STRENGTHENING ETHICAL AND MORAL
VALUES IN GOVERNANCE
Prof Joseph K Alexander Chairman , IIPA Kerala Regional Branch
Inaugural speech At he Seminar at The NSS College for Women -
Karamana -07-10-2016.
When a group of beings; animals or men happen or decide to
live together there arise the need for dos and don’ts so that the elbow of one
does not hit at the nose of another. This is a Universal truth applicable even to
the planets, stars and galaxies. Every one of them moves in their own orbit as per
rules of the Universe or God. In human society this is more necessary. Unlike animals
or shoals of fish which move under the natural ethics and morality instinct endowed
in them, man has an additional capacity – the freewill. So ethics and morality
rules may be violated by men. Imposition of moral rules is a necessity in every
human society: more so in healthier wealthy so called civilised societies.
In the formation of a state there is a social contract says
the theorists Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Every individual has to sacrifice a
part of his absolute sovereignty to the state so that it emerges powerful to
protect them from internal squabbles and external attacks. So the state
maintains a police force or army. To maintain peace the state insists on certain
rules and regulations. Thus rules- dos and don’ts emerge not only in political
but also in religious groups. In Sir
Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Plato’s Ideal State, religious groups like Judaism, Buddhism,
Jainism, Mahabharata and Ramayana etc there are rules for the maintenance of a
peaceful society . God gave Ten Commandments to Moses. Githa specify the real
duty or role of man in this life.
In the early stages of the formation of the state every
citizen strictly follows the ethical and moral rules of the society like “puthanachi”.
Later with more peaceful, secure and leisurely life they tend to neglect them.
As in dialectics the peace generates its own antithesis of distrust. Now the
important issue discussed all over is how to enforce ethics and morality in
governance of modern states..
We had direct democracy in Athens and Sparta of Greek
History. Since our population and land area of most of the states are large
unlike them, we copied Parliamentary Democracy of Briton. In the early stages
parties had difficulty in getting candidates to represent each county / constituency.
.They were to be persuaded to stand for election. Now even in Briton suitors
are cringing before political leaders for candidature because of fringe
benefits and under the table black money income. In India we have multi-party system
and now coalitions of them to govern us.
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Our Parliamentary constituencies have more than ten lakhs of
voters. To reach them within a fortnight after the declaration of the election
date, each candidate require huge amounts of money which no one can muster for
himself. True, the political party will give some which will not be enough to
meet his needs. Business corporations and magnates with vested interest seek
the candidates with funds to finance them. If he is elected he has to repay the
debt by resorting to corrupt out of the
methods. This corruption is the greatest bane in parliamentary system of
government. Despite it is far better than monarchy, dictatorship, autocracy and
all other forms of governance.
Corruption is the greatest curse in civil society. Corruption
exist all over the World in different degrees Tranparency International in
their study says that of the 173
countries examined, India is now 75th in the group of less corrupted
countries.
India has taken many initiatives to strengthen our
ethical and moral frame work; some of them are:
Code of Conduct for Ministers and Civil Servants, accountability
to parliament, Right to Information Act, creation of Lokpal, Lokayuktas, Vigilance
Commission, National Investigative Agency, right to public service delivery act
and so on..Despite they are all ineffective in curbing corruption.
In the wake of the two World Wars and despite the creation of
UNO, World Bank and other international bodies, distrust and wars were
happening in many parts of the World. So in 1960s the Club of Rome was created and
financed by the international community to find a method to establish peace in
the Word. After a detailed study of the World situation the club created a
formula ZPG= ZEG. This club was later closed and one leader of them Herman Khan
joined as leader of another think tank in Hudson Institute in USA. Someone asked
him that World Peace is not anywhere near and the resources of the World are
being depleted so fast that the future is bleak. Then Khan replied that human
ingenuity is such that he can jump over any hurdle that emerges. Like-wise whatever
rules and regulations are passed or implemented, man’s ingenuity can jump over
to fatten his pocket with corrupted under-the table transactions..Yet creation
of as many watch dogs as possible is a necessity to generate awareness of the
need for ethics and morality in governance.
1 comment:
No matter how old you are, family history is important. While you might not think so at the time, as you get older there will be things you and your grandchildren will want to know. Most of us don't realise it until the older generations are gone and you can't replace first hand comments. Don't just put in about the good times, add in the harder times and how you overcame those trials. Another thing to remember is what caused the deaths of those you loved. There are many things that have been found to continue into future generations that knowing it runs in the family can be helped with now or possible in the future. prevention starts with knowing where to start. I wish someone had taken the time to write these things down for mew to be able to go back to. My Grandmother and my mother told us many stories of what things happened in their lives and about the people in their lives. I now wish someone had written those things down since both have passed now. But I never thought at that busy point in my life that I would one day want to remember all those things. So much family history is lost when the older generations are gone. Please pass it on to your family while you can. You can even just do it digitally so it can be accessed by family later on.Family pictures are something to cherish also. Just be sure to write down who is pictured in them, where they are taken and when. I have found family pictures that no one now even knows who is in them.
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