The story is told of a child who was accustomed to seeing villagers withan amputated lower limb. He heard his parents refer to these amputees as having “one foot”. One day, a double amputee was passing,and the child shouted to his mother to come see a man with “two one- foot “.
Operation Rescue is akin to that mother. They have agitated the Douglas regime out of office and are now teaching Team Unity and us about good governance. Sometimes parents get a bit pushy, especially when they see and understand the unrealised but potential capability of the child. Astaphan, in particular, has been very vocal about his expectations and his timeline for his expectations, based on pronouncements by a pre-government Team Unity. He has that right.
The cooler heads within Team Unity kept their cool, but the newcomer has response to Astaphan. That response was immature at worst and unfortunate at best. Rightly, it is a situation of a two one-foot man, but he is wrong in his approach. Team Unity does not need rescue…yet, but it doesn’t help to alienate and infuriate those who can offer a rescue. Operation Rescue, with a combined six or so terms in government, has the history and the experience to draw on in order to guide any sitting government.This newcomer, with his a razor thin margin of victory may need “rescue” more so than any other in the future.
The issue for us is whether we truly expect this band of men and woman to enact some of the promised legislation. Knowing what we know about the treatment of former politicians/prime ministers, do we really expect today’s politician to self-regulate through the integrity in office bill? It isn’t that we disagree on the need for legislation such as this to be passed, but they must be passed in the context of proper treatment for former parliamentarians.
Operation Rescue must not be daunted by this hiccup. Indeed they should learn from it. Use their experience to explain how government should work and let us, the electorate advocate for the elements of good governance that the country deserves. If they do that, when they do that, then we would be truly rescued.
Meanwhile Team Unity needs to adjust their manifesto promises based on the nation’s reality and keep us all informed. They have been failing in this regard.
