In today's democratic society we plebs are given the opportunity to vote every few years to elect those that we think might represent us in the halls of the mighty. I would like to instance two recent happenings, both locally and internationally, that would make me most unsurethat our political 'masters' have the thoughts of those who have elected them uppermost in their minds.
1) The Taleban have most recently opened an office in Qatar, saying that the aim of this office is to enable dialogue with the US and its allies. Surprise, surprise, the US has replied by stating that they would be happy to talk to the Taleban. My wonderment is why could the opposing factions not have sat down some years ago and thus spared the countries involved in the fighting the immense numbers of civilian and military casualties, along with the destruction of Afghanistan and Pakistan infrastructure?
If only a fraction of the expenditure on the war had been directed towards improving the lot of the Afghani people we would not now be in the position of the forthcoming allied withdrawal, which will probably lead to the establishment of a Taleban-dominated state, as was the case before the 'war of liberation' commenced way back then.
2) Closer to home we were treated to the dismissal of a Cabinet minister, ostensibly for some unpublicised failure in his office. That ex-minister has been accused of leaking information to a journalist, an act which he denies. He continues as a Member of Parliament, but surely politicians who lie to their fellow MPs are expected to be dismissed from their office.
If that is so, and taking into account the abilities of our technological experts to trace phone and computer usage, an inquiry should be instituted to check on the validity of the accusation or to absolve that politician from wrong-doing.
Finally I would ask why we have elections at all when those who we do elect seem to accept it as their God-given right. Only joking, as undoubtedly life under an autocracy could prove even more disappointing.
