Questions put to Dr. Gabriel Bittar, founder of KIpolis.net, by Charlie Canning.
About democratic process, freedom of the press and the role of the community web forum he has created.
2012.07.29
1) Gabriel, perhaps the first thing we need to make clear is that your website is not a commercial venture. You don’t sell advertisements nor do you charge a subscription fee, do you?
There’s no advertisement on KIpolis.net. There are no financial aspects for the users of the service I am providing to the community… except for me, of course. I am the only one to bear the costs of running a service like that. That’s my choice, and I will stick to it. Note the website is also known as www.kangaroo-island.org.
2) Seems like running a website would be a lot of work. Why do you do it?
Good question indeed. Like for most endeavours, there are two parts in the answer. What had me starting it, and what keeps me doing it.
I started it because of the way the sole local newspaper was representing things to the population, which is perceived as being too often in a biased way. I thought it was time to give more emphasis to dissenting voices within the community.
Also, I found that the monopoly of information that the newspaper and council were exercising without restraint was a danger to the social fabric of the community. Therefore I created, very progressively and modestly, a no-thrills web forum so that locals could read the other part of some the stories presented to them.
Now what keeps me going is that I have seen some positive impact of this initiative in some developments: e.g., following posts, Council finally taking a position re the oil drilling projects west of the island; Rosalie Chirgwin’s statement being published in the local newspaper, rather than stone-walled; the Post Office in Penneshaw changing it’s position and allowing display of Shirley Knight’s petition for the public to have access to the Council sewerage plans. Also I have received encouragements to continue, from quite different sorts of people, so there we go.
3) Judging from the people who post on your website – Crs. Liu and Walkom and Former Councillor Chirgwin are frequent contributors – one could draw the conclusion that you are trying to represent the minority viewpoint of the local Council. Is this your objective?
I endeavour to present the minority view at Council, definitely NOT to represent it. To present it, because otherwise the population would have no way of knowing that there are different viewpoints to the establishment ones.
I do not mean to represent any party in the game, because KIpolis is a free, non-commercial and open service to the whole of the Kangaroo Island community – and that’s it.
Those who decide not to use it, whatever their valid reasons, should not complain that it is “one-sided”… It is normal and expected that people who felt otherwise censored or misrepresented in other media or public instances tend to use it more often that others. But it doesn’t mean KIpolis is a closed shop. I do not intend it to be.
4) What is your objective then?
I have only one, over-arching objective: to help contribute to a culture of rational debate on the island. Rational debate means laying out all relevant data and items, intelligently and honestly, then debating courteously but seriously, weighing in all arguments, and only then making a decision. Rationality means careful pondering and calculation, think of ratio.
That’s not happening on the island. Councillors are supposed to listen quietly to what the administration and the mayor want to say, and to agree. Otherwise, as has been demonstrated time and again during these last 18 months, they are subject to nasty and endless ad hominem attacks. That’s not only an inefficient system, but a socially dangerous one, and I wish, with the KIpolis forum, to progressively bring all parties involved, including the Council majority, to realise this.
5) Let’s talk about democratic process. As you know, people often disagree but in a democracy we have the right to disagree. What are your thoughts about the importance of having an informed debate about something before it is decided upon by a group, community, local, state, or national government?
I presume rule number one, for any person participating in a debate, is that one should accept with grace that one’s views do not necessarily command in this world… For some characters, that’s a hard prerequisite…
Otherwise, there’s a general lack of a culture of rational debate, and a lot of illusion and delusion about what the so-called democracy is de facto, in reality… and what it should be.
Misunderstanding on this matter happens even at the most fundamental level: electors are permitted the opinion that if at one point they want to send to hell the whole system, in a way and in the end they may and they can; in reality, this opinion is all they are permitted.
The establishment all over Australia has defined very complex operational rules that go well beyond the head of normal people, nurturing an illusion of democracy, but effectively choking any reality of democracy.
That being said, people are not endlessly gullible, particularly when money tends to drain out, as it is presently. There’s already a pervasive feeling of estrangement among the local population, that the system is rotten so to speak; and this, I repeat, is very dangerous to the social fabric, and should urgently be addressed — I mean, honestly and truthfully addressed, of course. Not just windows dressing.
6) In your view, what is the role of the media in this?
Fundamental. Without objective, widespread and effective information, democracy is a sham. For real information to happen, you need first diversity of the media. We don’t have it.
It’s bad enough that there’s only one printed newspaper for the whole of South Australia, and then only one for Kangaroo Island — it’s even worse that the establishment seems to consider that these media are basically convenient tools for them, and that the local media generally play happily along this line… But that’s the reality, and it has been the reality for a very long time. It has had its impact on the population, with too many people figuring that what’s written in the Adelaide or Kangaroo Island monopolistic press is the Truth, with a capital T — the Pravda, in other words.
