Home » The politics of lies, disinformation, hogwash and the dumbing down of our nation.

The politics of lies, disinformation, hogwash and the dumbing down of our nation.

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By Gaston A. Browne
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda

The poor quality of the interventions by opposition members, during the recent
debates in the House of Representatives, is cause for grave concern.
Our system is based on representative democracy, by which the majority of the
electorate in constituencies, elect persons to both represent their concerns and to
advance the interests of the nation. Essential to the success of representative
democracy, is constructive contributions to the important matters that the nation’s
parliament must consider.
Neither the National Assembly, nor the Senate, are political hustings where regrettably
politicians indulge in smear campaigns, pedaling misleading information, and
downright lies. Parliament is the forum for responsible and productive contributions
to the nation’s affairs. The reckless statements, which pass for political conduct, on
the hustings should end when representatives enter the chambers of Parliament.

However, it was evident from the statements and behaviour of some of the
opposition representatives, that they have failed to make the transition from political
hustings to parliamentary responsibility. Yet, this transition is necessary if they wish to
be seen as capable of being part of a government in the future, and if they are to
engage meaningfully and constructively in the nation’s affairs.
Meaningful and constructive engagement does not mean an absence of criticism or
disagreement; but it does require thoughtful ideas that are clearly presented and
supported by facts and sustainable argument.
That is not the parliamentary diet that the nation was fed by the majority of members
of the opposition during the recent debates. Instead, the presentations lacked
intellectual rigor, were pedestrian and replete with lies, misinformation and hogwash.
As if they had not transitioned from the deplorable deceptions of their political
meetings to the venerable halls of parliament, they unpacked the same lamentable
litany of vitriolic, personal attacks and deliberate falsehoods that embodied their
political campaigning.
Despite the abundance of information and supporting evidence in the estimates and
the budget statement, the majority of the opposition representatives were so blinded
by their egos, political ambitions, and, maybe, absence of any real and practical ideas,
that they fabricated their own facts and imputed improper motives on ABLP
Parliamentarians without a scintilla of supporting evidence.
None of this augurs well for their contributions to the nation’s affairs at a time of
global turmoil, when all hands are needed on deck, and all shoulders are needed at the
wheel to navigate the ship of state, safely and securely. Nor does it recommend them
for positive roles in a government of the future.
Discord and the promotion of unreasoned conflict might pass for techniques in banal
political campaigns, but, in parliament where a higher standard is expected, such
behaviour reveals either a lack of basic capacity, or a deliberate attempt to undermine
the national welfare by malevolent acts of dishonesty, disinformation, and deception.
I recall that while I served on the opposition benches of the National Assembly, there
were members – one of them still a member of the Assembly – who sought vigorously
to encourage me to engage in dishonourable behaviour, to regain power. My retort to
those individuals was: “I’d rather be an ordinary citizen of a successful country, than
to be prime minister of a failed state!” I refused to participate in any acts that would
harm my country that I loved dearly and hoped one day to lead.

I have heard many lies in the National Assembly. Those lies are not constructive to
debate of the nation’s affairs. They are, in themselves, unworthy of a place in
parliamentary debate, but when the lies are blatantly entrenched in the consciousness
of parliamentary representatives, such that they lie shamelessly and irresponsibly,
contemptuous of the national good, then we are developing a serious problem in the
society.
The resort to blatant lies by representatives either because they are incapable of any
higher intellectual standard, or because they have adopted lies as a technique for
national disruption, seriously undermines representative democracy and the rule of
law in our country. It is a slippery slope to anarchy that would harm the nation and all
its people.
There may be no point in appealing to these opposition politicians to raise the bar of
their parliamentary behaviour, but they should be mindful, that no society will long
tolerate the promotion of discord based on lies, nor will it abide the feckless
abandonment of responsibilities by those to whom people entrusted the care of their
interest.
Parliament is about attending to the people’s business and not for the pursuit of
narrow political ambitions at the expense of the nation’s progress.

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