GANGA / Sharda Ganga
I wanted to talk about the Blue Wave in the United States. But then yesterday I read on the website of this newspaper about the import stop on Jin Chan, the chemical used in gold mining and which is very harmful to the environment and therefore also to humans, an interview with a ‘source’ from the Chinese community who indicated that “Chinese people have invested and paid a lot of money to village communities and politicians as well as concessionaires to be able to work in the interior.”
Well, bring on the goat guys; which politicians? Oh wait, it’s plural, so bring on the goats! But wait, read carefully. What does it actually say: that the Chinese in question, as concessionaires, have paid a lot of money to politicians, or does it say that the Chinese in question have paid a lot of money to politicians as concessionaires; so politicians who are concessionaires?
“It is simply decency and honesty that a politician should never, never use his influence to grant favors or to become richer himself”
A better example of a conflict of interest… I wouldn’t know it. That is precisely why we have rules to prevent conflicts of interest, or we have no rules, I should rather say, and if we do have rules, no one is bothered by them, because no one enforces them, and if there are institutions that should enforce them, everything is done to make it impossible for them to work, for example by giving them a budget of less than the travel expenses of one minister for a week abroad. I am not talking about the travel budget for an entire delegation of a minister, just the travel expenses of the minister in question. Case in point: the Anti-Corruption Commission and its annual budget.
Because such an entrepreneur does not simply think: ‘I pay something to a concessionaire so that I can work on his site’. Such an entrepreneur thinks: ‘I also pay the concessionaire for his protection of my interests, something that he can only provide, precisely and only because he is a politician in the center of power’ (I assume, for convenience, because why would you pay money to someone who has no influence). It is the unspoken agreement: ‘I pay you and you protect my interests’.
However, it is the very clear, well-known rule of decency, known all over the world, call it democracy, call it good governance if you want, but it is also just decency and honesty, that a politician should never, never use his influence to grant favors or to become richer himself or to protect those who pay him against the rules that he should guard (for and on behalf of us). That politician must ensure that our interests are safe and not those of the people who pay him.
They are crazy things. Indecent, undemocratic things. It’s incredibly rude. And yet so widespread, so bad, so normal, that so many who are guilty of these practices cannot understand that their actions are really unacceptable, really unacceptable. And are they wrong? Well, 99 times out of a hundred they get away with it. Until they can’t get away with it anymore.
Let those politicians have a good look (I wanted to say: have a good look, but that sounds so rude) – just look at the United States, where I really thought: ‘this is the end of that democracy’.
The rudeness with which the president seemed to put the financial interests of himself, his children, his inner circle, his fellow party members, multi-billionaires above all else and simply got away with it, was unbearable. But then came a big blue wave of bleach and green soap and cleaning vinegar and poof here we are now, a world that breathes a little easier after the crushing defeat of the Republicanswho have lost their majority in the Senate and House of Representatives in one fell swoop.
Now there is finally room for parliamentary control over Trump and his government again. Not that I think the Democrats are all saints. But my joy is because it has been proven that democracy can return ‘bounce’ and that, imperfect as it is, it is still the best we have come up with as a political system. I’ll take some comfort in that.
