We owe our peace to oversight institutions

Governments have, in and of themselves, no redeemable constitutional right. Only constitutional authority and powers incidental to governance. A government without credibility has more need to assert its authority by reference firstly, to its legislative strength and secondly, to the capacity of law enforcement agencies to ensure obedience to law and order.

A government that enjoys public confidence, however, can go about its mandate without distractive focus on authority. Obedience flows freely from respect earned and bestowed by the citizenry. Deference to powers becomes an exception to the general rule.

Critical to law and order and to long term peace and stability, is the protection of oversight institutions. So long as the public have credible electoral and dispute resolution institutions, a state would not, normally, have to resort to coercive powers or may have to do so only in exceptional circumstances. Citizens abide by the law, not because they fear punishment but because it is in their interest to do so and further, because of the existence of credible avenues of redress which offer effective vindication of their rights through peaceful means.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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