2022: All rhetoric, sloganeering and little substance all over again

From what we have seen so far, the politicians are offering the same diet of tired, hollow fixes. [File, Standard]

I am one of those who look forward to August 2022. Nothing fires up newsmen and newswomen like big news and elections and electioneering are one of those.

The carnival atmosphere that envelops the night vigil in newsrooms as the votes trickle in, the energy from the teams analysing, getting reports from field teams is infectious. More so because for most of us, journalism is more than a job; rather a service, a calling. Hardly do we get away with the razzmatazz of the campaign season.

Yet I am afraid that as the electioneering heats up, rather than be filled with excitement and merry, the newsrooms (and the country) will enveloped with the thick morass of anxiety, frustration. It is either that we have done a poor job as the carrier of the message or that the people just won’t relate cause-and-effect.

We will be going into an election with mixed feelings. From what we have seen so far, the politicians are offering the same diet of tired, hollow fixes. Nothing seems to move in the political arena; yesterday’s friends are today’s enemies repeating what they said when they were on the other side and so on.

The consequence is that the country has been caught up in inertia and irresolution.

If 2022 is to mean anything, we have to confront the feeling that elections are a sham done only to placate the masses (by fulfilling constitutional requirements) and serves only to perpetuate the rule of those in power.

Because our politics has for long, eschewed ideas and ideology, it becomes hard for friends to vote for different candidates and still remain friends.

The people feel little in common with those who support the other lot because the political class has drilled in us the mantra that we are different. And so it is nothing about differences of education system or the economic model or the taxation regime or pension and welfare programmes.

And therefore, two sides of the country emerge each fighting in their own half. “As with elections and reforms, democracy,” says Paul Collier a professor Development Economics, “is a force for good as long as it is more than a façade.”

So what to do? We have to start from the understanding that for most of the time, politicians are self-seeking parasites who do not care about the common good.  

In truth, we are living in an age redolent with scenes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm “of the corruption of propaganda, of slogans that were rewritten to suit powerbrokers, of the machines of State oppression, of good intentions lost and historical hopes lost.”

It is why, according to Prof Collier, despite regular elections, things look the same, frequently worse. The existing social contract is lopsided and therefore the power of the politicians over the people holds sway. No wonder the social contract doesn’t inspire confidence, allegiance and faith in the political architecture and the nation state.

The ideal is attaining the power of the people over the politicians. The benefit of hindsight points to a lack of reciprocation for the goodwill bestowed on the political class time and again. Needless to say that they would score low on their key performance indicators.

And so it is up to the people to force the hand of the politicians on what really matters to them because the cost of indifference and of saying nothing is expensive. Those who want to lead us should be heard talking more about not just such general issues as governance, human rights, corruption, wealth inequality, health, education and even climate change.

We need them to also speak in granular details stuff like wages, pension, employment, education, taxation, imports and exports (value addition, balance of payment), debt, healthcare costs and so much more day-to-day issues. And these should be spoken in actuals. Most of those who want to lead must find this gobbledygook unattractive to pontificate about. And that brings me to my last thought; choosing to lead us must come at a cost where only those who know what the problem is and define a path to solving it are given a chance. The rest should go back to the queue or just sit. Only this way will our elections deliver the desired results because such winnowing ensures that only the best come to the top.

-Mr Kipkemboi is Partnerships and Special Projects Editor, Standard Group