Category: Body Politic

Sinn Fein: Hypocrisy and propaganda by the bucket full

There is only one genuine fact surrounding the latest so-called crisis in Northern Ireland – Fear of Sinn Fein’s growing power.

Everything else is spin, propaganda, lies and hypocrisy all laced with tiny nuggets of truth to keep all the bullshit together.

When the PSNI first triggered the ‘crisis’ they were merely doing what they always do when elections approach – smearing Sinn Fein.

On this occasion, however, the propaganda was slightly overdone which gave the more extreme wing of Unionism, who genuinly want to collapse the Peace Process no matter what the consequences, all the ammunition it needed.

Peter Robinson’s crowd then had no choice but to pretend that they too were outraged by events.

So here’s the first question:

Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that Unionists are genuinely outraged by the murder of two IRA men? If such a person exists I would advise immediate psychiatric treatement.

The other interested parties – the UK government, the Irish government and mainstream opposition parties all got a bit of a fright because, while these parties want to destroy Sinn Fein, they do not want the Peace Process to collapse, that would be fierce inconvenient for all concerned.

So the propaganda plan was simple. Select one of the numerous crimes that are routinely committed by ex IRA members and present it as if it was something new. In this way politicians could express their absolute outrage at Sinn Fein’s criminal connections in the run-up to elections.

As the plan began to go askew there was panic within officialdom. Something had to be done quickly to get the propaganda plan back on line.

The obvious response was, of course, an investigation. The PSNI and MI5 were ordered to check if the PIRA had managed to stay in existence without the security forces ever noticing a thing.

So here’s the second question:

Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that the the PSNI and MI5, who conducted the farce inquiry, didn’t already know everything contained in the report? Is there even one moron out there who thinks that an MI5 official, shocked at what he found, utttered sentences like:

Oh my goodness, some structures of the PIRA still exist.

On my goodness, some ex members of the PIRA are involved in criminal activity.

Oh my goodness, the PIRA are operating a secret bomb-making factory on the moon.

(Yeah, bet you didn’t know about that. ‘Independent’ ‘Journalist’ Jim Cusack is, as I write, on the moon digging up the dirt on this latest IRA plot).

The PSNI/MI5 report hit all the right buttons allowing the ‘outraged’ politicians to resume their propaganda attack on Sinn Fein’s alleged colllusion with criminals while waffling knee deep in hypocrisy about the Peace Process.

And that’s all we’re going to hear from now until polling day when, suddenly, the entire incident will be forgotten – until the next propaganda campaign.

The budget reality

News headline on Denis O’Brien’s radio station today.

Today’s budget will leave us all better off.

Wrong.

Millions of words will be written and spoken analysing the budget but it’s all a complete was of time.

The budget is nothing more than a confirmation of what we are as a country.

A disturbingly dysfunctional democracy that has as its centre point, not the good of the nation and its people, but the buying of votes by a corrupt political system that is ruthless to the point of criminality.

The reality headline is:

Ordinary citizens will be bought off as a temporary measure until the corrupt political system is returned to power. When returned to power the corrupt system will resume its abuse of democracy and the people for the benefit of the ruling elite.

Independent Newspapers can’t handle the truth regarding political violence

Decommission your tongue, Mr. Adams

This was the headline of a recent editorial in the Sunday Independent in which Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was taken to task for daring to make a favourable comparison between the violence of the 1916 rebels and those involved in the recent 1968-1998 conflict.

The editor didn’t spare the insults:

Mr. Adams should decommission his tongue preferably for a millennium or two.

The Sinn Fein leader has soared to new heights in self-delusion.

But it is the editor who’s occupying the heights of self-delusion when he tries to argue that the 1916 rebellion was:

Formally and massively endorsed (By the Irish people).

This, of course, is utter rubbish and is based on the ridiculous myth that the violence of 1916, War of Independence and the Civil War was all, in some magical way, different from the violence of the 1968 – 1998 conflict.

