| From: | "Jim Powell" <autoinfo(at)acenet.co.za> |
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| Date: | Sat, 2 May 2009 16:53:33 +0200 |
| Subject: | RE: [WDDM] Re :[WDDM] What is the AIM of WDDM? |
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Hi All, I believe that there should be a multi-pronged attack on the established political systems: 1. Spread the word that there is a real alternative where the voters are in charge of the politicians 2. Create a DD organisation to begin at community level and spread to national level 3. Transparently have members join all the political parties to change from within 4. Encourage the formation of a political party with DD at its heart 5. Lobby for politics to be a subject at school Regards Jim Powell Politicians are the employees of the voters Our current system in South Africa is so much better than pre 1994 but it lacks accountability. The primary allegiance the proportional representatives have is to their own political party. The 50% of the local government councillors that have a constituency can at least be identified by the electorate but still are not accountable. We, the electorate, are the shareholders of South Africa and employers of our politicians. We choose the politicians who are employed and we must be able to directly control the politicians. A combination of: 1. Constituency (Wards at all three levels of Government) 2. Top-up proportional representation to ensure that the representation reflects the will of the people 3. Portfolio positions (Ministers etc) 4. Recall of politicians (firing of politicians by the voters before the end of their 5 year term) 5. And referendum with initiative mechanisms where the electorate can reject or propose legislation and change the constitution.
should work the best for the employers of politicians, the voters. The ANC would have won 80% of the seats on a constituent basis in 1994. The top up proportional vote would counter this. The ANC that obtained 69% proportional votes would then not receive any proportional seats, but would be able to appoint ministers as extra positions, as would the official opposition appoint shadow ministers. A political party that did not win any constituency seats but obtained 2% proportional votes would then be allocated 2% of the seats. *Charles Bukowski quotes* <http://thinkexist.com/quotes/charles_bukowski/> “The difference between a democracy (as normally practiced) and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.” Our current system can be called a 5 year dictatorship. An employment advert for a politician in South Africa under the current system (and generally throughout the world) should read as follows: Applicants are requested to submit their CV's for the position of politician: 1. The interview will last for a number of months. 2. Many thousands, or even millions, of the politicians’ potential employers (voters) will decide whether the politicians’ application will be successful 3. Should the politician be successful, the politician is guaranteed employment for 5 years unless the politician resign, die, found guilty of a serious crime (we can talk about this one) or upset the group of people (political party) that the politician chooses to be employed with. 4. The politicians’ CV does not have to be accurate or truthful 5. The politician can ignore the employers (the voters) for the whole of the 5 years, and even go against the wishes or the politicians’ employers (voters). 6. The politicians’ employers are relying on the goodwill and integrity of the politicians, to act honestly and with dignity. But if the politicians choose not to, there is nothing that your employers, can do about it. 7. The politicians employers understand that the basic rules of operation (SA Constitution), created in 1994, are in many ways much better than the vast majority of basic rules of many other countries and so much better than pre 1994. The basic rules were created by the politicians and in many ways for the benefit of the politicians and detriment of the employer (voter) and as a result the politician, the employee, will be in charge of the employers (voters). 8. Voters recognise that many politicians, from 1994, have done sterling jobs and others have done a terrible job but we, the voters (employers), will not able to remove the politicians from the voters employment or payroll if the voters are not happy with the politicians’ performance. 9. The voters (employers) will not be able to control the politicians (employees). 10. If the politicians are successful the politicians could change the basic rules (constitution) then the politician (employee), would then not govern us but would have to operate in the voters’ interest. This will be under the politicians’ control and we recognize from the past that you are not likely give the power to the voters (the politicians’ employers). 11. The voters, the politicians’ employers, would like the politicians to listen to the voters all the time and do as the voters instruct the politicians, not just play lip service for a month and then disappear for 5 years. It is the politicians’ choice whether you will do this. 12. The voters would like you to create a system to have an individual at every level of government that we can go to, so the voters would like to have constituencies at Central, Provincial and Local levels. Politicians, please put this in if you are elected 13. We will rename the position of "politician" to "5 year dictator" since this more accurately describes the position on offer. When the politicians give the power to the voters (employers), the voters will rename the position to “representative”. Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy, http://democracybythepeople.googlepages.com/direct-participatory-democracy-links And http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/ Jim Powell (+27) 0118041335 0825712856 autoinfo(at)acenet.co.za From: Bruce Eggum
[bruce.eggum(at)gmail.com] Congratulations on your
progress Jiri. Your strategy is good and necessary. Much media and a campaign
can be costly, but necessary also. I agree, the people must do it without
politicians. They do enough already. Your strategy is what each of us, in our
communities and Nations must do. Thanks for sharing your strategy. Bruce On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 9:54 AM, <Jiri Polak> wrote: Hello, there are many good ideas on the Forum, but how to realize them? In Czech Republic, in theory, we have a clear strategy: The basic principle is that it is the people, not party politicians, who alone are entitled to write and adopt a Constitution establishing a political system. If you let party politicians to do that - as the case has been everywhere - they will put in place a Constitution giving all power to political parties. We - a few independent citizens - have proposed and published a Citizens´ Constitution by amending the existing one which we consider as only provisional. The next step should be to enforce a referendum on this proposal. If successful, the referendum would put in place a new Constitution and a new political system. Such a system would probably contain many elements proposed in the WWDN Forum. How to enforce a referendum? Seek publicity by any non violent means; organize demonstrations, e.g. marches on the Parliament like they do in Poland; a symbolic defenestration and the like. Try to put a DD person into Parliament, get the support of some widely known persons etc. The feasibilyty of such a strategy will obviously depend on the degree of "shakeability" of the man-in-the-street. Maybe people will remain passive and apathetic. In such a situation, we can only hope for a global catastrophy. George Sagi has written a visionary book called "Only from the Ruins". Maybe this will be the only way. But let´s try to attempt something less drastical first! Jiri Polak
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