The show has to go on. The passing of the finance bill for the new fiscal year is proof yet again that despite the worst of times, the political class does get together and gets to the business of the house. Even the most lethargic of parliaments, one that undertakes a criminally limited amount of legislation, has to pass the federal budget. Because, come June, government departments all over the country simply run out of money. There’s just not enough of it to stay afloat. Not enough cash even to pay its employees.
Perhaps, with the ratcheting realisation within the political class of the lopsided dispensation of power within the country, these representatives of the people will also realise that we’re approaching the June – to use the analogy of public finance – of the citizen’s association with the state as well. Soon, there won’t be enough of it to go around. These drastic times call for a unified action in favour of elected governments, not puerile bickering between political parties.
Unless the people see their representatives being empowered in the running of the government, they won’t feel a sense of ownership when it comes to the country. These are matters more touchy-feely than they are tangible, so the men of action, including the captains of industry and commerce who are quick to disparage any government budget, tend not to think much of them. Yet they affect us more than any government regulation, subsidy or law. It is only the feeble-minded who trash the achievements governments make in matters constitutional (the 18th and 19th amendments) and posit that the poor man is the same way, given the upward trend in the prices of consumer items.
True, the government has a responsibility for the economic well-being of the citizens; feelings of connection with the echelons of power do not feed kids. But it is the electoral process and the chemistry between representative and constituency that will best determine the economic policy of any government.
