It is a good idea to look for alternative to our Opposition
Politics which is currently not doing too well due to diverse
reasons.
The traditional Opposition system or multi-party political system
in the Western societies is not necessarily the only mechanism to
check on government.
The opposition politicians tend to over-shallow all other forms of
check and balance mechanisms because it has been recognised that
one day sooner or later the losing politicians may take over and
form an alternative government in the next election if the
incumbent is not doing a good job.
If we consider the business of government probably finding another
party to take over is not necessarily the only way to political
evolution and self-renewal. In fact such a bi-polar political
system might lead to instability and in-fighting and divide the
nation and tear the fabric of society.
Whichever is the party forming the government may not be as
critical and important as who is the next potential PM and who are
the key ministers in the new cabinet.
We the people need to be creative and think out of the old box of
bi-polar political system - the ruling party and an opposition with
potential to take over.
Because of the bi-polar system many good people with potential to
take an active role in checking on the government and tempering its
policies and actions may not come forth and be allowed to take an
active part.
That may be the reason why we have so little opposition talents and
whatever little we have are being checkmated by the ruling party's
self-serving narrow brand of politics geared at ensuring its own
survival.
If we really want to look for alternative system of check and
balance minus all the factionalism and confrontations and
divisiveness we should look for a viable alternative to what we are
having now.
The next question to ask is who are our alternative voices of the
people?
Traditionally the newspapers, community leaders, network of
institutions would serve as the source of alternative views and
information to check on the government. These groups of people if
connected to or appointed by the government one way or another may
be too conservative and may represent only the middle ground from
past experiences.
If we have to have a more effective check and balance we should
look into creating a new institution to be filled by people who are
truly independent, objective and well-informed active citizens with
useful views to correct and check on government policies and
decisions.
To ensure such objective alternative checking mechanism we could
perhaps create 84 such positions to sit alongside the ruling
parliamentarians whereby all bills are discussed with inputs from
such people who shall have their respective voting right pegged at
a high enough percentage in order not to tie the hand of incumbent
government which no doubt has a positive role to play.
Three categories pf representatives could be created - one third of
whom of which can be nominated by professional organizations, one
third by popular votes (voted in election proper) and remaining one
third by outstanding social critics with proven influential views
and opinions nominated by a certain selection panel formed by
independent non-partitioned people.
Taking into account our present lack of check and balance mechanism
in our political system it is time we arrive at our own model of
truly useful and relevant system of check and balance on the
government.
With such a system offering truly substantial views and alternative
solutions to problems there will be no need to keep harping about
our lack of talents as such a body could easily be established
which will give our million-dollar ministers a run of their own
presumptuous world-class salaries.
We can also avoid having to face with dirty politics of all kinds
including so many defamation suits to checkmate the opposition
politicians.
Whoever perform well in our non-partition political system will
over time be eligible to join the government and be invited to be
ministers in the ruling party cabinet without all the opposition
emotion coming into play.
With such self-renewal process our politics will gradually become
non-partitioned and non-party based.
So it will be a win-win situation for our political evolution to
meet our own needs and circumstances.
This way there will be no need for fractious partitioned political
infighting which tend to divide resulting. The ruling party will
then be able to focus on its job and not having to come up with so
many dirty political tricks to get back at the opposing
politicians.
The success of such a self-check institution depends on the
selection and nomination process in choosing such representatives.
Such representatives should not be chosen by the politicians but by
the people based on their perceptions of their past views and
opinions on government.
Such representatives can be selected by an independent panel formed
by the people from a large cross section of society.
Those who could really contribute must act as the voices of
conscience of the people and should include outstanding social
activists with good and informed views and opinions on widest
possible backgrounds to check on the large areas of
government.
Even if our opposition members fail we could always count on such
representatives to act for the people. These representatives have
certain voting right but their votes should not be such as to
overwhelm the ruling party.
Their total dissenting votes could be limited to one third of total
seats as their votes are merely aimed at expressing their
alternative solutions and not necessarily at overturning decisions
of government so that it is truly recognized as a mentoring
alternative self-check mechanism.