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Friday, 18 March 2011

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Congratulations Elector, you’ve just elected yourself!

I know this is a punchi chandaya, a ‘small’ and relatively inconsequential election. Local Government polls tend to be like that. I am writing this on election day. I have no idea what the outcome will be like and shall not speculate apart from saying the obvious: the voter turnout will be very low. The result may or may not have an impact on national level politics but that’s best analysed after the outcome is known along with relevant details.

At the end of the day, some names will prevail over others, some will remain in office and some defeated and some new faces will replace old ones. Will things be different in the respective authorities and the areas that come under their supervision? Time will tell of course, but history doesn’t allow us to be very hopeful.

All I’ve noticed in the run-up to election day is posters. Not a single candidate visited my house. My take was as follows: if someone from the village has to use a poster to introduce him/herself to me, then the chances are he/she will not represent me but rather look after the interests of whoever funded the campaign.

The elected may put up a post-election poster saying ‘thank you’ and the defeated will disappear by and by from wall and memory. For a while.

Good opportunity

Quite apart from the possibilities associated with this election, including repercussions to victor and vanquished, it provides a good opportunity to talk about electors, ie you and I.

A year ago, almost to the date, with the General Election just weeks away, I wrote an article titled ‘Get this: you are who you elect!’ There is a caveat of course: it is not that we are given a wide range of choice in the matter of electing people and as such it is not the case that our mirror image candidate is out there waiting for our vote and anticipating true representation.

Still, it is probably not unlikely that among the winners are a few ‘consolation’ candidates who would not make us say ‘oh dear!’

A year ago, I asked the reader to consider the elected as mirror image of self.

In other words, I suggested that by omission or commission, those who do get elected reflect who we are, what we want, what we are prepared to live with etc.

As of now it is safe to say that the vast majority of the elected are vandals, able and willing to desecrate public and property, flout election laws and bombard our senses with I-me-myself to the point of provoking violent fits of vomiting. It is safe to say that the guy who spent most bucks will be beholden to the provider of bucks and not the person whose attention and vote was purchased by the splashing of money.

Election campaign

It is safe to say that he who did not disclose his assets before election day will not whisper into your ear the sum of money he intends to and probably will pilfer by way of bribes and commissions on contracts. It is safe to say that anyone who resorted to violence during the election campaign will not think twice about using violence to shut you up in the event that you openly and loudly object to anything he/she might do once elected.

You might be able to say ‘I didn’t vote and therefore I am not to blame,’ but that’s a poor excuse. We help elect by voting and we put people into power by staying away from the polling booth as well. If we did vote for a loser, we can claim innocence but that’s a privilege that the collective (to which we belong) does not have. The bottom line is that we elect ourselves. We can say that the process is skewed against the good, the honest and capable, but if we do nothing in correct this flawed system then we have little grounds for complaint. Among the elected there could be drug dealers, contact killers, thugs, thieves (from pickpockets to those engaged in embezzlement), liars, sycophants etc. It would not be a stranger. It would be a ‘buddy’ we helped put in power. It’s our mirror-twin.

A year ago, I wrote the following:

‘If a rapist came ahead of an academic, then we have basically saluted rape. If a crook gets elected and an honourable man or woman is not, then we are partial to theft. If someone who changes party like changing underwear gets elected then we are a society that places very little value on loyalty and trust. If we elect people who think nothing of destroying public or private property, then that’s who we are: vandals. If we elect someone who thinks nothing of felling 300 trees so that he can put up enough posters, then we are essentially a people salivating for desertification. If we elect thugs, we are for thuggery. If we elect kudukaarayas or those who are in the kudu business, then we want our children to end up as drug addicts.’

I am who I elect, in other words. You are who you elect (even if you stayed home on election day). A year ago I observed that there’s a collective responsibility involved. A year ago I asked ‘are we thinking enough about it?’ A year later I find myself wondering if we have.

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