NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE
Secret ballot scares off a bully mentality
A secret ballot in the no-confidence motion would promote governance that is truly in the interests of the people, writes Alain Tschudin
Recently, Stephen Friedman advanced the position that a secret ballot in Parliament would undermine democracy. This relates to a vote of no confidence in the president as proposed by various opposition parties. His assertion is based on the premise that if the members of the National Assembly are democratically elected to represent the people, then the people can best be represented in an open and transparent way. Let’s take as an example a child who is picked on by the school bully or local neighbourhood gang. When asked by the teacher to identify the perpetrator(s), she or he faces a serious problem. To speak up would be to run the risk of being victimised and traumatised further. Meanwhile, not speaking up would allow tyranny to score a victory. For the child, this might result in cognitive dissonance, at best. More likely, though, it could represent a debilitating moral dilemma. In a utopian world in which people who might face reprisals for truth-telling were protected, there w...
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