BUREAUCRACY AND POLITICIANS. WHO IS THE CUSTODIAN OF THE DESTINY OF OUR DEMOCRACY?
Elections are just around the corner in PNG and the spotlight is now on Politicians and Political Parties, Especially the ruling party.
Everything that they do will be judged, and rightly so it is the mandate of the people to judge those whom they
entrusted their decision-making powers to.
In PNG, it has become a tradition to love a party for a while and then hate them again due to frustrations
over unfulfilled promises made before or after taking power in parliament.
More so, people are not aware that most of the government's powers rest with the bureaucrats. What Do Bureaucrats Do?
Most people think that bureaucrats only follow orders from the Executive Government. They carry out the decisions that the Prime Minister or Ministers of Cabinet make.
Of course, anyone who works in the executive branch is there to implement decisions, but the reality of their work is more complicated. The power of the bureaucracy depends on how much discretionary authority it is granted, and in PNG's case -
the level of discretionary authority given to Department Secretaries or top Public officials has rendered them to some extent - more powerful than members of parliament.
Parliament passes laws, but it cannot follow through on all the little decisions that have to be made as the law is translated into action.
Bureaucrats, then, may make policies and choose actions that are not spelled out in advance by laws.
Parliament delegates substantial authority to administrative agencies in several areas: Paying subsidies— government support money — to local farmers, SME's, schools, universities, and hospitals. Transferring money to Provincial and local governments for grants-in-aid (DSIP's/PSIP's), such as highway building, city improvements, or educational programs. Devising and enforcing regulations, such as who owns television stations, what safety features automobiles have, and what kinds of scientific research will be especially encouraged to combat cocoa pod borers or fight off malaria.
Bureaucrats in PNG have the Power to sign cheques amounting to millions and award contracts to whoever they see fit to accomplish a project. Therefore, people must also put the spotlight on bureaucrats because systematic corruption happens under their watch.
People must also be aware that PNG functions on PROCEDURAL DEMOCRACY (Procedural democracy emphasizes the functioning system of law-making bodies and political institutions like election procedure, election commission, legislative assembly, etc) instead of SUBSTANTIVE DEMOCRACY (substantive democracy emphasizes public participation of all groups in political activities in an election with procedural democracy). Therefore, more power rests with government institutions (Government Departments/Parliament) rather than the people.
People must be aware that Politicians work on problems that can’t easily be fixed. The problems are enormous, systemic problems.
Changing them would be an undertaking beyond any single politician, no matter how well-meaning he/she may be.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent politicians from making promises to fix the problems (like budget deficits, the national debt, the increasing cost of health care, foreign threats, ending poverty, etc.)
Later, when the problem persists, politicians are the target of a lot of anger for having made commitments that they couldn’t keep.
Picture this, the problems we deal with in areas such as sales in a business are no different and aren’t often as large or as complicated as the national debt. But to our clients, the problems are more important. They are more real. The mistake that salespeople make is committing to making improvements that cannot be made.
In some cases, your client has constraints that are beyond their control. They need a better result, but they can’t afford to invest in achieving their desired result. You are making a commitment that you can’t keep if you don’t tell your client what is going to take to get them their needed improvement. Sometimes you can make a small improvement, but you use language that makes the improvement sound like it is going to be much more significant. Like the political class, you fail to manage expectations.
You will never be trusted once you are known for making commitments that you cannot keep.
This creates a strategic advantage for other political parties vying for power to capitalize on people's frustration arising from unfulfilled commitments by the incumbent government. And so, the people will then be open to hearing what other political parties have to offer - which leads to them voting for a candidate from a different political party or pressuring their political representative to move to a different party. Therefore, creating an unstable or poor democracy.
The bottom line is, 'THE GRASS WILL NEVER BE GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE' no matter who we vote into power. The real mandate rests on the people to be change-makers, whether to stay lazy and wait for
free handouts or start to create avenues that will enrich themselves and other's - be it thru Agriculture or Business ventures, which
may contribute to the economy and help the country move towards achieving the full potential of its democratic vision.
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