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| Sunday, 24 March 2002 |
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Tri-coloured
stuffing of ballot boxes
by FACTOTUM Amidst appeals from the Elections Chief to the much harassed voters not to abdicate their right of freely and fairly choosing their representatives to local councils that oversee the provision of basic amenities in the wake of a possible low turn out, the ritual stuffing of ballot boxes has just concluded in a curfew free election in years and the free and fair pool has enhanced the mandate for the maintenance of a barricade free country where the people could go about their routine business without fear of loss of life and limb. What is this hue and cry then, when, casting the ballot is the stuffing of that box meant for it? Surely the voter is not expected to pocket the ballot but carry out his legitimate duty of marking his preference and stuffing those over used boxes! In the back drop of an overwhelming mandate the Finance Chief would have been spared the attack of the blues to spell out the devious ways in which he was going to raise revenue from the suffering subjects and plough it back to feed them packaging old ruses under new names with the sole objective of improving the lot of all as his predecessors claimed to do. The public perception may not quite accord with those noble aspirations. But targets are set and at the end of the day a plethora of excuses are tendered for the shortfall in all those projected figures. But the poor subjects are properly salted in this and will take it in their stride as always. Whatever cynics may say we have come a long way since those early days of Independence as the picture frames of a commemoration ceremony displayed. And for that we have to congratulate all those who have handled the finances of the country applying theory after theory in keeping with global changes and imperatives. At a time when there is global recession and economic giants are recording zero growth our people are quite game to cotton on to small mercies and these have come in the form of tax concessions and rebates all directed towards that noble goal of kick starting the engine of growth - the private sector. Kick backs will be sought after by the seasoned many in this exercise. The abolition of the GST and NDL is welcome news but what is in store in the form of VAT is yet to be seen but given the resilience of the consumer it would be mere cheese to orient oneself to the new device. One hopes that there would be a tangible benefit. A tax by any other name will exact as much. To return to the ballot then, much is made of the mandate for the peace process. What ever benefits of the balloting exercise will be severely affected and the well laid plans of the Finance chief will be determined by the progress made in furthering the peace process. The ballot and the budget will be reduced to a cipher again if we fail to record success there. |
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