IN AID OF POSTURING AND DEMAGOGUERY

       Year in and year out as far back as we can remember, the two chambers of Congress have been holding  public hearings on assorted subject matters and concerns related to government and governance.  These hearings have become popularly known as in aid of legislation.  In theory these are done with a lofty and ideal purpose to enable our Congress to re-examine the workings and policies in agencies of government and to correct by legislative action any systemic and procedural  irregularities and shortcomings in the implementation of government functions.   

        This legislative power is one of many features of governing we have adopted from the U.S. system where it is obviously proving to be positive influence for the improvement of the bureaucratic functions and in exacting official discipline in the governance of that nation.  It is really something ideal to adopt.  However, given the general moral caliber in our political leadership, the guides for governance we have adopted like this one, are only mimicked in its form but the ideal purposes are not emulated in practice.  It has become something else, a predictable public entertainment, a TV attraction with ratings dependent on what are the scandals or who are the personalities involved.  And there is the unavoidable cast of mostly deteriorated individuals who occupy seats in the august halls of Congress and all vying for camera time to posture and act out what they conceive to be their role and relevance.  They usually complete the entertainment aspect of the show.

           I have been a fairly regular observer and witness in many of these hearings especially the high profile ones and I have concluded the following:

           

            1.  Legislators behave like criminal investigators who are interested in digging the details of anomalies and the acts of those involved rather than putting more focus and attention to examining systemic flaws that allowed crimes and irregularities to be committed as the serious and thinking lawmakers with sense of responsibility would do if the primary concern is to correct and improve the system.  It is not difficult to see the possible objectives behind this inquisitorial approach. 

             2.  Almost all published reports on hearings mainly recommend prosecution or exoneration   for officials involved in criminal irregularities and we are not naive as to believe that, in many instances, the nature of the final recommendation does not depend on certain considerations only known to inside players.  And for the systemic and procedural defects in the agency that the hearings happened to unravel, the recommendations have been nothing more cerebral than the usual reorganization and increased budgets; and

              3.  While these hearings are in the exercise of the oversight powers of Congress, the way they have been used without appreciable improvement to our systems of governance has diminished their relevance and now only serve as public demonstration of the awesome authority of Congress.  Even if there are no positive changes observed in the functioning or official behaviors in agencies investigated by Congress, the hearings are a periodic reminder to all government agencies and  officials the need for their deference and subservience to congressmen and senators as that attitude can influence or determine the findings and recommendations that could emanate from the hearings.

              The validity of my conclusions on the use or relevance of Congressional hearing as they are done here is reinforced by the findings of a research I paid a law student to do.  He reports that there are  many hearings with no reports completed and submitted and are just lying there long after the TV coverage was over.  There are several high profile hearings that have been completed and reported on but he did not find a single bill filed based on or as a direct result of findings and recommendations in those reports.  This then indicates that our lawmakers, after the TV coverage, do not bother anymore either because they are mentally lazy and inadequate or have no sincere motivation to follow through on their rhetoric and posturing on camera.

              On a personal level, even if the research is not completely correct, it is a final confirmation  of my long held view that these so-called hearings in aid of legislation are actually in aid of something else like publicity, demagoguery, intimidation or extortion, etc., given that we have been hexed for a long time now, partly by our collective choices, with the ilk of lawmakers who demonstrate no grasp of moral and intellectual responsibility for the country and whose visions do not go beyond the perks and comforts of the present.