At least the Herald recently did refer to the Prime Minister of the inclusive government as Prime Minister, even if they were only trying to create a split between him and one of his ministers.
Naming things right is a step in the right direction, whatever the motive. If we all say it often enough, more people will ask themselves what it means and why we don’t act on it. So let’s get a few facts straight:
We have an inclusive government, in terms of the agreements of September 2008 and February 2009.
Under the terms of the second agreement, we have a President, who is head of state, and a Prime Minister, who is head of government. At least, that is what the agreements say. It’s up to us to make it true, and a first step is to remind everyone about the agreements when they forget, especially if they write or broadcast in our public media.
Fortunately, people seem to have almost stopped talking about the opposition’. We don’t have an opposition party, because everyone is included in the inclusive government, even the verbose professor and his cronies who would fit into one taxi.
Unfortunately, we still have an opposition. They don’t call themselves that as a party in parliament, but that is what they are. They include members of the police force who do not respect the law of the land as it is administered by the few impartial law courts we still have.
They include officers of the security forces who will not salute the Prime Minister of the inclusive government.
They include civil servants of any type or level who will not obey and respect him and his ministers.
They include politicians who do not obey and respect the only Head of Government we will have until we can organise a proper election.
And, of course, they include any office holders, right up to the highest, who do not obey and respect the law of the land, as expressed by Acts of a constitutionally constituted parliament that are in accord with the fundamental rights outlined in the constitution and in international treaties our rulers have signed assent their to.
We need to call all these by their names, because that leads to further developments which make it more real.
We need to remember that, in terms of those agreements, the inclusive government is the only government in town. That means anyone who claims to hold any political office can only do so in virtue of those agreements. We did actually vote in sufficient numbers in 2000 and 2008, but, since that didn’t work, the GPA is the best substitute for the moment.
Nobody can claim the office s/he holds now in virtue of being elected, so they can only base their claim on the GPA. If they don’t observe that, they can’t expect us to observe it either, which means they can’t expect us to accept they hold the office they pretend to.
The Prime Minister of the inclusive government said that last October. We all need to show we support him.
Post published in: Opinions