The Undignified Speaking in Parliament.
From Speaking to Listening (Part 3)
by A. Irmanputra Sidin PhD in Constitutional Law/ Constitutional Lawyer
Nowadays, that manner of speaking which is mostly influenced by the historical narrative of people’s anger, should be abandoned especially if we want to expedite the achievement of the purpose of the state in the constitution. Including if you want to step on a roadway to be the national leaders. All the power of the state relies on the constitution not upon the King or the President . Welfare, wealthiness, civilization and even happiness are mostly influenced by the growth of the market in the national and global scheme which stimulates the growth of Gross Domestic Product, not by the King or not by the President. Part 2: The Undignified Speaking in Parliament. From Speaking to Listening
So, the growing complexity of interests of people in national and global matters has affected in the constitutional living, The President and his cabinet should not be deemed again as an enemies of the parliament but coworkers of parliament to build the nation and to build the market. So, actually no need to build a manner of speaking with “loudly, intimidatingly, explosively, aggressively or rudely” as if parliament is fighting against the tyranny. The manner of speaking like that in nowadays has become an undignified manner of speaking or disrespectful form of communication.
Therefore, the manner of speaking like that should change, as it is no longer aligns with this current civilization, because the people’s welfare, wealth and happiness in nowadays are vastly different. We have to fight together to beat the lack of innovation and creativity from the people that produce poverty, our enemy is no longer with the absolute power but ourselves who often still feel dependent on the compassion of the state to produce our own welfare and common welfare. Dignified speaking, slow but sure will create creative thought and would effectively encourage the nations toward accelerated development and growth.
Human being welfare, wealthiness, and civilization no longer only rely on the state power, but on the cooperation of human beings in the market, and even the President or the Head of State depends on it. So If the parliaments still show undignified manner of speaking we could not blame some people if they l presume that parliament still has anxiety and feel inferior with their power. “The more you talk louder, aggressively even rudely the more it shows you are anxious and inferior”. The market is actually slightly will higher than the state. Nowadays, there is a bunch of people in the world who have an amount value of wealth that exceeds the state budget of many countries in the world. Fashion has changed, “the way you speak will be your destiny”.
From Speaking to Listening
The undignified manner of speaking in parliament, could not be implemented again, because Parliament has constitutional power as an institution. It is vastly different if individuals talk to the government, sometimes without courteous manners, we could understand because they do not have a power. Their power as a people only the ability to shout loudly to the government. Parliament’s power is immense, very huge power that is granted by the people, because all the power of the people has been delegated to the parliament according to the rule of the constitution. People are aware that if they execute directly as an owner of the sovereignty to control the government, it will not be effective and tend to be chaotic, behavior uncontrolled.
The people want to build their own lives, want to develop their creativity and innovation to build their lives and civilization. Even these reasons could not be found in the story of the revolution but actually happened in the people’s minds at that time and they were unaware. So that is why, people build political parties, the political organization for the individuals who are attracted to play a role in politics, they could join to the political parties, but the problem has not finished, because after the emergence of political parties and its companions, the interests and problems flying around the political parties continued to increase.
Speaking without dignified and polite manners in the hearing, could arouse suspicion in the eyes of the people that the members of the parliament just want to make “trade off” again with the government to fulfill their interests. Undignified way of speaking by the members may be considered that members actually not too serious to fulfill the interests of the people either. They just want to deliver feeling relief to the people because the member has deliver their angry in the parliament to the government or other parties.
Sometimes the members of parliament had not noticed about their undignified manner of speaking and no tendency that they just wanted to fulfill their vested interests, but sometimes the political party as a backbone of them or other parties, could make their manner as “a trade off” to fulfill other interests by exchanging power of control with the government power to execute anything that related to party interests, because the political party as a political institution, could not escape with the problem that it faces every day, starting from individual small cases to big crimes and corruption cases that stalk their political parties.
Speaking in an undignified ways, such as loudly, aggressively and rudely in a hearing only one of the various ways of speaking in parliaments. Indeed we realized that the root definition of parliament comes from French parlement, from parler “to speak” but it does not mean that as a member of the parliament you have to speak in undignified ways as if keep imagining the people’s outrage to the absolute power as a part of the narrative of revolution.
The term “to speak”, we have to readjust in parliament’s works, parliament growing with the constitutional power , and that power of parliament not only “to speak”, but also to make decision in law and control policy even removes the government from the offices. The function of parliament should not be dependent only “to speak” but also “to listen”. That is why, parliament or other state organ’s meeting officially we called “hearing” but not “speaking”.
Parliament should utilize the power of listening and find the solution because they hold constitutional power which is vastly different with the people or other social organizations. The people only hold sovereignty but they do not hold “day to day constitutional power” to make a decision except in a certain terms such as in general election.
Parliament should not overlook the power of listening, we could speak effectively if we want to listen mindfully. The more we listen the more creativity and solutions we will find in our minds that is the nature of human beings including the members of parliament. This is why God created two ears and only one mouth said William Ury[1] because we have to listen more than talk. The power of listening rather than undignified manner of speaking will make parliament effectively as a coworker of the government. because the essential duty of parliament is to “get to yes” from the government, and the government and other stakeholders will work together with their best way for the people.
Thank You
Jakarta, January 31, 2025
*Featured photo, Source : CNN.com*
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