The editor goes on to ask:

Had Mr Adams been an IRA man and put himself forward as a car-bombing murderer, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

When the 1916 rebels were being led away after surrendering they were spat upon by the people of Dublin for causing so much death and destruction.

So here’s the obvious retort:

Had Mr. Pearse been an violent rebel and put himself forward as a bringer of massive death and destruction, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

And it is worth noting that the people of Ireland were generally content under British rule in the lead up to 1916 in stark contrast to Catholics/nationalists barely surviving under the exteme Unionist apartheid system prior to the 1968-1998 conflict.

In making the following quote the editor seems to be completely clueless about the obvious parallels between Sinn Fein’s rise to power in the aftermath of 1916 and the party’s current rise to power in the aftermath of the 2008 economic catastrophe.

Legitimacy was conferred on 1916 when Sinn Féin received its mandate in the 1918 general election. It was retrospective, but it was real. The election was the first democratic plebiscite to pass judgment on those events.

The course of today’s political events is an exact parallel with those of 1916.

Prior to 2008 Sinn Fein struggled to achieve significant political traction in the republic. Since 2008 they have become ever more popular principally because citizens are searching for an alternative to a political system that is corrupt to its core.

In other words, Sinn Fein received an overwhelming mandate as a direct result of the brutal response of the British government to the 1916 rising and now the party is receiving a similar democratic mandate as a result of the brutality inflicted on Irish citizens as a direct result of political corruption.

The editor ends with a quote about the truth.

You can rewrite history, but the truth is always the truth.

Indeed, the truth is always the truth. But it has been many years since
‘Independent’ Newspapers practiced truth.

Copy to:

Editor Sunday ‘Independent’

Dear fellow citizens…

Dear fellow citizens,

We live in a state where the Prime Minister can casually and illegally dismiss the most senior police officer in the state without the slightest worry that he will be brought to account for his corrupt act.

We live in a state where a judge, employed to investigate the matter, makes a finding that the guilty Prime Minister can easily manipulate to suit his defence. This is despite the fact that the average five year child knows very well that the Prime Minister is as guilty as hell.

We do not know whether the judge was acting out of fear or favour and we never will but we do know that his report is a disgrace to the principles of democratic accountability.

We live in a state where the media, and in particular the state media, readily allowed itself to be used and abused by the guilty Prime Minister in his cynical manipulation of the reporting of the judge’s report.

There was no angry, embarrassed or protest reaction by the media so it is reasonable to assume that the majority of our journalists are docile sheep more interested in careers and scoops than making the state accountable.

We live in a state where the chief legal officer, the Attorney General, can inform the guilty Prime Minister that the police had been involved in serious criminal activity for years and then turn around and deny to the commission that she ever made such an allegation.

We live in a state where the most senior police officer, who was involved in some very serious controversies one of which led to his sacking, can casually destroy large amounts of documents on the day he was dismissed by the guilty Prime Minister. It is almost certain that the destroyed documents would have provided the investigation with crucial evidence.

We live in a state where every single regulatory/law enforcement authority operates under the all embracing, all corrupting influence of our corrupt political system.

And because there is no law enforcement authority operating independently of our corrupt political system there will be no accountability. The state, as always, will act to protect the interests of the wrongdoers at the expense of democracy and the interests of the people.

We live in a state where the political/administrative system operates exclusively for the benefit of the corrupt ruling elite.

How the GAA and the State avoids accountability

I have very little interest in and even less knowledge of Gaelic games or how the GAA does its business.

But when I read about the recent dispute involving some guy called Diarmuid Connolly I instantly recognised the connections between the dysfunctional GAA disciplinary regime and our hopelessly corrupt political system.

For years the GAA has been struggling to establish an effective disciplinary system. The organisation has failed utterly in its aims principally because of its abject inability to face the reality of what needs to be done to clean up the sport.