As a result, people not being all the time entirely gullible, too many feel now estranged by the system — bah they think, they do and publish what they want, let’s look at the sports pages…
There’s not much that can be done to redress this situation of monopoly in the press, because newspapers are costly ventures and those with the money to invest in competition don’t care doing it. Return is not good enough for them if they don’t enjoy monopoly, and the government, whatever it’s party line, is as a rule happy with monopolies.
On the other hand, though the medium is not really the message, information is not only content, it is also based on technology. And there’s now a golden opportunity, thanks to easy access to the web and its tools, to provide cost-effective alternative information to those who care to look for it — that’s what KIpolis is doing, modestly and at a very small scale.
By the way… for those possibly worried here… KIpolis has nothing to do with the police… It’s spelled… K I p o l i s… polis meaning community in Greek… and in the days of ancient, democratic Greece, politics was not a tainted word, it was all about the art of the possible in managing public affairs.
7) I understand that you are a dual citizen. Can you talk a bit about what things are like on the community level in Switzerland?
Right. My wife and myself originate from the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
It is interesting to compare how things go in such different countries as Australia and Switzerland. The Swiss are always eager to learn how things are done in giant Australia. I think it would be useful for Australians to have a look at tiny Switzerland too. Allow me to make just a few quick observations relevant to our talk.
Firstly, it’s useful to note that similar-sized communities in Switzerland, including in hard environments like the high mountains, have many times less public employees, and charge much less council rates, for public services at least as good. Food for thought, this.
More activities on the island could be tendered to the private sector than what is presently the case; most of the costly and unproductive admin positions, which have to do with feel-good things like communications and pampering the staff, could go. Just for the sake of practical comparison: when my wife and myself settled 12 years ago on the island, the council staff cost much less to ratepayers, rates were much lower, and council was not doing worse than today, I don’t think so — or was doing just as well…
Secondly, considering the small size of the Kangaroo Island community, the number of councillors could go down from 10 to 7 or 6 (incl. the mayor position), allowing for a real choice during elections… With each elected position being responsible for a council department, as it is in Switzerland. The mayor position could be purely one of representation, a honorific one, rotated on a yearly basis between the councillors. Note this political pattern of non personalisation goes all the way up the State in Switzerland, up to the Federal President; I happen to think it’s a good system, it hinders the over-personalisation of politics, to the detriment of content.
Thirdly, there’s also a lot to learn from the direct participation system in Switzerland, and from the way the Swiss tend to consider State admin as their civil servants rather than some sort of State officers… It would be a real democratic progress to allow the population to reject decisions taken by the elected ones, through referendums. It’s not a perfect system, but it helps to stop silly developments in a society, and helps to create a better cohesion between the population and the political class.
Of course, most of these desirable reforms would entail a change of the Local Government Act… A complex act, to say the least… And not the best tool for local democracy, being at the same time not only too complex, but also too fuzzy and too interventionist, thus not only leaving the door ajar to endless haggling within councils, but actually opening it wide.
8) Let’s talk specifically about the newspaper coverage on the island. In your view, is the local newspaper objective? Why or why not?
From A to Z the local newspaper is the Editor. She’s a gifted person who has strong opinions on community matters and local politics, on those she likes and those she dislikes. She’s entitled to her opinions and preferences, but she does not realise, actually she does not want to realise, that’s she’s contributing to a very deplorable public atmosphere on the island, with a large proportion of locals feeling that their sole newspaper is highly biased — she has contributed to a feeling of division and estrangement among the population, and again I stress this is a dangerous development.
9) I notice that many people post on your website after having their letters either refused or shortened – some would say censored – by the local newspaper. What is your opinion of this?
Well… The Editor is very good at editing, and she can really improve a text, I’ve seen that… She can make it better written, in better English and more concisely. But she’s been overboard about this, sometimes rewriting so much some contributions that the end result was a published letter that wasn’t the style of its author, and did not even convey what this person was trying to say. Authors have felt they’d been betrayed, and stopped writing to the newspaper, but they kept their grudge — again, this conspires to the feeling of estrangement that I have mentioned.
As for censorship, it’s happening much too much, and though the Editor says it’s for legal matters or for the sake of preserving the harmony within the community, things like that, she’s also perceived by many to be so one-sided that her reasons for censoring are not accepted as genuine, even though they can sometimes be, obviously!
10) The newspaper editor claims that published letters are only edited for length, clarity, and legal reasons. Do you also edit the content that you receive for the website? If so, what are your criteria?
It depends on the people… Some contributors appreciate that I gently edit their texts, clarifying some parts and suppressing obvious errors.
