LAITY
The beginning of July sent the whole country in a frenzy following the allegations of Sherry Singh. A wave of fury swept the people, coupled with the belief that it was only a matter of time until the current government, one of the most unpopular regimes in our short history, would have to pack up and leave. While practically and legally, this is no easy task, people actually believed that would happen. It did provoke a few wonders, among them, a unified opposition, for once, coming together for one cause. This managed to shake the confidence of the government in its impunity, mobilizing all the mechanisms to save its face. However, since last week, it seems that the government no longer needs to rely on its spectacularly lame saving tactics with the once-united opposition back to doing what it does best and thus providing the government a scapegoat it so badly needs to hide its incompetence.
As we are writing these words, the opposition no longer agrees on what to do regarding the much-touted march it was planning to claim the ousting of the Prime Minister. With one leader potentially facing health issues and others scrambling to make their marks, one of the legendary weaknesses that our political arena faces come to the limelight again: weak
leadership and a sore lack of power delegation. We, the people, once more, are the ones who lose the most. Those who claimed to be the change, the way forward or the way of fer politik otreman are sadly also not spared by the afore-mentioned affliction as we have seen and heard over the past week. We are governed by a bunch of people who do not have a care for us and the ones who are supposed to act as watchdogs are involved in a battle of political cake-sharing and egos. In the meantime, we are the ones who still need to scrape by for our day to day lives, which are far removed from political strategizing, are back to square one.
For this reason, we, as people, for as long as it needs and as loud as it needs to be, have to keep asking for our rights to be respected. To do so, we also need to do our share in not accepting any Tom, Dick or Harry as our representatives. We need to realise that for our rights to be fought for and defended we need people who will prove their mettle when it comes to truly earning their keep in our constituencies and therefore in Parliament. When these people come to our gates for canvassing, they need not be fawned over but taken to task regarding their previous performance or in case of newbies, be told in no uncertain terms that they will be held accountable for their shortcomings.
The majority of people to whom we talk to are starting to think about the elections even if they are in all probability now seem
to be in two years’ time. At this point in time, they are ready to cut their losses and vote for the current regime for they feel that the uncertainty on the other side is far more unbearable than the arrogance, impunity and corruption that is currently in place. If the opposition leaders are truly leaders, they would take heed of the pulse of the street and veer back in the right direction before they lose before even getting in the race.