Instead of creating a simple, easy to implement system of control and discipline similar to soccer and rugby the GAA has, for years, been trying out ever more complex systems of rules and regulations.

The creation of convoluted, labyrinthine systems of ‘accountability’ has just one consequence – the impression that there is accountability where none actually exists.

So, for example, if a player commits a red card offence in soccer or rugby, he’s immediately sent off, no question.

In Gaelic football a player who commits a red card offence may be handed a black card which means he’s off but, hilariously, he can be replaced by a substitute. The black card is, in effect, a mechanism that allows accountability to be bypassed.

Our corrupt political system operates along similar lines of denial and pretence. For example, if a Taoiseach illegally sacks a Garda commissioner an investigation can conclude that he’s guilty but also innocent thus creating a reality vacuum where accountability can be discarded.

Another similarity between the GAA and our corrupt political system is the existence of a whole series of committees and procedures to deal with alleged wrongdoing.

So we have the GAA Central Hearings Committee (CHC), the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) and the committee of committees, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA). (For some reason all these committees remind me of the old Soviet Union)

This over abundance of cumbersome regulatory bodies is ideal for avoiding reality/justice. Wrongdoing can be put on the long finger until the initial crime becomes irrelevant/historical or the system can act as a mechanism to filter out accountability.

For example, a player like Diarmuid Connolly can commit a very serious foul but by the time his wrongdoing reaches the end of all the committee investigations (filtering) – he’s effectively found innocent.

Similarly, in our corrupt political system we have tribunals, committees, commissions of inquiry, reports, investigations of every colour and form, all established to one purpose – the avoidance of accountability.

So a politician can break the law but after a long drawn out investigation the crime is filtered/delayed to such an extent that he can be, miraculously, declared innocent.

This inability to deal honestly and efficiently with wrongdoing in the GAA can result in a loss of credibility and respect.

In the political sphere the consequences are far more serious for citizens, ranging in degree from serious financial loss to death.

Politicians feeding off the victims of corruption

Defending a five star junket to Australia by a number of politicians a spokesperson for the Oireachtas said:

The trip had been useful in seeing first hand the issues facing the increasing number of Irish people travelling to Australia to take up job opportunities.

Is it not grotesquely ironic to witness politicians feeding off the misery inflicted on countless thousands of citizens who were forced to flee the country as a result of political corruption?

Malaysia/Ireland: Different responses to corruption

An ongoing anti-corruption protest in Malaysia tells us a great deal about how far Ireland has to travel before we even begin to tackle the disease of corruption.

The protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Najib Razak step down over allegations that he accepted a large payment from unnamed foreign donors.

One protester said:

There are too many government scandals. I hope the Prime Minister steps down because he has shamed the country.

Another said:

The current government is robbing the nation of everything it’s got. The people need to put themselves forward to save the country.

In Ireland, while there is a great deal of awareness and anger at corruption, there is no concerted action in response to the disease.

There is no public outcry when our Prime Minister shames our country, which he frequently does. There is no public outcry when government officials/politicians rob the nation, which they frequently do.

The massive and ongoing protests against the water tax are the only indication that Irish citizens have had enough of corruption. And it is heartening to see that these protests are rapidly evolving into open rebellion against the rot in our political/administrative system.

One of the reasons for the corruption in Malaysia is the fact that the current political party has been in power for nearly six decades. The situation is similar in Ireland. We have a political class, (a ruling elite) principally composed of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour who have been ruling and robbing the nation since independence.

The emergence of several new parties and a host of independents coupled with growing anger among ordinary citizens is a clear indication that this old corrupt regime is heading for the bin of history.

The starkest difference between Ireland and Malaysia is that, in Malaysia, there is an anti-corruption agency. The agency is strongly backing the allegations of corruption made by the protesters.

Not only is there no such agency in Ireland but corruption as an issue is not even officially recognised. To my knowledge corruption doesn’t even appear as a statistic in Garda crime returns.

