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"It is ofen necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public."
According to the speaker, concealing the information from the public is often necessary , even desirable for political leaders. I concede that in some cases it is necessary , or even crucial for the political leaders to withhold the information. However, in a democratic country, it is one of the most important principles to keep their work open to the public as possible as they can.
Admittedly, under some circumstances keeping the information from the public sometimes might contribute to its national security. For example, some of the information of national defence should not be disclosed to the public, like the kinds of the arms , the deployment of the soldiers , the defence plan in emergent cases and so on. The information concerning about national defence is one of the toppest secrets and vital to the safety of a nation. If the government disclose them, other countries , particularly, some enemy countries or terrotists will obtain the invaluable resources at the same time. If the enemy or terrotists attack the country maliciously ,the government will have few chances to defeat them and the public will be in a society which is lack of safety. And another case is the fact of spies, about which the government never publishes the information .
Even if so, I would like to point out that not all the information under above circumstances should be withheld from the public,some information likethe number of the soldiers and even the latest arms bought or used in the army , etc are open to the public. Therefore, the significant thing is that how much information and when the government should choose to disclose.
Aside from some certain cases, howerver, I fundmentally disgree with the speaker's claim. In the majority of cases,(?) the public have the rights to know what the government is going on, especially what they do is relevant with the life of the public. For instance, whenever the government discuss the law which might be implemented someday later, or the policy of education which might change in the future, something like that, the government should deliver the information in time. So the public could make a plan for the changes or express their opinions to the change. Disclosing the information to the public, then the public discussing,this might make a society more harmonic.
Another reason why I essentially disagree with the speaker is that as a democratic country, the government must accept the supervision from the public, but if all the information were withheld , how can the public oversee the government and enjoy their democracy? The premise of the democracy is that the public are able to obtain the information simply , fluently, of course which are not confidential. With the supervision from the public, some dishonest action was punished. Paragons such as President Nixon, come immediately to my mind. He was obliged to give up the chance of president re-election after the Watergate cover-up was disclosed, it was the public opinion that pushed Nixon to drop out. Therefore, to some extent more fluently information can be obtained, more easy the public protect the democracy.
In sum, only under some special circumstances is it necessary ,or even desirable for the public leaders to withhold information from the public. However, in most cases(?), the public have the rights to know the information in a democracy country. And in many times, this could help to keep a society more effective. |
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