Events in Canberra reached fever pitch today. The political controversy over who got support from the OzCar scheme and on what basis (imaginatively called Utegate by the media) has drawn increasingly shrill rounds of accusation, counter accusation and denial.
This link from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website attempts to explain the issue.
You won’t have and problems searching up more details for yourselves.
What troubles me in these situations is encapsulated in one of the Biblical proverbs: ‘The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him’. (Proverbs 18:17)
Instead of debate and a search for truth and answers, outcomes are called for. Mostly resignations. Again, not a search for truth, but a search for desired outcomes.
Another perspective comes along and the matter is not so clear at all.
Why won’t we seek that perspective before we rush to judgment?
Where is the demand for a process established by which an external authority examines claims such as these. Then, when the truth is determined, appropriate outcomes can be demanded.
Humility would seek for a much less dramatic process than accusation and judgment all bound up in one. What we have seen is hubris. ‘Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall’. Really if such issues were true the attitude that should be shown would be one that demonstrates genuine sorrow that a situation such as this should come to pass.
This is not saying that both positions are right or equally valid. I expect one will be right and the other will be wrong. (Though it is possible that both parties may be wrong.) It is a matter of not making a judgment until the necessary information is at hand.
How were the interests of the Australian people served today by their elected representatives? (Apart from the alco-pops tax finally being passed.)
It does not reflect well on the political process as a whole.
It does not reflect well on human nature.
Before we rush to judgment and condemn our politicians though we should remember that we are prone to do the same thing. Maybe we rush to make judgments about the parties involved when we do not have the whole story.
Be humble. Listen. Consider different perspectives. Empathise. Think. When all the information is at hand, then make a decision.
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