By Lincoln Lewis

POLITICS is about people and people’s development. However, they are scores of citizens, while they have participated in casting their ballots for the elections of representatives to Parliament and selecting a Government of their choice, can be heard saying that politics is a dirty game.

It is not that politics is bad but we live in an era where politics attract hypocrites who in the end are elected to perform duties on behalf of the people.

As one examines the recent debates in the National Assembly, some of which I attended, it is obvious that the experiences the society encountered over a considerable period were deliberately thought out and implemented to hurt the people.

The robust and strident approaches by the Opposition to hold the Government accountable cannot be overlooked. Thus the question needs to be asked and answered: “Isn’t it this Opposition, recently in Government, which had embraced wanton violations, such as State-sponsored execution of citizens, colluding with foreign employers to transgress workers’ rights, aiding and abetting the plundering of our natural resources?

Given the role the Opposition had played in the National Assembly during the Budget sittings, it is clear that these members knew all along that they were engaged in violations and transgressions. Further, their actions in Government vis-à-vis now demonstrate they held a view that regardless of their intransigence they can successfully pursue their divide and rule programme and get away with perpetrating their dastardly acts on the citizens.

This nation is mindful that whenever one offers him/herself to serve the people and is elected to public office, s/he has a responsibility to the citizens to operate within the parameters of the laws, time-honoured principles, international conventions and charters. While some politicians may think they are law unto themselves, the citizens know and desire different.

It is not politics that is bad; it is some of the people who are elected to political office. We live in a society where persons are elected to office and believe that the citizens are their servants and they are the masters. Compounding this is that persons are not psychologically prepared to accept that ours is a country governed by the principle of representative democracy, which in itself requires a level of accountability. Ignoring this fundamental principle is to ignore that the citizens have evaluated and appraised the performance of the previous Government, found it wanting, and fired its members.

It ought to be said that evaluation and appraisal are a day-to-day process. As such, all elected officials need to take note, since the people have chosen on 11th May, 2015 to put those who had represented the Government to sit in the Opposition benches where they rightly belong. For those who replaced them they ought to take note that the power to determine where you sit in the National Assembly is vested in the people.

Make no mistake, what this society is clamouring for is political leadership that is prepared to respect the people, respond to their needs and desires, and deliver within the Constitution and laws of this land, buttressed by civil conduct. For instance, citizens ought not to have to wait for weeks and months before having the sought attention of their elected representatives, accorded basic courtesy of an acknowledgement to their correspondence. Such are fundamental civilities that ought to be secured and guaranteed from day one.

It is expected that based on the results of 11th May, many who entered the National Assembly will come to the realisation that the people have the power, and their duty is in service to the people. It will bode well for this nation’s development should the current Government take time out and reflect on what has influenced the heightened awareness in the society about governance.

Evidently, the 400,000 plus persons, in a nation of approximately 750,000, that went out and cast their ballot indicates that the citizens have a strong desire to participate in the nation’s decision-making processes. With the nation witnessing its largest turn-out to the polls, it follows that this simple, but vital act on the people’s part, speaks to a greater level of involvement which carries with it a greater level of vigilance.

Both Government and Opposition will be called upon to justify their conduct on every statement, position and action taken. One cannot condemn something when in Opposition and when elected to Government engage in the same thing condemned. Neither will the Opposition be taken seriously when they condemn the Government for things they themselves perpetrated to the detriment of the people, when they were in office.

This society deserves a clean break from the past. Those who have committed acts injurious to the nation must be brought to justice and face the courts in like manner as the ordinary people. Those who are today placed in privileged positions if they engage in injurious acts they must also be brought to justice. Politics is about people and people’s development. The laws apply to every citizen, regardless of station in life. Change we must. It is the will of the people and together we shall will the way.

It is not politics that is bad; it is some of the people who are elected to political office. We live in a society where persons are elected to office and believe that the citizens are their servants and they are the masters.
Make no mistake, what this society is clamouring for is political leadership that is prepared to respect the people, respond to their needs and desires, and deliver within the Constitution and laws of this land, buttressed by civil conduct.