Give People What They Want

In the 1980s the Munchkins of Oz elected a government that was, at first, headed by honourable men. Eye had known the Prime Minister slightly for years, having been familiar with one of his daughters who lived among the hippies in a little valley in the subtropics. Her father Bob would visit her often and drink and play pool with the longhairs and new settlers in the little local pub also frequented by bikies, drug runners and sundry characters and identities. In those days Bob was a Man of the People, head of the peak workers’ organization in the country and able to debate anything with anyone on the spur of the moment – and drink almost anyone under the table. He’d bong on with the local hippies and call everyone ‘comrade’ like his predecessor, the great White Lamb who had been deposed in a US and British Intelligence-inspired bloodless coup in 1975.

Whitlam and friend

            Bob was a Rhodes Scholar. They don’t allow many like him into politics any more. He would assure us all that when the party came to power they would help the back-to-the-land movement so prevalent in the 1970s, creating regional centres and funding rural commun(iti)es; he’d legalise marihuana, create industries around hemp, improve communications, hospitals and schools and hand more direct power to the workers. And he was a ladies’ man, and a mans’ man too.

            Bob maintained his stance even after his election. For the first year he explored different policies and potentials. Then he went to Washington and visited the Pentagon and was never the same again. He went to the United States as a dove-like Hawk and returned to the Great Southland with the mantle of the Eagle upon him. Soon, many who had known him and his daughter in those freer erstwhile days were in jail or living very quietly. He began to wind back the freedoms that had been recently granted to the population. Free universities were to become a momentary aberration in the land of the Munchkins instead of a right; they were hexed. Colleagues who showed him viable alternatives to oil and coal found themselves incarcerated and worse.

            The friend of the people had become the friend of Washington. And what choice did he have? He could take the money or the gun. They had too much on him.

Bob

            In the mid-80s Bob’s government pulled together a number of famous personages to travel around the nation continent in a travelling series of Constitutional Committees. The population was demanding change after the bloodless coup instituted by the US and UK a decade before and Bob was giving the appearance of heeding their wishes. The committees went from town to town, suburb to suburb and heard the various proposals brought to them by the citizens. After many months they reported to the government.

            To the consternation of the politicians more than eighty percent of respondents all wanted the same change made to the laws governing their nation. 

           The wanted Citizens’ Initiated Referendums. This means that if the signatures of enough citizens can be assembled for any cause, that cause must be taken to a vote of the people at the time of the next general election. This simple single change would bring society closer to true democracy and involve the populace in decision-making and thinking about the issues that affect them. It would significantly reduce the power of political parties and their machines.

            So the politicians ignored the wishes of more than four-fifths of the respondents and asked the Committee “What else did they want?” 

            A handful of minor divisive changes were put to the population in a referendum without bipartisan support. So distrustful of the government had people become that all four proposals were knocked back with a resounding ‘no’. Even the proposal which aimed to place in the constitution a provision that governments should be forced to pay fair compensation for private land taken from citizens was knocked back after the conservative opposition – led by the current Prime Monster – ran a scare campaign that successfully frightened the chooks.

            Governments come and go. The song remains the same. It’s time for a change for the better. A world with citizens’ initiated referendums would be a more truly democratic place with more involved and intelligent citizens – if they can be presented with fair choices by an honest and diverse media – and if their choices can been accurately gauged and honestly presented by a reformed voting process. 

            The media and computer technocracy have to be honest – and overseen by honest institutions and individuals – or democracy is dead in any case. There is no justice without truth.

How long do you think political change can be staved off? Conservatism in its true sense is no longer a viable option. If we don’t improve the system things will NOT remain the same as they are. Freedom will continue to disappear and the planet and its people will continue to be poisoned and corrupted.

            It’s high time for a change for the better.

Think about it. What do you think? What do you want? What changes would you make, if you had the power?          

 - R.A.

 images: http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/cmsImages/pm/whitlam_edward/thumbs/th_a8598_ak2-5-80-93.jpg

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_80/hawke.jpg 

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