SWEDISH POLITICIANS PLAYING DODGEBALL

There is no doubt that the Swedish political elite was taken completely aback by the public's reaction to the FRA Act. During the traditional "politics week" on the island of Gotland, that same elite gathered together with public action committees and other grassroots movements to talk politics. One of the hottest topics was, of course, the FRA Act. The dialy Dagens Nyheter reports about a public hearing on the FRA Act.

'The FRA has absolutely no intention whatsoever to control Swedish electronic communication and for that purpose there are various technical means to filter it out', said Anders Wik, former chief of FRA. 'It is the access to information that matters, not what technical filters there are' said Anna Pettersson from the grassroots organization StoppaFRAlagen.nu [Stop The FRA Act].

It might be worth pointing out already here that there is very little purpose behind having a former bureaucrat with no political position discuss a law. He will always defend the bureaucracy against criticism regarding the law that guides the bureaucracy's operations.

One former politician participated, namely the former defense minister in the Reinfeldt cabinet, Mikael Odenberg:

On the panel was among others Mikael Odenberg, who, when he was defense minister for the Moderate party, inherited the [FRA Act] issue from the preceding socialist administration and who also presented the first FRA Act bill. ... 'Without legislation that is neutral with regard to [wiretapping] technology we might just as well close the FRA', said Mikael Odenberg.

The implication of Odenberg's argument is of course that the Swedish military intelligence should have the right to open every letter sent by snailmail without court order or any suspicion of crime. Nobody has proposed such a law. Why...?

By trying to stonewall the opinions of the general public on the FRA Act, Sweden's political elite is only creating more problems for itself in the future. The greatest concern at this point is the upcoming re-write of the constitution. The best attitude for people to take there is to ask their politicians to prove their good intentions - and not just take their word for it - before they renew their trust in them. This is difficult to do in Sweden where the political parties effectively shield the legislative power from the people's influence, but there are still ways to do this. The public outcry over the FRA Act is in itself a good example.