The influence of NGO's

I read this very interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Gregory Hywood a fews ago regarding the role of NGO's (non-governmental organisations). The article was pretty negative, pointing out that NGO's have evolved to the point that in some instances that their lobbying power is so great that they are able to influence government policy. The power bases of these groups mean that political parties have to deal with them and appease them if they want to get certain legislation through. Furthermore, these organisations only represent small segments of society and not the views of the community at large. By keeping these NGO parties onside, the political parties are ignoring the interests of greater society.

The writer argues that greater transparency is needed as to the role that NGO's play in shaping government policy and the dicussions that they have with them. I understand the need for greater disclosure and agree with this suggestion as this can only help in the democratic process. Openness, representative government, transparency, equality, and freedom are the basic building blocks of democracy. By improving the transparency, the public can see what is going on behind the scenes and the process can be scrutinzed. However such moves are unlikely to happen. Why?

Because there is a lot more power broking and secret deals that go on in Parliament that just with NGO's. The influence of the rich and the mega corporations also grease the wheels of government. The response by Andrew McCallum "NGO's deserve a voice" in the letters section accuarately points this out. NGO's do serve a vital role in giving a voice to those that may not otherwise be heard. Of course too much power in any arena can be abused, and we should welcome suggestions to make the exercise of political lobbying more transpareny.

Will this happen? I don't think so because NGO's aren't the only powerbrokers on the block. If you increase the disclosure of the role of NGO in public policy making, you have to increase the disclosure of corporations and influential individuals (eg. wealthy/powerful) as well. Frankly, I just dont see this happening.