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The politics of honesty

by Simon Longstaff

Action: A politician honestly answers a question about the relationship between tax and social services. He comments that if services are to be maintained, then it will be necessary to preserve the tax base from erosion. He even dares to voice the opinion that, in some circumstances, taxes may need to rise.

Reaction: The politician is pilloried by the media – accused of having committed a horrendous gaffe. The politician's 'mistake' holds the front page for a number of days during which his competence and judgement are held up to ridicule. He is explicitly criticised for being so foolish as to be candid.

Lesson: Politicians learn that there is little margin in being honest and sincere in the expression of their views. They learn that the practical options available to them have been reduced to those of either staying silent or only saying what is held to be ‘orthodox’. So it is that the quality of our democracy is undermined (albeit inadvertently) by those who are supposed to enhance it.

I'm afraid that our society does not especially encourage politicians to tell the truth. Yet, unless politicians speak the truth, we have no way of making an informed decision about their policies, programs or character. Indeed, we have no way of holding the government accountable to Parliament. That is why misleading Parliament is, in most liberal democracies, a ‘hanging offence’.

These days, far too many people in the community simply assume that no politician is to be believed – that they only tell partial truths, that they will say anything in order to garner a few votes or save their hides and dissemble when distinguishing between things like 'core' and 'non-core' promises.

In the end, many citizens give up on the possibility of making an informed choice and instead, resign themselves to electing people who confirm their prejudices or appeal to 'tribal loyalty' or offer the fattest fist-full of cash. Community opinion now oscillates between the extremes of outright distrust and utter indifference and all of this occurs despite the fact that the vast majority of politicians are honourable people, motivated by high ideals.

It is easy to tell the occasional ‘white lie’. It is easy to embellish the truth for rhetorical effect. It is easy to rationalise a falsehood by confusing naked self-interest with the good of others. It is easy to bluster, obfuscate and deceive by omission when the truth seems to be too dangerous to tell. It is all too easy – and few of us (if any) are immune from criticism on this front.

However, politicians should realise that the restoration of their credibility is not just a matter of personal honour. It is a matter of profound importance to the proper functioning of our democratic institutions – a matter more important than achieving power itself. If people do not trust the people who make the laws, then they might eventually stop trusting the laws they make – and that is poison to a democratic body-politic.

Those who obtain or retain power by weaving a web of deceit, and those who acquiesce in a political culture that punishes candour while rewarding the canny, do a grave disservice to the nation, for they corrupt the very heart of democratic politics.

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