Thursday 12 October 2006

Time for some chains.

So it's now confirmed that the Government did steal the last election. But is there any remedy? Any at all?

In Thailand in such circumstances they tend to look to military action to punish such corruption. In the US there are remedies within the Constitution. Not here.

What's still to confirm is whether in fact there are any constitutional chains on government at all down here in this banana republic of the South Pacific. Darnton V Clark will confirm whether or not the few that do exist have any teeth, but you might like to set your mind to considering whether or not it's time to think about some formal constitutional safeguards to put some real chains on government.

After all, if a government can steal an election and get away with it, what else can they do? It's time for some chains.

LINKS: Cue Card Libertarianism - Constitution - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)

RELATED: Constitution, Politics-NZ, Darnton V Clark

4 comments:

Lewis Holden said...

Hear, hear! Although I would add that the Thai coup seems to have more to do with the civil war in the south of Thailand than corruption; one of the first actions by the leader of the coup (who is a Muslim) was a peace agreement...

Anonymous said...

A constitutional convention is a good idea, but you'd have to get the timimg right.

Can you imagine what'd be included in a constitution if one was created while this government was in power. Every special interest group under the sun would try to get protection for their "rights", and there'd be a whole troupe of crackpots, loonies and social "scientists" working as advisors. And you can be certain that the "partnership implied by the treaty" would be enshrined in law for evermore.

Perhaps it's not a risk worth taking.

Anonymous said...

lewis:
It would be great is there was a peace agreement in the South, but there isn't one and won't be one for a long time. The coup had NOTHING to do with the South, at all.

KG said...

agree with anomymous here.
The core problem seems to me to be the apathy and ignorance of so many Kiwis where politics are concerned.
I've been talking to dozens of people about the election funding scandal and of those few who are interested, none have expressed disgust at the lack of ethics of this government.
A constitution won't fix that.