There are recent discussions of the failures of major democracies around the world.
That’s not just about the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, but also how the previous Republican President tried to demolish democracy in the United States, and now the Republican Party (GOP) trying to continue his work to reclaim power. Supreme Court stacking and other measures the Republican Party instigated such as limiting voting rights are just waves of attacks on the democracy their country was founded upon, in the disguise of ‘better democracy’.
In Australia, it is nowhere better either. The current Coalition Government lead by Scott Morrison aka Scotty From Marketing, has been engaging in all kinds of activities to remove accountability and transparency, so they can do whatever they wanted without scrutiny. When being asked difficult but reasonable questions on accountability, they either walk away, or attack the media outlet as leftist, so they can stir fear about Australia turning into a communist country with no freedom.
But is it so?
The dangerous games currently playing by these politicians of Western Democracy are the exact reason that democracy once crumbled in Europe. Hitler’s rose to power in the last century was a clear example how democracy can be exploited to install authoritarian rules without people even aware of it. It is a slow boiling frog approach to destroy democracy under the title of upkeeping democracy.
For example, the GOP’s cries against Supreme Court stacking and the abolition of the Filibuster in the US Judicial and Congressional areas, were exactly what the GOP did during the years of the last GOP President. They called for bipartisanship when they practiced against it during those four years, they called for respecting process and rights when they respected none of that in those four years. Bills across the country in GOP controlled states to limit voting rights were clear attempts of vote stacking to prevent other people to win and flip the results against their favour. Politics for the GOP nowadays is about winning, and to win, they need to make democracy to their favour. When this happens, it is no longer about democracy but about an absolute authoritative rule in a rigged process that looked like a democratic procedure.
In Australia, since it was in the law that every citizen is compulsory to vote, so changing the law to limit voting is not on the table. However, this didn’t stop the current government to put in bills and measures to operate in a black box legitimately. The reporting of it taking longer and becoming harder for media outlets and common citizens to obtain information under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is a bureaucratic fix to discourage Australians to find out actually what is our government doing. The recent bill to try to make it legitimate to block the National Cabinet documents to be available under FOI, instead of appealing a judicial ruling, is a significant threat to both the judicial system and our country’s basic governance. However, this is not the first time Scott Morrison or the Coalition Government trying to put administrative and legislative measures to avoid scrutiny and accountability.
Two of the most obvious moves against scrutiny were the continued budget cut for ABC and the latest budget cut to the Audit General Office. Both organisations prided themselves as independent and are not afraid to call out wrong doings of the Coalition Government. There is no secret that the Coalition Government hated the ABC, and had, successfully created a rhetoric and impression that the ABC is an organisation full of left wing (akin to communist) people – simply because ABC had called them out in questionable practices in their program. This government once said, ‘if they are not with us, why should we fund them’. Ironically, when they criticised CCTV of China, the Chinese government media outlet, they have forgotten what they were doing at home to the ABC. Then came the recent budget cut to the Audit General Office, because they have called out questionable practices in managing a number of programmes, including the infamous Sport Rorts and Carpark Rorts. As a result, to retaliate without launching a full-scale media attack, Scott Morrison cut the Office’s budget to avoid them carrying out their work that they were set up to carry out – independent assessment of government spending. The Coalition Government might want to market themselves as a protector of democracy, but their actions suggested otherwise.
Both the US and Australian governments may enjoy attacking China as an authoritative regime, but at least the Chinese government did not pretend to be something else. They acted according to how their Party see as governance and are not afraid to stand up to what they believe in. But for both the US federal and state governments under the GOP rule and our current Australian government, the pretence and hypocritical dances around the democratic bonfire made them look even worse, if not the worst, among a lot of democratic and non-democratic governments. The erosion of real democracy under the disguise of democracy will eventually demolish the freedom they claimed to protect, and turn these countries into a countries of a privileged few.
How we, as citizens of democratic countries want to preserve our true democracy is up to us. For a start there are a few things we can do:
Be informed – do not just believe in propaganda, read and watch reports from a wider range of outlets, and research into issues outside of Facebook and other social media outlets. It is always nice to read and watch things that please our eyes and ears, but in the long term, limited views of the world will do us no good.
Think about our country – democracy is about the collective good. Are we doing enough to promote this or are we doing things simply because it is more important to us than others and believe others should just follow our ways of life without questioning?
Exercise your rights and fulfil your obligation – making sure we have our rights and obligations fulfilled properly and in a balanced manner can help us centre ourselves as a responsible citizen in a democracy. Losing that, we are edging to nowhere good in the extremes
Maybe it is easier said than done. Maybe it is hard work. But freedom never came cheat and easy. So, unless we are willing to work for it, we could end up wilting under an authoritative rule disguised as a democracy.
The choice is ours, not those in the government.
