Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The most powerful weapon against corruption is disclosure



Recent events surrounding the Wikileaks disclosure of hundreds of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables and how the writers of the cables, who were for the most part public servants, were contemptuous of so many international figures. Wikileaks has a history of consistent courage in providing the facility for anyone with a social conscience to anonymously disclose information  to the public which may reveal wholesale corruption, from disclosing land ownership in Kenya, to the secret deals made between cell phone providers in South Africa, and of course most recently the flood of documents from the USA.



I have long been a fan of Wikileaks, purely for their courageous commitment to a more transparent world, where large corporates and governments are concerned. Recently however I have looked at recent events, and noting the 78000 documents leaked regarding the USA’s presence in Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries, and wondered, how it is possible, with so much data and information about corrupt politicians and corporations, how the voters of specific countries consistently return thugs and corrupt individuals to power.
Americans have known for years, that their administrations have been corrupted by big business, that wars have been started to satisfy their need for armaments contracts, that big oil will continue to milk the American public and destroy the environment. Yet no fundamental shift has occurred in American politics to remove these warlords from power. Is American democracy, merely a tool of big business? 

What about our own situation? We are crossing an era where journalists are detained at the whim of thuggish ministers, where incompetence is rewarded with redeployment, and where truth is sacrificed for political advancement, we as a nation are in desperate need of a cataclysmic Wikileaks type event where, all of our politicians are reminded that they actually serve the people, and not as many are fond of believing, that once elected they become fĂȘted deities. To spend and splurge public funds at the fastest rate possible. 

It would truly be heartening to see and become part of a national movement to expose and pursue the perpetrators of these excesses, to the full extent of the law, but the real law, not the currently emasculated, watery version so in vogue among the corrupt elite, where consequences are light, and the legal process long and expensive.  Rather than a manipulated flawed process, have a comprehensive disclosure to the masses and the world at large. So that the likes of the super corrupt may think twice before engaging in corrupt practices which the taxpayers have to pay for out funds which should be used to run the country, but rather are deviated into the hands and pockets of the kleptocracy.

The real winners of disclosure will always be the poor, the marginalized and the ignored voting machines so loved by the liberation movements. Disclosure will truly set us free as a united people. The alternative is what we have now, the lies, the deceit, and the criminal activities continuing unabated.