The past will always haunt you

Editorial, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday 5th September, 2012

THE ninth parliament has started and it is encouraging to see many new faces on the floor participating with passion and zeal among the older, more knowing ones.
It signifies a wave of change in governance with more amateurs than professionals but who can be a significant force if promptly equipped with the right attitude.
Many of the new MPs are already embarked on hatching grand new plans and proposing exciting new laws, and it is a sure sign that they mean business and are there to extract the best deals for their respective electorates.
While that is highly commendable, it would also be good to be mindful of the moral behind the tale of the race between the tortoise and the rabbit.
Youth and speed do not necessarily constitute the winning combination. Tact and thoughtfulness can be slow processes but, in more cases than not, they have triumphed over the former time and gain.
Thus, one must always be mindful that proposed plans and laws must be plausible, attainable and realistic. They must also be aligned to the availability of funds and possess the framework for them to be realised.
And even though we want to, we can never always achieve everything in the space of a sitting or a couple of months. It takes time, patience and careful planning to wrest success. Thus, it is advisable that first-time MPs need to spend more time studying the parliamentary system, the public service general orders, the Finance Management Act and the public service delivery mechanisms to better plot their course.
A case in point is new Eastern Highlands MP Robert Atiyafa’s plan to eradicate all past transgressions by public office holders and MPs through commissions of inquiries. It would be better if he could also do away with the police force and the justice system as well.
Inquiries are never a waste of time. It is government agencies’ inertia in implementing findings that has always been the problem but instead of finding that out, the new MP wants to put paid to the entire process.
Last we heard, Atiyafa was backtracking and that is what we mean by taking time to look at where you are going to land before you leap, to attain the masterpiece by slow chiselling rather than pound and grind the marble to dust.
In the barest essential of words, it is deplorable. You cannot advocate a corruption-free society of the future if you bury the corruption-riddled past and hope for the best.
It simply does not work that way, and never will.
If we have learnt anything, it is that history has a tendency of repeating itself. Whatever you bury in your past will come back to haunt you in your future.
All the huff and puff by young politicians making noises in the media must be accompanied by the same level of zeal and passion when it comes to implementation as well. For it is one thing to be “shocked” or “surprised” or “alarmed” as many of our MPs have been at the state of institutions these past few days, and quite another to put together a rescue package for these institutions.
Pardon the level of scepticism here, but we have seen it all before, heard it all and not much amazes us any more. But the soundest advice at this stage is: Listen more and speak moderately.