This confounded nonsense

Apr 10, 2009 Editorial

Back in 1953, at some point during the very brief stint at internal self-governance by the PPP, the then very young, but always even-tempered Eusi Kwayana, Minister of Communication and Works, was moved to exclaim at one more arbitrary action of the colonial administration: “This confounding nonsense must stop!”
The outburst of frustration was passed into folklore however, as “This confounded nonsense must stop” and it is this formulation that immediately came to mind when the news that the Joint Task Force on Local Government (JTFLG) had once again “bruk up”.
The PPP co-chairman, Minister Clinton Collymore, declared that since the two sides could not agree as to which specific item on the remaining three-point agenda was to be discussed next at their last Tuesday’s meeting, this constituted “a major and fundamental disagreement” and “discussions at the Task Force level had come to an end”.
As a consequence, the holding of local government elections by the end of this year is, for the umpteenth time since 1997, literally up in the air. But yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary insisted that these elections will be held this year.
Less than three weeks ago we wondered, as our editorial’s caption put it, whether we would have “Local Government ever?” We observed jadedly, “The ordinary citizen may be forgiven if he/she takes the news that there may be local government elections (LGE) later this year with a huge pinch of salt.”
About the deliberations in which the JTFLG were engaged, that would have delivered us that long awaited (thirteen years and counting) democratic right, we concluded, “…we can – with some degree of certitude – predict that the JTFLG will not arrive at any decision soon.”
That we have been proven right in our cynicism does not give us even an iota of satisfaction. As citizens, we are simply incensed that even in the face of widespread and persistent calls from all quarters and stakeholders – acknowledged by the government and opposition, the JTFLG – constituted since 2001 – could not complete its mandate.
Last October, Minister Collymore had once before submitted a memorandum to the President and the Leader of the PNC, claiming that the committee had reached “deadlock” over several substantive issues and recommended that Cabinet recommend a way forward. Mr Corbin hotly rejected the existence of any deadlock and claimed that “the PPP was simply trying to avoid many of the recommendations, some of which will remove the powers of the Minister with the establishment of the Local Government Commission.”
Meetings had been suspended since the previous July, allegedly to permit Minister Collymore to attend the PPP Congress. Pressed on the latter point, the Minister had replied gnomically, “”There is more to the mortar than the pestle.”
Well, obviously, since almost one year later and millions of dollars allocated to get the mechanism in place for the elections, we are back to square one.
The politicians just as obviously have very little respect for the ordinary citizen’s intelligence.
Why did we have to go through all this rigmarole after the President acquiesced to Mr Corbin’s request last October to reconvene the JTFLK? After all, as we pointed out in “Local Government Ever?”: “The President also signalled that if the two sides cannot reach agreement soon, ‘we would have to go to Parliament and have the debates take place there (and probably go to a) select committee and whatever comes out of that then that would be the framework that would be guiding the elections.’
If this process was always available for breaking the logjam (and it is) one has to question why was it not resorted to before?”
And at the end of our tether, we ask it once again.
What we would suggest is that the politicians clearly state what exactly is in the “mortar of Local Government elections”. Level with the people. But for sure do not continue to play “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t”. What this does is to further alienate the citizenry from the political process and to further convince them that “politics is politricks”: it is the road to nihilism, despair and destruction.
Let us stop this confounded nonsense.

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