ENDY JAY
A columnist writing in a Sunday tabloid recently had this to say: ‘Il n’y a pas une semaine qui passe sans qu’elle témoigne de la faillite inexorable de nos institutions….’
          This reminded me of what one of the top guns of government – if he is really one, in these days of opacity as to who really run the show, or only one of the minions sent to the frontline when things go tricky often to defend the indefensible, and with the knack to pinpoint what is taking place on the other side of the fence -, recently declared, in response to the criticisms leveled against present-day rulers: ‘Pa zis dan Moris ki sa pe arive.’ He was doubly right to the extent that prevailing hardships caused by, among other causes, the war in Ukraine, confront many countries with challenges hard to deal with, even driving some to the brink of economic collapse. But at the same time, he was reminding us, albeit unwittingly, that dictatorial tendencies, maneuvres to attempt to stifle and silence all opposing voices, sideslippings, dilly-dallying, bluffs, crossing the red line, and last but not least, ill-conceived interferences*, so rampant here are also occurring in many other parts of the world. Indeed ‘pa zis dan Moris’. Who would dare disagree? We have a long list of countries among which to choose our counterparts, though, admittedly in all fairness, not Afghanistan or Myanmar – so far at least!
The preceding, I am fully aware, place me alongside the diehard opponents of the ruling incumbents. Hence the need to remind that in a previous note (Forum 26/1/22 – Final lap of the Rampage), I placed rulers and opponents on the same side of the fence, from a specific standpoint, however much this stand exposed me to ridicule, at least in the eyes of those who may fail to understand my main aim being simply to attract attention on ‘human rulership’, however much adrift or sailing safe (in appearance?), a term I have often used in previous notes on account of ‘behaviours’ of some ruling overlords that are putting this world topsy turvy and that constitute the ‘forerunner signs’ I have so often mentioned of late – and not ‘selectively targeting the present ruling team’!!! -, rulership to be the object soon, under whatever form it operates, of something stunning, really stunning! And to strike indiscriminately, worldwide, in a manner beyond human capabilities to parry when it will be absolutely right to say ‘pa zis dan Moris’!
         To conclude this short note, I have chosen the following quote for the reader to meditate: ‘The real danger to us all is when government not only exercises the power that we voted to give it, but exercises additional powers that we never voted to give it. That is when ‘public servants’ become ‘public masters’. That is when government itself has stepped over the line.’ (Dr Thomas Sowell, Faculty Head, Stanford University).
(*On this score, it must be said that this has been a constant of all preceding regimes since Independence, yet compounded and extended as never before by the current ruling team. How else to explain that sprawling rot that vitiates key institutions mentioned by that columnist, albeit some were already adrift for a while but dragged further away from their mission statements).