AN INDEPENDENT IN EACH CONSTITUENCY- RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN POLITICS

[John Fitzgibbon <fitzgij@connect.ie>]

Greetings folks.  I'd like to share with you a considered view of the current campaign sent to the media but unlikely to get any coverage.  Beannachtai,  John Fitz


The hidden Election issues

FAO Election Editor/Researcher, News desk, foreign editor/journalist  Editor, This is a repeat of an email returned last week due to a fault. The attachments are omitted.

I've been involved in politics (3 parties) and in many community and voluntary groups in the past 45 years. 

The cynicism with politics demands that we make changes to redress the democratic deficit.

I outline some changes below & want your assistance to share this with the electorate

some issues raised- 
90% of TDs preselected by a small fraction of the 4% of the electorate that are in parties
Need to elect more independents to redress balance
Ongoing failure of past governments to address major issues-
Ignoring foreign policy in the election- Iraq: for 10+ years UN Sanctions kill 5,000 kids a month with our consent, Official Dev. Aid deficit for 30 years contributes to 24,000 deaths from hunger daily, 
Our role in Europe e.g. Nice. Do we want only TDs of parties that reject our right to say NO? etc
our adherence to vicious and damaging competition at any cost
The Korten attachments enlarge on some of these
Democracy & its citizens demand  that these and other issues be addressed 


A NEW DEPARTURE: AN INDEPENDENT IN EACH CONSTITUENCY TO RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN POLITICS.

Many of the electorate are sick of Irish politics & very cynical about the standard political parties (in government for years). On Sunday 5th a commentator, reflecting on the party manifestos said- 
“there is a strong possibility that on May 18th we’ll waken up to a nightmare”. 
He compares the manifestos to the 1977 Fianna Fail one that was a major factor in the economic (and for many personal) misery in the ’79 to ’94 period when unemployment went from about 100,000 to near 300,000.
He argues that the new minister for finance will have to admit that the manifestos were wildly optimistic and to put it to the people that “ the next 2 years will be tough because the last two have been reckless”- In 2000, public spending grew at double the rate of economic growth. Last year it was worse, and this year looks like being worse again. So what will finance the proposed bonanzas. Is it any wonder that many electors are cynical? 

The big question then is- is there any alternative to having a mix of the standard parties in power on their own? I believe there is. If people take the bull by the horns and elect one independent candidate in each constituency giving at most 40 independents. This would shock the establishment to its foundations and force a re-evaluation. The case for the election of more independents is strong. 

Voters need to challenge the complacency and sameness of the major parties, by voting first for acceptable independents, give next preferences to the parties that weren’t in government in the last 10+ years and then vote for their favourite standard party

As a member of 3 different parties I worked for 20 years in the interest of the country as I thought. I did the whole gamut of tasks- regular meetings, conferences/Ard Fheis’s, candidate selection conventions, postering, canvassing etc. 20 years ago I opted out of the last of the three but I've maintained a close interest in politics since and attended the conferences of all significant parties twice in the last 15 years.

Because of involvement in many voluntary groups e.g. ACRA, the Parent School Movement, Unions etc I've met & corresponded with virtually all political parties, a range of ministers & departments & various EU groups, staff & MEPs. My views then are the result of 40 years of deep involvement in political & community life.

The case for more independents-
        
The level of cynicism with party politics requires a real threat to party candidates that challenges their allegiance to the party above their electorate. The election of 10 or even 20 independents answerable only to the electorate would enhance respect for politics. So voters should be encouraged to try this option. 

Only 4% of voters (3% women, 5% men) are members of political parties. A small fraction of those get involved in the candidate selection process. Consequently, a tiny fraction of voters pre-select over 90% of TDs. This is undemocratic. 

The election of one independent in each constituency would partly redress this imbalance.
        
Party candidates are selected on allegiance to party & ability to win seats. They renege on election commitments as required by party interest & blame the party whip. As vote transfers, party PR, funds and election machine are, generally, the major factors in their election voters needs are a secondary consideration.

