space in 2002 and again in 2007 that a government with no strong opposition is anathema to good governance.
We repeat this warning here again on the eve of formation of a new government as we perceive the formation of a majority government with most parties in government and only a handful in the opposition.
There are more practical and pressing, if mundane, reasons for not having all the members of parliament packed on the government side.
It comes by the description: Goodies for the boys.
To maintain a big coalition comprising absolute majority of parliament, the
pressure is greatest to look after the MPs be it in terms of ministerial portfolios, committee chairmen, increased funding for electoral development or personal finances.
Those demands, important as they are, are mundane compared to the greater ramifications of untrammelled power.
Its effect on public finances, for instance, could be disastrous.
Its effect on civil service productivity and on private sector investment climate can be detrimental.
Human rights abuses and negative human development index indicators can be crippling.
This is what we warn as political leaders crunch numbers to form the next government.
A strong opposition is essential for good governance.
An executive government that is conscious of that would make every effort to ensure the opposition remains strong by encouraging and funding it properly to do its work which is every bit as important as that of the executive.