Time To Fight Another Fight

Written by Pio Sioa
Saturday, 19 April 2008
The declaration by the Prime Minister today that everyone is a winner, paralells very closely a winning captain complimenting a worthy opponent after a particularly hard game. Government has claimed what it sets out to achieve and as they say ‘ the spoils go to the victorious.” Congratulations to the Government for achieving their goal. The protesters of the road switch law fought a hard fight and deserve to be congratulated as well. The winning odds were against them from the start but they persisted and there are very encouraging positives they can take from there as well. The reconciliatory tone from the Prime Minister is acknowledgement of the quality of the fight People Against Switching Sides, PASS, put up. The long battle the two sides waged against each other went on for months. Whether the fight ends here is highly doubtful, but that is the way democracy works. Democracy is a numbers game. The majority will always rule. Unless we decide otherwise, this is the democracy we have chosen for ourselves whether we like it or not. One however has to agree with the Prime Minister that the RHD was an issue that has been exhaustively debated and argued on both sides. At the end of the day the final decision rested with the yeas and nays in Parliament - that is how our system of democracy works. The biggest challenge now for the protesters is to ‘go with the flow’. PASS Chairman Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa has openly admitted after the Monday protest march that they have taken the issue as far as legally permissable. Regardless of the outcome, a possible feather the protesters can proudly wear on their opposing hat is the revival of the opposition in Parliament. Outspoken MP Lealailepule readily admits that the RHD issue has rejuvenated their opposition lot and fostered a sense of unity that has been missing because of personal differences that kept them divided and hopelessly weak. In fact the lack of any credible opposition is an issue that the country has lamented for so long. A strong opposition in Parliament would have made passage of the RHD bill much more harder than it was. All the pressure that was brought to bear on Government did not come from them but from the protesters. PASS had to do all the work for them. Now that they are starting to stir, according to MP Lealailepule, it is time they put aside their personal differences and buckle down to make themselves worthy of the people’s support. Even the Prime Minister himself agrees with the need for a stronger opposition to ensure a healthy democracy. For those who supported PASS to step in and do what the opposition MPs failed to provide is a shame. If they can get together as indicated by MP Lealailepule, and start to pool their collective influence, it is the first step on a positive road to what the country is calling for. Personal agendas should be set aside and an honest commitment made to ensure there is a genuine effort to decide a leader they can throw their support behind. It does not matter whether they do it outside Parliament to avoid getting kicked back to their electorates for a bi-election. If they can band themselves into a solid body of opposition, the chances are good they will be in a better position to mount a serious chllenge against the Prime Minister and his ruling Human Rights Party in the 2011 general elections. As the PM rightly puts it, the exhaustive democratic process the RHD debate put the country through is one we should all be proud of. Our reputation as a strong and stable country has been demonstrated and reinforced once again after the way the RHD cut across national opinion. PASS has created a strong platform for our opposition MPS to build on. If as MP Lealailepule has alleged that the RHD is the equivalent to the PSA strike of 1981 that eventually propelled the HRPP into power, there is much to look ahead to for the opposition. As the RHD controversy has shown, public protest can only go so far if the issue protested against is to be determined by numbers in the House. As noted earlier, democracy is a numbers game. But it is one that can only be played in the House of Parliament – it’s the rugby field of politics. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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