Now the waiting begins, with each minute of every succeeding hour intensifying discussions, ratcheting up expectations, and leading to numerous conclusions, all unofficial of course, but no less personally reassuring. It must not be a long one, but the shortest time possible. Any wait that stretches into the tension-filled and torturing, which gives rise to any and every manner of rampant and irresponsible speculation must be avoided like a plague. Nothing good usually comes out from suspicious delays, nor does anyone emerge unscathed. Neither family nor community nor country do well when the clock keeps getting extended. Today, Tuesday March 3, the deed is done, and from all reports it was, on the broadest of national levels, encouraging and calming. The hard part now comes with a sharp rough rush. There is sure to be a barrage of amateur counts from unreliable self-appointed authorities, and those positioned strategically for just such delayed eventualities to go to work and spread socially radioactive material. We, on the other hand, are ready to go against the excitable political tides and stick to the facts as officially sanctioned for release, when they are forthcoming. This society could do without the conjectural, we will not be a part of any such developments or problems. It is why we call on our fellow citizens to be patient, to manage emotions and calculations, to look beyond the tightly partisan.
All must gird themselves to respond to electoral counting and reporting developments in a thoroughly sensible and sober way. We say this because elections results, especially the bad news of being on the losing side, should not and must not-be interpreted as so life altering as to be life ending. Whatever the outcome of this year’s elections, it must be respected and accepted. It must be recognised and conceded to at the earliest. The serious business of managing the multiple precious assets of this country and the wellbeing of the wide cross-section of its peoples weigh heavily and immediately. There is no room for the usual sullenness or the simmering furies that have always swamped. This is a country poised on the edge of prosperity, almost on the threshold of possible immortality, one that waits to be governed. That immortality and greatness will only come if we focus on the things that hold strong promise to take somewhere.
So whether winner or loser, there is now the opportunity and duty to hold any victorious government’s feet to the heat. It must be a searing, unrelenting heat, which knows not friends and allies, but only those who are committed to doing right with us, for us, and by us.
Starts with oil, continues with diversity and inclusion, goes still further with openness and accountability, and climaxes in hands open to inspection and passing any manner of reading. It is utterly useless to continue to be the selective, biased, and trapped historians that we have always been a people with piercing memories that are longer than our passage in this pale, perhaps of time itself.
Like the committed and contented (self-destructive) addict, all we do is dig a deeper grave into which we can stumble and rest until the last dose wears off. The poor unfortunates that we pity and patronise on the streets, who then careen forward to the temporary comforting oblivion of a bodily fix are reminders of how we are—each of us deniers and objectors–in our contributing, participating, and managing the daily life of this nation.
Is this what we want for ourselves? Is this how we wish to continue? Is this who we really are when an unmatchable heritage has come our way? Where we desire nothing but the comforts of the pavement or the gutter? We may not care, but this is how the world sees, and will continue to see us. That is, unless we commit to rehabilitating ourselves voluntarily. It is going to be painful and draining but, like the street addict, we must want to turn away from the nightmares of our tortured existence.