IS THE OPTIMISM JUSTIFIED?

PJ Anders Linder writes in today's editorial that he believes that the three weeks that have passed since the tsunami disatster will be of great importance in shaping Swedish politics.

Among other things he points out the central role various aid organisations (like Medecins sans Frotiers and the Red Cross) has played - a rare thing from a Swedish perspective - and the contrasting lack of leadership and ability shown by the Swedish government, who many has believed able to protect us from anything and everything.

Mr Linder writes (my translation): "High expectations has not been met by the state. At the same time civil society has proved compentent and ready to act." From this he draws the conclusion that a wider debate should follow, discussing the value of a stronger structure of help and aid free from the state. He thinks that the value of such organisations - and the problem with loads of power centralised at the hands of the government - has been brought out in the open.

Hopefully he's right. It is true that anger over the government's way to handle the situation is deep and widely spread. Unlike many other situations you'll hear people complaining, outside of the opposition and outside of people like me and Mr Linder, who doesn't believe in the super strong state anyhow.

However, it's also true that miscontent about the government has been deep before, and the standard solution in this country, provided by the Social Democrats and obviously accepted by the voters, is to move even more power to the state. And not surprisingly we hear many demands for stronger public authorities with more funds and more competence, and I'd be highly surprised if the appointed Crisis Commission doesn't present a solution much in this fashion.

Much of the resposibility in showing that big government isn't always the solution lies with the centre-right opposition. They have been far from excellent at this task in the past, but things have improved and hopefully they're up to the job. I know they'll have the support of people like Mr Linder, and indeed from myself. Whatever role we can play in this.

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