- The function of the government of any modern, free, diverse and tolerant Western Democracy is the protect those that need protection ...

The function of the government of any modern, free, diverse and tolerant Western Democracy is the protect those that need protection and help those that need help.

Any ideologically based government, by its very definition favours only a part of the people to the exclusion of the rest. The more extreme the ideology the smaller the group it favours and the larger it excludes and the more restricted is the nature of its actions, to the extent that it acts as if those in power own the country and not serve at the people’s pleasure.

Any action taken by the government must be based on the particular issue at hand and all its relevant circumstance must be weighed in an objective, detached and dispassionate fashion, taking into consideration the opinions from all sides. It must operate in an open, transparent fashion based on the free flow of information, unobstructed and unaltered so that the people may know, understand and formulate their opinions. To the reasonable person this is only fair and just, enlightened. To the extremist it is weakness, indecisiveness, in the vernacular, ‘dithering’.

Power and authority must flow from the people and not vise-versa. The basic law does not grant rights and freedoms to the people, but is based on their rights and freedoms and allots to the government the powers and privileges to impinge on their rights and freedom only to the extent necessary to carry out its function.