Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Saturday 23 February 2013

Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On

 Politics

Old politicians have emerged to contest the next general elections. I wonder if they have groomed their younger members because we will still need politicians in government and as opposition.

They need to pass on their experience and not take it to the grave. Never mind what we say about how they may have performed or conducted themselves in the past, let's look at the positives. And of course some of them have been utter clowns bordering on being completes idiots. Most of these people have long gone, we can do without them, it’s the hardened politician who comes back again and again. We look to their better parts and learn not to be like their bad parts.

There has been talk of the younger generation to take up politics, not many will be willing because of our political situation. Anyway I wonder if a person who has never been in politics but has been politically vocal in the media will take up the challenge to join our political elites.   It's time for them to now walk the talk.


Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in Fiji. I thank Allen for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.

3 comments:

Bill Carson said...

Old politicians need to pass on their experience ????????

Get real.

We want new professionals, not pld style self-serving politicians on both sides !!

FijiMan said...

Mahend Chaudhry has a lot of experience collecting funds overseas in the name of cane famers and coup victims, than siphoning as much as $2million, if not more, into secret offshore bank accounts. Maybe he cam pass on some of these skills to the new generation.

Ian Simpson, Taveuni said...

Allen,

Start with one individual, one volunteer.

Does it not take voluntary service to be a politician. That is what we expect, is it not.
That is the system. Volunteers.

If you choose to stand under the present system as an "independent", how much effort will it take in your personal TIME! and.......MONEY!
Think about that ,ponder on it, discuss it around your kava bowl Allen.

The volunteers questions must be:
What's my motive? What will be the pay back?

Join a party.
Group together, similar situation, except individuals will have to elbow each other out of the way to ensure the prize. But there is some expectation of reward for loyalty, sacrifice of time and or money...both.

Now all these people must go out make beggars of themselves. Selling themselves like whores, the humiliation, will not be quickly forgotten nor the investment in time and money.

We, the people, approve of this system, that basically is set up to turn on us.

I have done time in politics, and I assure you, 9 out 10 times, this system does not throw up altruistic leaders. The opposite is what you get, nine times out of ten.

And I assure you, when you have a conclave of the party hierarchy, the party membership, the little people, the grass-roots, is low priority compared to the concern of a leader needing to get return on investment.

After all, they only have a short five years, now it will be only 4 years. Boy oh boy they are going to have to move fast.

What honest person in his right mind, who has a good job and or career, going to take part in this humiliating gamble.
Our system of parliament/representation is going to rely on jobless or unemployable people for whatever reason.

Is this not a system, where the elite, powerful, wealthy can set up proxies. The same elite and powerful who actually don’t need a parliament, because they have always, in Fiji, been able to knock and walk into the Prime Ministers Office and the halls of power without any by your leave of the people.
Yes, the system works well for them. Fill up a meeting house with people, make them feel important and carry on with business as usual.

Allen, do you wonder why there is so much political apathy. If the system really worked for the people we wouldn't put up with anybody messing with it would we. People power has the ability and the power to bend to no force, if it freely chose.

I believe coups are born out of frustration. The system is unresponsive. Try and get an acknowledgement or a response to any written communication from government department or public company from Director level or equivalent upwards. You hit the glass ceiling my friend, cause you can see them walking about, but that is about as good as it gets.

Why is there coup after coup and the people don’t care.
Because its a system that's not worth fighting for.

In our electorate, we had two members of the same party split then turn around and fight it out and each spend $40,000.00.
$40,000.00 is a large investment, people usually ensure they get a return on investment.

“Your problem can wait my friend, till I get my return on investment.” Does this sound logical?

Just thinking bro, tossing it around. Bottom line we need something in place that will make the system accountable and the way I see it, Parliament has not been able to do that these past 40 years.
Think death of agriculture, fisheries, timber, ship yards, infrastructure....., the list goes on and on.

If we had a system, than we would not need to pay foreigners millions up millions to manage us build roads that we are capable of doing ourselves. All we need is a system that makes us accountable, and that my friend would not cost us millions upon millions in lost foreign exchange that robs every citizen in our country.

Talo.