Wondering where the free world is these days. Fortunately there is an organisation called Wikileaks which is fighting to preserve some public sector accountability. If disclosure was not forthcoming, clearly greater public confidence would be retained by the public in government. I say 'release it all'....all the information. Let's see heads role. More importantly, let's see how utterly unaccountable they are by reflecting on how few government heads role. Why are they unaccountable? Well, they don't have to worry about competition. There is a two-party duopoly in most countries, which means that there is no competition. This means that under the current system of governance, we have no real choice about the quality of our public administration.
Let's see just how bad the public statements by politicians have been. What about Sarah Palin? Future US president. She has compared the founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange as 'anti-American' and as bad as the Taliban. I guess that makes her an apologist for the Conservative Party policy over the last decade. Her nationalism is very scary on this point. So what of the Democrats.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:
"the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic documents is an attack not only against the United States but the international community as well and erodes trust among nations".
How does one attack everyone per se? How does one erode confidence? By publishing unflattering comments, or by making the remarks in the first place. These are more damaging than off-handed statements because people have taken the time to write them and they are 'official'. The reality is that all public political debate should be so honest. It would be nice to think that this would be the start of honesty and accountability. The end of 'political correctness'. Unlikely. The reality is that the founder of Wikileaks is is going to be targeted for political persecution. He is one courageous guy. I'm a proud Aussie today. Very few Australians have done anything to make me proud. This probably tops the list. I don't have national pride...but this is pretty special.
Sadly, most voters are simply indifferent to the persecution of their fellow citizens. The US and other governments are going to attack Wikileaks, and they will make the argument that its to 'protect US lives abroad'. The reality is that this is a blatant rationalisation. The best way for the US to protect US lives is to engage in multi-lateral (not unilateral) wars and consistent foreign policy based on ideas...not self-serving, politically-expedient policies.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
