Selective Transparency

"The UDP has won the elections. YEAH! YEAH! They promised to be a transparent government. YES! Belize will be betta. Out with the PUP and the corruption. They were not transparent. The PUP were corrupt. Nobody knew what they were doing since the PUP were NOT transparent.

And since no one knew what they were doing we KNOW that they were corrupt."

Hi Everyone! So glad that you are reading my little rantings. Thank you. I was on the road yesterday and was toggling with the logic of the word transparent.

First, let me supply my opinion on government transparency.

I believe that governments cannot tell the people everything. Even if they want to do so, they will never tell us all. First there is the impossibility, next there is the security issue and thirdly there is the societal reality. People hate bad news and governments will always try to find a way not to give us the bad news unless they have to do it.

So why lie and tell people that they will be an open government and not have secrecy. I would not want a government that does not have confidential stuff. Not even in a state of utopia would that happen.

Transparency literally means that you can see through and through and that things are clear. This can only happen in perception with governments. So if a government is transparent what does it mean? It is said over and over. If it means that we will know how every penny is spent. No can do. A lie. Accounting systems are not that detailed and not in Belize and not even in the wealthy USA. What else can it mean?

I have put one day of thinking into this and all I could come up with is that it sounds good.

WE WILL BE TRANSPARENT! (Please do not ask for a definition.)

Some try to define it by saying that the books will be audited every so often and a report will be made. And when people see these reports, say, every six months, we will say(or will we) "Yes, this government is transparent." Or we will wonder, what are they hiding?

This is elementary, the reports will not have all the answers.

At best, the report will be selectively transparent. The 'financials' will show what they want us to see.

The UDP Political slogan would be more truthful if it would have said "Continuing to be Selectively Transparent", that would hold more of the truth. Then again the perception will be that they are lying about something.

A vicious circle people. Maybe the word transparency should be shelved. It does not exist in political circles. Its buzz is indefinable.

There I got that out of me. Phew!

In an earlier blog, I took a line from our National Anthem that is super powerful. Sing along with me... By the MIGHT of TRUTH and the GRACE of GOD...

When we speak, let us just say the TRUTH... can one be more transparent?