More on Freedom vs Control

Day 742, 00:18 • Published in South Africa South Africa • by mulderpf

Good day all

Today I come to you with another issue regarding freedom.

We've been discussing in congress whether or not to issue a statement, say weekly, to list how each congressperson voted during the week on issued affecting eSA. This is a great idea and we all like to have transparency in government. However, I voted no on this (!!!). Don't stop reading just yet, let me justify myself here.

The reason I voted no, is not because I don't believe in transparency, it's not because I don't want people to see how I voted, it's because I believe in the personal freedoms of citizens and congressmen. They want to make this compulsary for each congressperson and it's this that I have a problem with.

I believe that we are taking freedom away to try and enforce something on congresspeople that we believe is the right thing to do. Simply because we believe that it's the right thing to do, does not mean that we can enforce it on everyone. We are taking the choice to disclose away from the congressperson, which is a freedom we currently enjoy.

Now, in my article for running for congress, I promised to disclose the way I voted and I did that because I chose to do that, I wasn't forced. I know that if I don't disclose the way I voted and possibly the reasons for that vote too, I will lose my support and I probably won't make it into congress again. On the other hand, if another congressperson chose not to disclose the way they votes, it's their choice and they will suffer the consequences if they choose not to disclose the way they voted. As congress we should concern ourselves with the important stuff, not yet another congressional law that has to be enforced.

We are simply just adding more and more bureaucracy to congress (which isn't ALL bad, but too much is bad) and this is in no way helping us to focus on the important stuff. Instead, we end up focusing on enforcing these rules, because we decided that it should be mandatory.

I think it's a brilliant suggestion to publish how people voted, however, there should be a section showing the congresspeople who decided not to disclose their votes. This will then allow the voters to decide if they want that congressperson in during the next term, rather than congress having to spend their energies "punishing" congresspeople that do not want to disclose their votes.

So, just so that you know - that is the reason I voted no on the above.

Votes disclosure

So I'll just quickly recap my in-game votes:

President impeachment: I voted no. First off, this bypassed the entire CRB, which isn't really what I have an issue with, I believe that Enoch is doing a great job and has done absolutely nothing to deserve impeachment, hence my No vote.

Donate R17,000 from the country accounts to the RBSA - this is standard stuff to keep the economy going, so my vote was Yes.

If you want more information or reasoning behind my votes, please feel free to ask, however, I do not believe that the above was rocket science so far!!!

Best regards
mulderpf