I agree with Minister of Health Kailesh Jagutpal when he advises the population to sing and dance to counteract stress. After all, it is a recipe he practised himself while we were in semi-lockdown and not allowed to do either.

What other choice do we have? Government, by its own admission, is allowing 63% of our scarce water to go to waste after 10 years of empty promises of 24/7? Koukouroukoukou! A world recession is looming and there is a dire lack of competencies to deal with it? More Koukouroukoukou! Nepotism has invaded every sphere of our public life and more than half of our qualified youth are left out in the cold because they are not politically connected? Sing louder please! Some of our best brains are leaving the country on the lookout for meritocracy? Wriggle your hips a bit more! Corruption has become a way of life and institutions are almost entirely gangrened? Alalila do mo mama!

Thinking about what is happening in government is depressing enough. But looking at the opposition is not heartening either. Will they unite because they have a common purpose to boot this government out and re-habilitate our democracy, introduce meritocracy and reduce corruption and the prevalence of drugs? Rubbish! All they are interested in is what there is in it for them.

Inflated egos we put on a pedestal by voting them into the various arms of government have slid down into the trenches and are fighting the most vicious war we have ever been witness to. Not for your rights and how to improve your lot. Not for the principles they conned us with so they could get our vote. Not for a manifesto to better our lives and our children’s. They are fighting for their own interests. Like rats, they are scrambling to get their boute, following the smell of cheese wafting past their noses. Some have already grabbed the cheese and no longer find it smelly while others – the worst kind maybe – are looking back to see if there is anything better coming their way, using base and cheap tactics. Their bargaining power? Their community in a country that is stuck in the middle ages. It’s sick! 

The disease has putrefied all the opposition parties. Inordinate ambitions are at play making any unity a distant memory. The Leader Maximo of every party is using his power to play chess and position his pawns in a political scene that has become like a jungle. And everyone is happy for as long as they get the posts which massage their ego. They pay lip service to the ideology of their party and vehemently criticise the government highlighting all the ills it is responsible for. As soon as their ambitions are not fulfilled, you see the real and terribly shocking side of them. Those who have little bargaining power distance themselves from their party and vanish into thin air. Those whose community gives them an advantage immediately start waxing lyrical about the other Leader Maximo they were lambasting yesterday and end up selling their dignity for a song. Which one of these categories is selflessly fighting to restore your rights as a citizen to live in a real democracy, enjoy a meritocratic system and a fair society where everyone is treated equally?

You know the answer to that, don’t you? No one is looking out for you. You are on your own. So please sing and dance. It is the only thing you can do to remain sane.