National government

Time and again I expressed my opinion, in the media, that the country's financial and economic ills can best be overcome by the joint efforts of both the government and the opposition.

I advocated that the government should extend its true hand of friendship to the opposition by seeking from the leader of the opposition nominees to sit on government-controlled boards/committees to ensure transparency and help it solve the problems that have engulfed the country.

Prior to the last general election, the PN's propaganda machinery left no stone unturned to convince the electorate that the country's finances were under control and that there was no cause for concern. Barely three months after taking office for a further term, the minister responsible for finance announced that the sorry state of affairs of the country's finances was unsustainable. He furthermore said that things had gone from bad to worse since his last budget speech.

It appears that no member of the government carries an iota of responsibility and/or accountability for having misinformed the public on such a serious issue. It seems that so long as the misinformation served to benefit the party, all was in order. I am under the impression that, in commerce, misleading promotion is not permissible by law. Are politicians privileged to misinform the public and/or make vague promises? Why should they be permitted to mislead the electorate?

If the situation were as bad as it is being depicted, the government would be making a grave mistake not to involve the opposition in the "management" of the country's interests. I would add that it would not be out of place for the government seriously to consider a national administration in an endeavour to put right all the issues it failed to solve, on its own, for so long.