In the aftermath of the Greek elections, the review of the law regarding the abolition of all obstacles to the voting of Greeks abroad will be put to public consultation, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in Parliament on Saturday, during the debate on the government’s programmatic statements. The organised diaspora could contribute the most by way of constructive feedback to the government policy making by exercising its electoral rights in a new political landscape, and also in other ways.
The Greek diaspora could contribute in the formation of a robust Greek democracy, especially in these uncertain times when all democracies vacillate between a sensible and an intelligible world. A reminder of John Kenneth Galbraith and his book “The Economics of Innocent Fraud” illustrating through his life experience in the public and private sectors with a scathing critique of things as they stand today. In particular, he sounded the alarm about the widening gap between reality and “conventional wisdom” and how we have reached a point where we have surrendered to self-serving beliefs and “made-up nonsense” or, more simply, as victims of an innocent fraud.
Something that came at the expense of the economy, effective government, and the business sector.
The evidence shows that few societies manage to advance to the stage of an intelligible world, which is achieved through questioning, research and a solid education system. Indeed, this distinction between the sensible and the intelligible varies according to various social and economic indicators (e.g. economic freedom, corruption, morality and justice, quality of democracy and others). For example, Australia hosting a large Greek diaspora could be considered based on such performance indicators as part of the intelligible world compared to the sensible world that characterises Greece. The recent Greek elections provided some insights into how people sometimes can oscillate between these two worlds depending on the influence of a political landscape that has promoted the sensible (Greece) over the intelligible (Australia). And the message of the voters at the last elections is for a path towards an intelligible world, with a contribution of the Greek diaspora.
The Greek diaspora must exert pressure of its own on Greek governments for the formulation of policies that meet the criteria of best practice of the intelligible world, and not the sensible world of clientelist politics. In this sense, policy and/or law reforms must be based on planning, study, analysis, consultation, and consensus, among other factors, that ensure total coherence and transparency. Greece has been characterised for many years by politicians who make statements or proposals without any documented support at all, creating uncertainty and anxiety in its society.
Beyond the electoral rights, the Greek state must also develop a creative and entrepreneurial diaspora policy with a focus on reconnecting the future diaspora generations with their heritage, roots, language, history and traditions, and the cultivation of diaspora entrepreneurial networks. In this direction, an organised diaspora should also take the lead, imitating other examples, such as the model on which the Australia/Israel Council has been operating for a long time which is one of the leading public affairs diaspora organisations for the Australian Jewish community, and operates effectively, as in other countries, in conveying with dedicated professionals the interests of the Australian-Jewish community to government, the media, and other institutional bodies.
As such, recently with a focus on entrepreneurship it had the foresight to submit to the government a comprehensive feasibility study proposal to enhance trade and investment with Israel , with a view to a future free trade agreement. It was argued that a proposed free trade agreement between Australia and Israel might look beyond commodity exchanges and look at trade more broadly – in terms of shared knowledge, technological cooperation, and a gateway for each country to the other’s region. Also in collaboration with one of the leading universities in Melbourne, Monash it thoroughly analyses the structure of the Jewish diaspora as it emerges from the census data.
This approach maintains a strong Jewish secular culture in Australia and is a benchmark of best practice among ethnic minorities.
In conclusion, we need to get beyond the inherent bias in arguing that bureaucratic barriers alone may have led to diaspora voter apathy at the last Greek elections, an arguement that is not evidence based, and thus lacks coherence. If we as a diaspora feel that the Greek bureaucracy contributed to this result of voter apathy, then as a diaspora beyond the elections we should also exercise our “scathing” criticism on all aspects of bureaucracy created by past Greek governments. Otherwise, we will simply oscillate as voters between an intelligible and a sensible world.
Finally, Nikos Kazantzakis eloquently captures the spirit of the Greek diaspora and consequently the failure of the authorities to engage it in a political way as well as the need for a holistic approach:
“The further we are from our homeland, the more we think about it and the more we love it. When I am in Greece I see the pettiness, the intrigues, the nonsense, the inadequacies of the leaders, the misery of the people. But from a distance we don’t see the ugliness so clearly and we have more freedom to create an image of the homeland worthy of a total love. This is why I work better and love Greece better when I am abroad. Away from her I can better grasp her essence and her mission in the world, and my own humble mission as well. Something special happens to Greeks living abroad. They are getting better. They have the pride of their race, they feel that being Greeks they have the responsibility to be worthy of their ancestors. Their belief, that they come from Plato and Pericles, may perhaps be a utopia, a spontaneity of millennia, but this spontaneity, born of faith, exerts a fruitful effect on the modern Greek soul.”
–Excerpt from an interview of N. Kazantzakis with Pierre Sipriot French Radio, Paris, May 6, 1955.
* Dr Steve Bakalis is an expert on international business education and management, he has held adjunct appointments with the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, and appointments in universities of the Asia Pacific and the Gulf Region.