Some — like you Charlie — don’t want anything of that, not even highlighting… Once they have clearly stated their wish to me, I simply respect it.
As for length, the posts being on the web, there’s obviously no constraint of that sort — that’s why I have often advised contributors to write a short letter to the newspaper advising a longer, more complete version may be found on KIpolis. Actually, that would be a good synergy between the two media, and I hope The Islander will one day stop shunning KIpolis. I can assure her Editor the webmaster is really a nice and reasonable person to deal with…
11) Generally speaking, do you think that people in the community regard the website forum that you are hosting as a positive thing? What kind of positive feedback have you received?
Some people still don’t grasp what KIpolis is about, and I hope that thanks to your interview they will better understand what it is. Otherwise, yes, there has been appreciation expressed, taking various forms, and this has been an encouragement for me to continue this service despite the time it takes out of me.
12) Have you encountered any opposition in the community in the form of negative feedback?
There’s only been one such case of negative feedback expressed to me, but it was only partly negative, and the person expressed it in a very gentlemanly manner that I truly appreciated.
Otherwise, I’ve heard that a councillor has expressed an opinion that KIpolis was promoting hatred of Council. If he’s listening, and if council staff is listening, I wish to assure them I don’t have much hatred in me, and definitely not for any one at Council. In 12 years, my relation with Council has been quite agreeable on the whole, and I have found most staff I dealt with quite helpful and pleasant. The few exceptions are no longer in Council. And I find councillors, a group of varied personalities, a quite interesting lot.
It should be kept in mind that the KIpolis forum is a service to the community, and that what is published is not necessarily what I think or believe in. There’s no need to kill the messenger of unpleasant news. If he is killed, the bad blood will continue to simmer and the following social unfolding would probably be less pleasant than the gentle security valve that KIpolis is…
13) Speaking more personally now, why did you choose to make a home and to run a business here on Kangaroo Island? After all, Australia is a big country.
Yes, Australia is big enough but the other, bigger island forming it, which I can view from our property, is over-populated. There’s two persons per km2 on this block of land there. On the other hand, this island has only one person per km2, I like this number. It’s just fine. And the weather is just fine too, there’s no winter here, only a wet spring, a summer and a dry spring. And the landscape, and the ocean, and Pelican lagoon too. And singing birds, and hopping mammals… Well, for lovers of quietness and nature that my wife and I are, that was the place.
14) What is your vision for Kangaroo Island?
Not too complicated: staying more or less as it is. Improvements can be made here and there — particularly in its political system, as I have, I hope, stated clearly enough here… but in my opinion development is not so good an objective: it would just destroy the special character of the place, and there are not many like it on the planet. Of course there’s money to be made from development, and as a practical man I would surf on this wave if the government decided to go this way… But again, in my opinion, money is not a good enough reason to spoil one of the rare places on the planet where you can live so close to nature. I don’t think my wife and myself are special cases over this matter, most people on the island have come here because of what it is, just that, not because of what it could be.
15) Is there anything that you would like to comment on that we haven’t addressed?
A general comment and a financial warning if you allow me to conclude.
As a general comment: one can’t expect nowadays people to automatically tow the line of what is perceived by many as the local silver circle, and blindly accept their decisions made behind closed doors. These days are sociologically gone. Those people in local politics would be better advised to practice principles of open and transparent politics rather sooner than later. Practice as actual practice, not as a word worth pronouncing here and then.
Otherwise, it would be wise to listen to the two remaining councillors of the opposition, those who can see that it’s not possible to continue accumulating each year on every resident, babies included, more than a $ 1000 of debt. A few $ 1000 here and a few more there, pretty soon we’re talking big money staked on each head ! And it must be understood that councils can’t dig themselves out of debt by printing $s the way the Commonwealth can.
Therefore, councils will be the first over-ripe fruits to fall from the overgrown tree of global and national debt during the unfolding financial crisis. They will be in deep trouble with their debts before they have a chance, as debtors, to take advantage of the national currency crash. Meaning, as a result of this crash, most public debts will be conveniently wiped out without any chance of ever being reimbursed — but this convenient development for the Commonweatlth (and perhaps the States) will occur too late for councils’ benefit. It’s a musical chair thing, the last one standing will be laughing, but the very last one will be the Commonwealth, definitely not councils. It’s a nice privilege to enjoy monopoly of the money-printing press.
When this financial and monetary crash happens, it will obviously have a huge impact on the island and the way it operates. No one can divine when exactly this crash will happen (tomorrow, in a few years time, who knows), but it will be shattering; it is an inevitable development, just as inevitable as a huge bushfire when fuel on the ground is left accumulating. So better for those in charge to prepare and act now.