Dear Parliamentarians,
And yes, I am writing to all forty-one of you – as individuals. ALL of you. I was thinking the other day that you are supposed to be elected to look after US – the people – NOT your political parties! Look! I understand the game well. Heck I served twice in the Senate! But you all give us the impression that your political parties come first and the interests of the country come second.
But, I was thinking: what are you elected for? There are forty-one of you that are supposed to represent first and foremost the interests of your constituents – the people who elected you! What promises did YOU make to YOUR constituents? What promises have you kept?
You all meet approximately once a week when Parliament is in session. Why does a reasonable observer get the feeling that NONE of you are ever concerned primarily with the welfare of the people who elected you? What have YOU done to make life better for YOUR constituents?
Crime is a huge problem with everybody afraid to go out and everybody barricading themselves in their homes at night. It wasn’t so long ago that many people slept with their doors wide open. Only a fool would do that today. And yet, despite the very real fear that we all have to live with, none of you have said or done anything to make us believe that any of you have a clue as to how to fix it.
ALL of you seem more intent on scoring political points than improving our quality of life. When last did any of you make a speech that didn’t directly or indirectly criticize the other side. I am acutely aware that many of you on the Government side believe that your primary role is to defend the Government while those of you on the Opposition side believe that your role is primarily to criticize.
Guess what? You are both wrong! Your primary role is TO MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR THE PEOPLE! Full stop! There is really no other reason and there is no need to defend the indefensible or to criticize everything. For example, we have an education system that is falling apart; what are YOU on the Government side doing about it? What proposals do YOU on the Opposition side believe should be done to fix it?
There is an unspoken fear, especially amongst Opposition M.Ps. that if they tell the Government side how they would fix things that the Government will steal their good ideas and then take credit for it. Hello! I’ll ask again: what do you think that you are in Parliament for? How do you justify not sharing your solutions? Do you think that when election time comes people will vote for you because you unashamedly supported your side even when your side was proposing or doing nonsense? Do you really believe that your side didn’t or hasn’t made any mistakes? If you do think that your side is making or did make mistakes, what did you/are you doing about them? Hey! What were/are those mistakes? And don’t you think that we, the people, deserve answers to these questions?
When last did you acknowledge that the other side (whichever is the ‘other’ for you) did or said something good? Or do you truly believe that everybody on the other side is completely incapable of doing or saying anything that will benefit us -the people? When last did any of you have a meaningful conversation either inside or outside of Parliament with the other side? When last did any of you congratulate the other side for anything that they said or did?
I could go on, but hopefully you get my point. NONE of you give the impression that you put the welfare of the country first before your own partisan and personal interests. And that is not how this is supposed to work! You are supposed to meet and TALK to each other about making this a better place to live. And so far NONE of you are doing that!
Robin Montano