In fact, in Ireland, there is no independent authority whatsoever that has the power to challenge corruption within state organisations. All so-called regulatory/law enforcement agencies, including the Gardai, operate under the control and influence of our corrupt political system.

Dr. Weeks: Living in the zone of denial

Here’s an absolute law that applies to all commentators writing about Irish politics.

If you write an article analysing any aspect of Irish politics without referring to political corruption or even mentioning the word ‘corruption’, you are wasting your own and your readers time because you are not addressing the raging elephant in the room.

The latest in a long line of commentators to break this law is Dr. Liam Weeks, lecturer in the Department of Government at UCC.

In an Irish Times article, Dr. Weeks repeats the well-known fact that the traditional political parties, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour, are suffering a serious loss of support from the electorate.

He gives two reasons for this development – a declining level of attachment to parties and the collapse in support for Fianna Fail.

However, he makes no attempt whatsoever to explain to his readers why citizens are rejecting mainstream politics in their droves. He could do worse than have a look at this blog where he will find any number of articles outlining the reasons for this development.

Here, for example, is what I wrote on 15 June last. Again, I was writing about the chronic inability/unwillingness of political commentators to recognise the elephant of political corruption.

The emergence of a new politics is directly related to the fact that the old regime (Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour) has, over many decades, loyally served the corrupt political culture of clientelism, gombeenism and stroke politics rather than building a functional, properly accountable democracy.

I suspect Dr. Weeks is not actually aware of this truth. I suspect he operates in the same bubble in which most other political commentators operate. In this bubble he sees the Irish political system as democratic and, for the most part, functional – it is neither.

In order to keep the bubble from bursting Dr. Weeks must, consciously or unconsciously, enter what I call ‘the zone of denial’.

So, in his article Dr. Weeks states the problem – that the electorate is rejecting mainstream politics. He then enters the zone of denial where he can safely ignore the reasons for this development and instead skip to how events will affect the outcome of the approaching general election.

In other words, he describes the past and predicts the future while steadfastly ignoring the reality that connects them – political corruption.

Of course, Dr. Weeks is by no means alone in this. Read the opinion pieces in any newspaper; listen to the many discussion panels on radio/television and you will witness endless analysis surrounding corrupt events but you will never, ever witness any discussion of corruption as a subject in and of itself.

The reason for this is as simple as it is stark. If the disease of political corruption is acknowledged it will have to be acted upon and if that happens it will destroy the corrupt political system so carefully created over the decades by the mainstream political parties of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour.

These parties and their many supporters in the media will not easily surrender their privileged and powerful position.

Fortunately, while commentators like Dr. Weeks operate comfortably in the zone of denial, an increasing number of ordinary citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

The days of the old regime are numbered.

Copy to:
Dr. Weeks

Corruption: Feeding off the carcass of Irish democracy

The following words, spoken by Barack Obama in Kenya, have never been heard in Ireland.

People were being consistently sapped by corruption at a high level and at a low level and there was a need for visible prosecutions to show Kenyans that action was being taken.

They (Kenyan people) don’t have to be forensic accountants to know what is going on.

Until these words are spoken and acted upon in Ireland we will continue to have endless inquiries and tribunals that are specifically designed to allow the disease of corruption to endlessly feed off the carcass of Irish democracy.

Gardai prepare for Labour wipeout in next election

TDs have been warned by Gardai that Leinster House is under threat from potential “fixated loners” (Irish Times, 13 July).

Obviously, this is in preparation for the aftermath of the next election when Labour Party ‘fixated loners’ are sure to be seen wandering around Leinster House wondering what what the hell happened to all their party colleagues.

The suggestion that the Gardai are preparing for a Labour Party wipeout is strengthened by a warning in the report that some of the fixated loners could be suffering from delusion.

The proposed installation of an ‘anti-bandit’ screen could however be a step too far by the Gardai as this will surely debar the majority of TDs from entering Leinster House.