No government, no leader can build himself up on a lie. Truth requires character. Character is what real progress or actual good governance is built on
ROBERT CLEMENTS
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any years ago, quite close to where I lived, was a shop with this rather strange name, ‘Anything Goes’. It was a shop selling second hand goods, mostly from locals who were getting rid of furniture while buying new stuff.
One day having guests dropping in unexpectedly and not having the finances to buy a new bed, I dropped in at the shop, and looked at the rather fancy double bed displayed. “It looks good!” I said, admiring its snazzy formica. “But no guarantees!” said the lady in the shop. “We don’t know whether the wood inside is rotten, whether the undergirding rods have rusted, no guarantees!”
I took the cot; it lasted less than a year before collapsing, because everything else other than the sheen, the shine and the polish had decayed.
The cot was built on a lie, and the lie was the make believe it exhibited outside!
That cot reminds me so much of the present situation in our country: We the people went to vote and have bought ourselves a new bed. We have been mesmerized by the exterior, the promises of progress and good governance. We have chosen not to look underneath at the rot and decay on which the cot may be built on.
The bed covers look rosy, inviting us to years of security and comfort, “Come to me,” says the exuberant formica, “look at my watches and designer kurtas and let me look after you for not just five, not just ten, but all the years of your life!”
We smile, we rejoice a savior has come and we move into his warm embrace. Not for a moment do we look beneath. We close our ears to warnings. We don’t hear the words, “No guarantee!”
We don’t hear the groaning, the moaning, and mourning beneath.
We lie down and sleep: The sleep of death, as one day, very soon, the cot, collapses, crumbles.
No cot, no government, no leader can build himself up on a lie: Already a minister lies in her affidavit about her educational qualifications. As her boss did earlier; on his marriage status.
Truth requires character. Character is what real progress or actual good governance is built on.
What I should have done that day, many years ago, was to have turned the cot upside down, looked at it’s rotting underbelly and either rejected or repaired it.
I didn’t and paid for it when I realized that when you believe that anything goes, then everything goes..!
All opinions and views expressed in columns and blogs are those of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Caravan
