In my last input I discussed about participation in the advancement of democratic practices and good governance and how public participation and involvement is central to the growth and vibrancy of any democratic society. Today I want to look at two other key principles/processes of democracy and good governance; openness and transparency. In Liberal democracies and governments that uphold high standards of protection of human rights, there are certain innate norms and systems that define good governance and democratic practices; amongst those are the levels and degree of openness and transparency exercised by the government at both national and local levels. It is the nature of openness and transparency that defines and gives meaning to the extent to which a government is able to build high levels of accountability and trust amongst citizens. This is critical because any government exists to give meaning to citizen lives as expressed by Hobbes in 1651 that…”in the absence of the state man’s life is solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish and short”.
Openness and transparency centrally defines the processes, mediums and commitment a government chooses as the basis of how it shares information with its citizens. The importance of this process is that democracy requires citizen participation, involvement and meaningful engagement such that a government is able to lay bare its operational activities for open scrutiny by the public. This process of openness and transparent behaviour by government provides a window for citizen safety. It is known as one of the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt, especially if these are the government officials that are supposed to protect the public but act in secrecy and concealed practices that creates mistrust on government. A critical practice of any democracy worth its salt is to protect the right of citizens to knowledge of what is going on in the governance processes and makes it a government’s duty to be transparent and open in its public processes. This is the case even in the observance of the Greek Pharmacon; which is a norm that compared openness and transparency to medicinal intakes and said ‘taken in correct dosage it heals, overdosed it’s poisonous’.
The above referred to Greek norm is often used by those who justifies governments secrecy and lack of transparency arguing that certain practices and government activities ought not be made public on account of issues of national security or other related justifications. This school of thought would argue that in any government there are secrets, particularly on the work and operations of security organs of the state. It is a valid argument and for as long as it’s not used not to be overly secretive and to subvert public interest and sometimes even conceal malpractices and violations of citizens’ rights. Whilst it is necessary to do keep state secrets and other practices, when wrong judgements are made as to what has to be kept away from public knowledge, democracy and good governance become endangered. Overly done secrecy is poisonous to good governance practices; as they often say, ‘the best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but that of a democracy is openness”.
Governments should endeavour to tread carefully on what to keep away from the public domain and historical practices in human relations and general governance issues point to secrecy been associated with most of the negative things as Joseph Pulitzer said “there is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy”. Secrecy or lack of openness and transparency often creates fertile ground for mistrust and mushrooming of miss-conceptions and negative perceptions about government operations. Any democracy where governance is dominated by secrecy and lack of transparency will eventually become an institutionalised dictatorship where public knowledge of government work and operations is curtailed. A transparent and open government cultivates levels of trust and legitimizes government operations in the eyes of the public and this nurtures democracy and good governance ethics. One of the greatest challenges is how to manage public mistrust of government and the negative perceptions around what may be secrets of the state. Perceptions emerge out of ignorance and lack of information on matters that the public has interest on and often perceptions could actually be wrong but in the absence of a good communication strategy on such matters, they may appear plausible and have damaging long term effects on government-citizen relationships. Open and transparent governments create develops a culture of honesty on the part of public officers (both elected and appointed) and a long term commitment to accountability and managing public concerns. It is for this reason that openness and transparency are viewed and known to be pillars of democracy and good governance. It is when the entire public sector of a country lives and talks this pillars and make them key variables in the culture of public service operations that a country can celebrate its democratic and good governance practices, for then it would have won the trust of its citizens. Openness and transparency are virtues of a healthy government-citizen relationship and if based on enriched trust, government will be seen as honest and truthful to its communities. As aptly stated by one Mahatma Gandhi; “Truth never damages a cause that is just”.
When governments act truthfully, honestly and in an open and transparent manner, it does not only present space for citizens to rationally and objectively judge their leadership, it also legitimizes government. These are and ought to be part of norms and value systems of any country that commits to been democratic and been guided by principles of good governance. At the upper most would be the practice of these principles in reality and total observance to their key tenants and this more than vocal pronouncements that often seeks to portray governments as singularly competent to make judgements on what can or cannot be open to public knowledge. An effective, well nurtured process of sharing information on which government operations, practices and activities, is fundamental in democratic and good governance ethics.
*Dan Molaodi teaches Public Administration at the University of Botswana