The party system operates as a divide and conquer mechanism leading to continuous squabbling about theoretical differences and huge waste of resources

Ministers are chosen from half the pool of deputies leaving some of the best candidates on the back benches always 

At elections the standard parties set the agenda. They ignore foreign policy issues like the killing of 5,000 Iraqi children each month by UN sanctions(an annual atrocity 15 times the magnitude of Sept 11th in the USA. These sanctions are supported by Ireland in spite of the fact that the 3 most senior UN officials in Iraq resigned in protest at what Halliday called genocide. Many reports e.g. the Caritas Europa (the 48 Trocaires of Europe) point to sanctions as an intolerable scandal

The critical Nice referendum is to be rerun soon. How many candidates stated their position on this. Are all the standards still in favour of challenging our right to vote NO and have that accepted.

Parties blatantly renege on commitments e.g. Fianna Fail election manifesto & leader’s promise in ‘97 to have a referendum on the NATO/PfP issue- dropped for fear that it might be rejected. All the major parties reject the people’s decision on Nice where the vote was 46% to 54%. They accepted a 49.5% to 50.5% in another case.

Commitment to elimination of poverty and exclusion, a government & EU mantra for 20 years is a sick joke. The gap between rich and poor continues to rise rapidly (by £191 a week in last 5 years) and by the direct choices of governments in successive budgets (see CORI budget analysis & ESRI reports over 10 years. All government parties every year honour their real commitment i.e. to make the rich richer in leaps and bounds at the expense of the poor
The same is happening, generally, at international level just that the poor in this case are dying at a rate of 24,000 a day. Ireland, in its callous & inhuman approach to these deaths, hasn’t reached the UN level for Official Development Aid (0.7% of GDP set more than 30 years ago) despite phenomenal (unimaginable a few years ago) wealth growth.
The standard parties support highly destructive unfettered competition at home and abroad using the myth of consumer interest. They always use Ryanair to prop up this myth. Does Ryanair have to have competition to be efficient? If it’s the competition that does it why doesn’t it have similar effects on the other competitors. Why didn’t competition in the building industry bring house prices down?. Isn’t it the fact that we have 3 mobile phone licenses, capital cost £650 million & operating costs triplicated, for a population similar to the Greater Manchester area that makes the cost of calls from or to mobiles outrageously expensive? The regulator, challenged on the proposal to issue the third blamed EU regulations. This despite the public clamour about the possible effects of more unnecessary radiation and, the fact that the World Health Organization was conducting a 5 year programme to assess these effects. Echoes of the blood bank debacle, to hell with health risks. 
Governments have continually eroded any freedom this country had in domestic and foreign policy. They allowed and encouraged a massive dependence on footloose foreign investment.  This could be the ruination of the economy when circumstances change. They failed to take any steps, at UN or EU level, to challenge the power that transnationals now exercise over most economies and governments, particularly the smaller ones. The Celtic Tiger is not immune to the fate of the Asian Tigers or, the longtime booming Japanese economy now in recession for years. The Korten attachments and many other sources highlight the almost total loss of democracy that governments have been hiding from us. Another aspect of this is highlighted in the footnotes 

The prospect of voluntary-community-charity candidates was raised at the AfrI conference in Kildare recently.  80 to 90% of the group indicated they would support the concept.  Think of the possibility of alliances of justice, peace, disability, human rights, environment, 3rd world, etc groups in each constituency "assessing" independent candidates and getting a commitment to a charter of objectives etc. Preferably this should be done pre election but it can be done afterwards

It requires only 25% of the vote in a 3 seat constituency and 17% in a 5 seater
All the evidence suggests the time is now opportune (e.g. the win by the anti Nice campaigners against virtually the whole establishment) to challenge the failure of all parties which were in government in the recent years to adequately address the many issues in poverty, health, disability, drugs, housing, environment, depopulation, traffic, working conditions, foreign policy etc. 

Editor I hope your readers will be challenged to start the revitalization of Irish politics

"If you know you can, you will   If you know you can't you're right"    Henry Ford

" Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not."  John F. Kennedy.

"Ni neart go chur le cheile- so why do the parties spend much of their time bickering about little more than who should be in power.



------------------------------------------------------------
This message has been forwarded to you by
VOICE of Irish Concern for the Environment,
because you are subscribed to concerns,
Ireland's leading environmental mailing list.
for more info, see http://www.voice.buz.org/maillist.html
------------------------------------------------------------