Bad taste theatrics

EDITORIAL: Even if those few senators that passed the (non-binding) resolution about delaying the February election the other day didn’t realise it at the time, which is not possible, subsequent events would have drilled it in nonetheless that their theatrics were in very bad taste. And once again it is the business of the upper house, as it is so often carried out, that brings into disrepute the very institution that the democracy-starved public is, for all intents and purposes, bending over backwards to protect and promote.

All this needs to be put into perspective. A resolution that is not binding, passed by too few members to constitute a quorum, still managed to rattle the headlines just one month from a pivotal election.

Surely, this is not the kind of parliament or democracy everybody is making so much fuss about. Yet it does expose a dangerous loophole in the system of representative government as we have it.

Because, even as the resolution caused a bloodbath in the market, triggered a counter-resolution in the senate and promptly got dragged into Supreme Court to waste more of the judiciary’s time, there’s only the usual speculation about what really made those handful of senators sneak such controversy into the house’s proceedings.

Citing bad weather and worse security might serve as the perfect politically correct cover, but neither stands the test of history – elections have been held in worse weather and much worse security conditions – and everybody knows that those that pushed the resolution through constitute a pocket of puppets in parliament whose strings are pulled from far away.

It’s been a hard enough road to the elections, with the apex court itself having to put its foot down and crush all rumours of delay. Yet, as we are clearly seeing, even that’s not sufficed to keep a lid on all the chatter.

It should also be a surprise, especially for people lining up to vote, that no party has really started properly campaigning yet.

That’s because their manifestos are decades old, so it’s left to their campaign speeches to provide any direction about how they plan to pull the country out of its many crises; especially since top of the list is the financial collapse and subsequent high inflation that hurt the common man far more than the feudal/industrial elite that usually fills parliament.

Now, instead of addressing these issues and answering such questions, political parties have nothing more urgent on their agendas than flashing their democratic credentials by rubbishing the said resolution and demanding elections on time.

So we continue to take from for substance, pretending that an election itself assures democracy.

The people must realise, even if the politicians are happy to keep their heads buried in the sand, that elections are also about that indispensable element of the institution of democracy – accountability.

And just when elections are around the corner is also the best time to ask questions and demand answers.

And one very important question is just how long will we keep voting for parties that put people in the senate that sit idly by as it is allowed to embarrass parliament and country? If the politicians will not put an end to this theatre of the absurd, then the people must.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024