Political developments

The Gono Forum had their chance to unveil their political plan during dialogue - A National Unity Government. Of course currently they want that to happen after the general election. This has two major political implications. Number one : the ensuing election might be held without popular participation and therefore would not get legitimacy from within and outside. Then the option of a National Unity Government would be mooted out, and those who participated in such an election and won seats would be considered as the components of such a government. The number two: the election is deferred indefinitely and the present CTG would be replaced by political leaders of like minded parties to form a National Unity Government under the cover of the CTG to make an exit door for this CTG.
In both the cases the problem would multiply and the country would fall into deeper trouble. We think the government is losing its best opportunity to come to a consensus with the major political parties and pave the way for the general election between Oct and Dec 2008. We think it is high time to disassociate with the political pundits in the government and open up their eyes and ears and genuinely behave like a " neutral and non political" CTG. Whatever political plan is in their briefcase, it has already failed to produce any positive results. The plan is only helping the "super politician" and political pundit around to manoeuvre and manipulate the situation.
The crack-down on the workers and local leaders of major political parties under emergency law, is another attempt to induce fear among the political activists so that the two major political parties lose political strength at the grassroots level. The explanation of the government is not tenable because, if they are holding criminals, why this was not done on routine basis as soon as the law enforcing agencies got their names? Why the CTG needs a special drive? This has only produced two negative results as far the people are concerned , the people have been terrorised in the rural areas ( as we saw during 1/11 ) and open politics is shut down making the dialogue meaningless. We feel extremely sorry for our senior political leaders talking about national unity government. It appears that they have lost complete faith in democracy and election.
I remember that I heard a joke from a senior colleague, it goes like : A lot of political debate was going on in the country without a solution in sight, one innocent person made a very significant observation and said, Sir, why you spend so much of energy and money in politics and election, why not fill up the position of the ministers, president and other political positions through normal system of promotion as part of the public service? As for example, he observed that the secretary of a ministry would be promoted as minister automatically and hold the post for 3-5 years as determined by the rules. It sounds very funny. But in reality we are seeking our political solution through a bureaucratic framework to serve a particular privileged class, ignoring the aspirations of the nation for an elected democratic government.