It is not only the Press/Media that have a field day with the abuse of expenses by our Members of Parliament (MP’s). Those who have been at the heart of our financial meltdown and in the spotlight and those who are cynical about politics and politicians are also having a good laugh. One is ever mindful of the well used maxim about the person who laughs “last”. As the plots of these stories thicken the last “laugh” is yet some way in the distance.
Tax-payers, decent, honest and law-abiding citizens are dismayed about the revelations and the blatant and high-handed ways people and a system conspired to rob the public coffers. And we ought to be. Even a donkey with reading abilities can see that the rules from the Parliamentary Green Book are at pains to point out to MP’s the need to be “above reproach”, about “the misuse of public money” and the need to avoid arrangements that can point to an MP or someone close to them benefiting from public funds. I am sure this situation, usually critiqued and represented as the corrupt practices of politicians from the majority world and their “banana, coffee, tea or oil “republics by British politicians and media, is going to create more cynics from among us. There are those, on the other hand, who have never had faith in politics and politicians and may mutter through their teeth: "we told you so".
Of course, greed and self-serving interests are not the monopoly of one particular group, and one needs to be mindful of this fact. At the same time, our word pedalling performers (politicians) have accepted public offices and they should not be surprised when they are placed under public scrutiny. They should not be comparing themselves and their ills with the fact that in other professions this also happens. They are public servants and even if we want to put aside the ill-used term “servant”, the public aspect remains a fact. Whether they like it or not, they are models to the whole nation – one presently recovering from financial mismanagement.
We put them there. We have a moral obligation to know what they are doing there. And, we also have the power to remove them from their office. MP's are not above the law. Had I done this in my present job then my employer would have probably called in the police and I would have been sacked. I am also accountable. Finding replacements, however, may be more than a challenge given that the misuse and abuse is across the political colours. For as a former Archbishop of Canterbury notes, "the latest revelations show it was not just a few MPs with their noses in the trough, but a culture of abuse." One can breathe a sigh of relief that there are still some decent and honest politicians around!
Sin and human ambiguities are real – it is a flesh and blood reality and none of us are immune to it. What this underscores, once again, is the need for a spiritual or religious core to the ways we order and manage our lives. This whole debacle brings to the fore the issue of ethics and morality – much of which is quite scarce and absent from our society as a whole. One can be excused for asking whether the decline in ethics and morality as seen in the expenses scandal is a reflection of the rest of society. One is reminded of the timely observation of Zygmunt Bauman that because of “savage individualism” we need to locate our present day ills beyond the ills to something deeper, which is - the “absence of society”. We are drowning in our engineered culture of crass individualism. For me society is communal or communitarian, with a heart and moral conscience and it is one where accountability is central to the common good of society. Paying back is only the first step. There is a second step - stepping down in order to create a stronger moral ground to stand on.
copyright Jagessar May 14, 2009
