Democratic

Lucky:

Having travelled widely, and read even more widely, I count myself lucky to have been born a citizen of a liberal democracy.

But I know that democracy in many parts of the world is under attack - as 'strong leaders' of both the left and the right fail to learn from history.

For democracy to not just survive, but thrive, it requires people to remain committed to democratic ideals, even when they are on the losing side of a democratic decision.

The willingness of some to ditch democracy when they are losing a debate, as happened here in Tauranga in 2020, is disturbing.

The ease with which such people can find self-serving supporters is doubly disturbing.

The fact that those self-same people and their supporters attend ANZAC day services beggars belief. 

Churchill:  

I believe that Winston Churchill was, in essence, right when, on 11 November, 1947 he said:

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.  No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.  Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..."

Ideals:

As a democrat, I subscribe to the basic ideas (and ideals) that gave rise to the concept of liberal democracy during the Age of Enlightenment.

These include the ideas that "governments exist to serve people", and that "human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality".

Equality:

Actions speak louder than words.

Following the replacement of the previously elected Council by a Commission, there has been much talk about how one might avoid 'dysfunctional division' with the next elected Council, while still allowing for robust debate.

And we should expect robust debate.

Because, ideally, our elected Council will reflect our 'politically diverse' community, and therefore there will be competing views around the Council table... and because good decision-making, in part, depends on robust debate.

So:  How do we avoid dysfunctional division?

The obvious answer is electing a Mayoral candidate committed to treating all Councillors equally.

And one practical way of demonstrating such a commitment is to remunerate all Councillors equally - rather than unequally, in order to reward political 'allies' and punish political 'adversaries', as has been done in the past.

For the record, if elected Mayor, I would take the equality principle one step further, and donate the difference between the Mayoral remuneration and the Councillor remuneration to local community organisations.