Government, the power of a telephone call or citizens' responsibility - time to choose

In election and post-election speeches, politicians have increasingly been saying "We are the state", "state money", "we will decide"... The desire of such political figures to see themselves as essential elements of the state is reminiscent of King Louis XIV of France, who became unforgettable from the 17th century onwards for his two phrases: "L'état, c'est moi" ("I am the state") -  declared King Louis XIV of France at the age of 12, and then later on he set out his view of the future with the winged phrase: "Après moi, le déluge" ("After me, the flood"). Almost four hundred years have passed since the death of this monarch, but in some cases our thinking has changed very little.

It is for this reason that, more than three decades after regaining independence, we must once again raise the issue in society and initiate a debate so that we ourselves can finally understand what the state is and what is the citizen's place within it.

This issue has become even more urgent now that Arvydas Paukstys, the founder of Teltonika, reached his limit. We all saw and loudly proclaimed that the king was indeed naked.... a chain reaction has started and everyone is talking now. The question is, how to turn this into real results, so that it doesn't just fizzle out like steam?

Business has been talking for years about the need to decide what kind of public sector we want. In no strategy and in no debate we discuss this. The issue is not salary levels. It is a question of what size and what services the public sector should provide, and what kind of people should work there. An efficient public sector ensures the state's functioning, and believing it can be staffed by individuals of questionable work quality only weakens both the sector and the state.

Businesses have long realized that they cannot operate efficiently on their own because the public sector influences the business environment - coordination and planning procedures, absorption of structural assistance, etc. The Teltonika case has reaffirmed this truth. An efficient public sector is crucial, because it determines the speed of development of both business and the economy as a whole

We have been saying for years that public sector decisions and regulation have a major impact on private sector performance. We have finally seen clearly how this works in practice and the consequences of its inaction. So we need to go back again, not only in words but also in action, on issues such as responsibility in decision-making, competence and professionalism in the public sector. It is clear that, as the country develops, as technology and global change come to all areas without exception, adequate growth and change in the public sector are urgently needed.

We must finally acknowledge that politicians' desire to increase their power in decision-making processes has weakened and destroyed the strongest layer of the public sector - the people who are thoughtful and unafraid of responsibility have left it. And by wearing out the public sector, we are wearing out the state – we are slowing down the growth of the state. 

I have no doubt that Teltonika's problems will be solved and the project will move forward, but we cannot be complacent here. Let us name the problems and look for solutions: 

First, the state must be interested in investments and economic growth. We keep talking about the welfare state, but politicians do not care at all about how the cake they so enthusiastically distribute is grown. After all, it will only grow when businesses are able to develop their activities. So economic growth must be a top priority on the agenda of every politician and every bureaucrat, which means that reducing barriers to business and rapid decision-making must also be a priority for everyone.  

Second, we need to finally break free from the complex that is still gripping us, that foreign investors are good and Lithuanian investors are only second-rate who have nowhere to go. This divide was particularly accentuated 25 years ago, when it was openly declared that foreign investment is transparent and Lithuanian investment is evil. Every investment, foreign or Lithuanian, a billion, a million in size or even smaller, must receive the same treatment. And these are not empty words. 

Let's compare: on 16 April 2024, the government signed a letter of intent with the Rheinmetall munitions plant; on 19 June 2024, the government approved the exchange of plots of land with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences for the construction of the Rheinmetall plant; on 10 July 2024, the Rheinmetall plant was granted exceptional status, allowing construction to start without a permit. The Ministry of Economy and Innovation concluded two contracts with Teltonika for a major investment project in 2022, and we all know how things are going...

Third, the country needs to put in place a mechanism to support investment – from start to finish. Finally, we need to realize that manual control, where someone has to call someone to get things moving, is not the way forward. That is not how decisions are made in a civilized world. Let us realize that thousands of people are not on the radar of politicians, they have no one to call and we are losing millions in investment. 

Fourth, the a need to rebuild the middle of our public sector. Even before 2000, we had specialists in ministries who understood their field and went deep into it. When we changed vice ministers to ministers of political trust, all the ministries were politicized. Decisions were politicized and became emotional on a love-hate basis. We have lost a layer of public sector workers who understood what was going on, and who were not afraid to make decisions. Now people in public institutions are afraid to take responsibility because the next political cycle, when the leadership of the ministry changes, will bring them investigations and penalties. So now they live by the rule 'do nothing, no one will punish you'.

Finally, the National Audit Office of Lithuania must be effective in the country, and, above all, the implementation of its recommendations must be mandatory. How many recommendations has the National Audit Office of Lithuania made during the period of independence and how many have been implemented?  The National Audit Office of Lithuania is now focusing on the use of budgetary and EU money, but the mechanisms of state governance and decision-making remain unattended and this needs to change.  

Does anyone oversee the artificially excessive requirements created by ministries and their subordinate bodies? Each body creates rules for its own convenience, without considering how they affect state and private sector growth or without providing justification for their necessity. Nobody explains why and what result is needed. And so, in every sector, we must have an institute/ombudsman to assess the new requirements and their reasonability. Eventually, the Sunset Commission must start its work again, at very high speed and on a regular basis.

The list goes on and on, but first of all, we need to realize that the decisions taken by civil servants have a major impact on the lives of citizens. Decision-making in public administration is a complex and very important process. Politicians' attitudes need to change and the society itself needs to become more involved in the life of the state. 

Many politicians now seem to me to perceive the state as a form of life of a nation and as a political power structure, which is characterized by features such as representing the public, making decisions on its behalf, making decisions that are binding on all members of society and implementing them, if necessary, by using the power of the state.

I believe that democratic government exists to serve the people, but in democracies, citizens must also agree to abide by the rules and obligations that govern them. Democracies give citizens many freedoms, including the freedom to disagree with and criticise the government. It is everyone's job and duty to be a true citizen of the state - civic engagement in a democracy requires participation, responsibility and patience.  With rights come responsibilities. Each of us has to assess the performance of the state and participate in the political process in order to ensure that the state functions in the interests of all citizens. Democracy requires an investment of time and hard work – the government by the people requires the people's constant vigilance and support.

Everyone must finally return to his or her relationship with the state, which is perhaps best described by Milton Friedman, one of the greatest economists of the 20th century, when he said that, for a free man, the state is neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or a god to be blindly worshiped and served. A free man does not ask what the state can give him, nor what he can give to his state. For him, the state is a tool that can be of use to all of us, to ensure that our personal obligations are fulfilled and that each of us achieves our goals. Only when this understanding is reached will we have a relationship characteristic of a democratic state, where politicians can no longer afford to say "We are the state", "state money", "we will decide", "I should have been informed"... Where it will finally be understood by everybody that the state is each of us, not a politician on a podium, that money is not the state's or the municipality's, but it belongs to each of us - it is the taxpayer’s money, and that each politician and bureaucrat spends not the state's money, but our money, and that it is their solemn duty not to think about how to collect as much as possible and how to divide it up correctly, but how to allocate and spend all the taxpayer's money in a responsible and efficient way. And that it is the sacred duty of all of them to be accountable and responsible for their decisions. And it is not politicians who create jobs, but business.  And business is the backbone of a country's economy, because it creates value, it employs people, it grows the biggest part of the country's economic cake.

Somebody might think that we have already made our choice, because the parliamentary elections have just ended. But with a new government in place, a new Seimas in place, it is time for everyone to rethink their relationship with the state and to reshape their behaviour.