Tradition is important, Senator

Tuesday 9th December 2008, 3:00PM GMT.

From Terry Gallichan.
IT is claimed that tradition is far more representative than democracy, as by its very nature it builds on the wisdom and acceptance of past generations.

It is therefore very important that if we are to meddle with tradition, we must first attempt to fully understand the rationale and reasons that have over the years been bought together in that tradition.

Our tradition of the Father of the House having the privilege of giving the Christmas message of goodwill on behalf of the government to all the people of Jersey has, up to now, been rightly treated as a great honour. At a time when our world has become filled with hatred and venom, this tradition of promoting goodwill takes on added significance and importance.

As a Jerseyman, I am both disgusted and ashamed that a senior member of our government can not only abuse such a privilege, but actually use the Christmas speech to perpetuate and promote the hatred and ill-feeling that is destroying our society.

To justify this as a claim to free speech is both absurd and a blatant misrepresentation of the truth.
One has only to look back on Senator Syvret’s speeches, press releases and so on to realise that he has been able to quite openly express his views. Indeed, the openness of the comments of locals in the media and through the internet pages demonstrate that Jersey is an open society that allows free speech regardless of the social cost.

If Senator Syvret cannot understand or accept the importance of the traditional Christmas speech, he should be man enough to stay away. Christmas is a special time, and must remain so if we ever hope to heal the wounds that blight our society. We cannot allow misguided claims of political correctness to destroy this tradition.
Aragorn,
Rue de la Vallée,
St Mary.

1
Tony Gallichan

December 9, 2008 at 4:55 pm

As a Jerseyman, I am disgusted and ashamed that someone sharing my surname is so short sighted as to write such a derogatory letter. The Balliff feels free to ignore tradition, and I’m sure that Senator Syvret’s speech, whilst not being traditional, will be empathic to those that need to hear someone from the States stand by them and offer apologies.

Is that such a terrible thing? Is it really something to be ‘disgusted and ashamed’ about? Personally I think it would show a great understanding of the needs of the people he represents. It’s the behaviour of others in the chamber that disgusts and shames us all.

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2
Nick Manley

December 10, 2008 at 11:19 am

Before this kicks off yet again,and the Bailiff comes under fire yet again for effectively doing his job in the States.
It is not Senator Syvret’s claimed intentions to express empathy and offer an apology on behalf of the Islands Government to any victims of child abuse that are the issue. Indeed these sentiments are admirable and well meant.
Unfortunatly the real issues are his judgement,foresight and sense of time and place.
Judgement in that he chose to play the maverick with an issue that was at the time effectively under police investigation leading to potential arrests and criminal prosecution.
At the time in question regardless of how genuine their claims of abuse were (are), the victims in the eyes of the law were only “Alleged victims”.
For Senator Syvret to pre judge matters that were either “Sub Judicae”(Under the Law) or about to become so by using his priviledged position as “Father of the House” to issue what was potentially a very public admission of guilt and responsibility on on behalf of the Island’s Government was not within his mandate. Neither,judging by the reaction of the other elected members of the assembly, was it democratic!
He was assuming powers of representation on behalf of the whole electorate that he quite blatantly did not have!
His lack of foresight in not being able to see how his actions would in fact adversly effect the very people he was claiming to help by undermining the potential success of any subsequent criminal prosecution frankly call into question whether he has the political ability to discharge the office for which he does have a mandate, let alone be considered, as some have advocated,as a potential candidate for Chief Minister.
The Senator is right that “Freedom of Speech” is important.It is a powerful and precious weapon in the armoury of democracy, but as with all powerful and precious weapons it’s use requires that you treat it with a certain respect, and do not ignore the man with the book of instructions (In this case the Bailiff).
If you do you cannot complain if the whole thing blows up in your face!

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