The Editor Speaks: What is transparency?
Politicians love to band the word ‘transparency’ about.
Unless you actually get to run the country.
Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller used the word ‘transparency’ a number of times when he announced his ‘shadow’ cabinet were going to produce a national social and economic plan called ‘Vision’.
Auditor General Sue Winspear, speaking to CNS about the worrying amount of ‘concessions given to large overseas developers’, also used the word ‘transparency’. “She explained that a lack of transparency in many areas of government finance remains a major problem across the board” the CNS story says.
Why, then, do governments don’t practice being transparent?
If governments aren’t transparent they are open to questions about their truthfulness and honesty.
I have to ask ourselves. Are we transparent in all our dealings? Aren’t there personal things we would be embarrassed if they came out in the open. Or worse catastrophic to our image.
Look at the timing of transparency. Secrets that have been hidden for years – even after 40 years – suddenly are exposed at a time to discredit someone. Especially political.
The list goes on and on and I don’t need to go into details. You know exactly what I am talking about unless you live on another planet.
Governments also have secrets they don’t want to be made public, not because it would harm them but because of national security.
Anyone who stands for public office is open to be questioned relentlessly so you had better be squeaky clean.
Is that what we are demanding our government to be? I will contend that is impossible. If you are squeaky clean are you really the best person to run a country?
Perhaps we shouldn’t ask for transparency but become translucence?
According to Wikipedia, “Transparency (behavior)”, as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in other social contexts, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. It has been defined simply as “the perceived quality of intentionally shared information from a sender”.
We, in the media, should ask ourselves do we practice the above with everything we write? Do we at times have a ‘hidden’ agenda?
We do need to hold public officials accountable. In the 21st century we have more transparency because of the Internet, cameras, computer software, tech spies, etc.
If you care to go to the Wikipedia piece I have quoted from you will also find a very interesting package under the heading of ‘Criticism’. Sigmund Freud is quoted but the one that I found the most startling was from researchers at University of Oxford and Warwick Business School, namely Fischer and Ferlie. They “found that transparency in the context of a clinical risk management can act perversely to undermine ethical behavior, leading to organizational crisis and even collapse”.
Are you any wiser now to ‘what is transparency?’
