As Politicians get younger, they seem to be also getting very thin skinned.
The new breed of political wanna-be is starting straight out of high school or University without any real work history or life experience, they seem obsessive about having a certain look or dressing for the part and being good looking and they want all the older seasoned politicians to simply step aside and gift them a seat without having to put in any of the hard yards at all and they cannot tolerate any criticism at all. They seem to lack the life experience that tells one that not everyone is going to fawn over you and agree with your every word and that does not make them your enemy to be attacked when you have risen to a level of power in the political sphere where you can use it to retaliate against them.
Many people will tell stories of how a particular politician harassed them or besmirched them in the press or even had others physically accost them or their property and even go as far as having the police come to their door and threaten or even arrest them; all hearsay of course but when recounted by the actual community members affected appear to be for no other reason than to silence them.
Blogs have been an avenue where people can openly discuss issues, have an opinion in either support or disdain for public figures and their deeds and freely with the use of an anonymous or nickname without fear of being retaliated against by an elected representative.
You see the thing is these young bloods of our political world have worked out that you get paid very well for very little work as a politician, you also double (at least) that in allowances (cars, office, budget etc) and again with the very generous superannuation and travel available so that two terms can set one up for life. However it goes even further than that as after public life there are contacts and boards where one can once again do very little and be remunerated well, and all that is just for the honest politician, the crooked ones can really do well.
Recently there has been a development where South Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the Internet by creating a law which was pushed through last year as part of a raft of amendments to the Electoral Act and supported by the Liberal Party, also requires media organisations to keep a person's real name and full address on file for six months, and they face fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information to the Electoral Commissioner.
The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story in Newspapers, or online editions including editorial types and it also appears to apply to election comment made on all types of Blogs and the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Under current federal legislation, it preserves the right of internet users to blog under a pseudonym but there is reason to think that the future will be different as the younger representatives begin to get preselection for the major parties and being forced to the ballot box as we are will get voted in and follow the changes that have been put in place by the SA Attorney General.
What is crazy funny is that the Attorney general thinks his draconian laws do not impinge on free speech or invoke retribution and yet believes that he will be singled out for attacks in the press and web based editorial sites for instigating these changes.
Personally, I use a pseudonym because I do know that certain elected people will attack me, no doubt about that, they've already tried and even though in a perfect world i agree that every comment should be made by a real person who has the courage of their convictions to say their bit and put their correct name to it; but it is certainly not an ideal world and people with power can be corrupt and use that power to silence individuals, it's happening right here in Queensland, Australia, right now.
Further, consider the whistleblower, where for example a party member knew that a colleague had a conflict of interest and did not declare it and in fact profited form that non declaration but couldn't give that information to anyone in the party but could make it public under a nickname, well that could no longer happen because they would be identified.
Unfortunately to preserve democracy you have to accept its failings as well as it's advantages, freedom of speech is being diminished by this law, no doubt about.
6 comments:
I pretty sure a couple of the pollies around here would love to find out who's stiring the pot, I reckon if they couldn't be anonymous most wouldn't comment out of pure fear of those we elect and their henchmen.
Well Uno, there`s a couple of
very high profile politicians
in the greater Logan area, one
a Labor Federal member, one a
a LNP alligned councillor, who
wouldn`t even accept my `friend
request` to go on Facebook. You
can bet your bottom dollar that
their party top shelf has for-
bidden them from associating
with blog operators like us
as a form of information cen-
sorship. Whats happening in
SA is just the tip of the
iceberg of course, the SA
governments actions, with
the help of the opposition,
is the epitome of fascist legislative paranoia. It
certainly begs the question -
how long is a piece of string
when it comes to internet big
brother shutting down free
speech in the not so distant
future. The buggers wont stop
this son a gun. Thats a promise.
When you open your eyes and see what is going on right here with intimidation of community by elected representatives, you can believe that people will be persecuted once they have to reveal their identity.
Well , sanity has preveiled in SA, with the Attorney General announcing that he would repeal the law retrospectively after the election and that no one would be procecuted for making politicla comment under an assumed name.
You relly have to wonder what's goin on in these peoples heads as they continue to reduce our freedom and introduce more and more laws and regulations, my guess, not much.
Politicians and Crs have destroyed community members reputations, intimidated them and even threatened some with legal action. Fact.
So why would anyone be willing to expose themselves to further harassment by revealing their identities?
It seems that its ok for them to degrade us yet we cannot respond or defend ourselves. There are so few politicians that I have any time for, I can count them on one hand and still have a digit or so left over.
In my opinion most politicians feel so threatened by constituents, who are usually more intelligent and better skilled, they have to intimidate or threaten to protect their nest eggs.
Well I think when the police are acting as a goon squad for politicians, as seems to be the case here in North Beaudesert, there is a real problem. We have heard Tony Fitzgerald report that since his infamous inquiry all those years ago that nothing has changed, and the news from the Gold Coast proves that to be true so we can't expect our locals to be any different.
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