Let us get through the foreseeable future but debate long-term issues

Chief Justice David Maraga’s comments about gender inequality in the Legislature can be seen and interpreted in several lights.  He can be viewed as a troublesome gadfly who continues to irritate the other arms and legs of government. Some would even ask why he has raised such an issue now and not earlier.

Yet others would argue that, technically, Justice Maraga has a very valid point and that we have strayed from some of the fundamental tenets of our Constitution. That can be further argued several ways. In the purist sense, we have strayed so far that we need ‘remedial action’ urgently.

Practically, that may be impossible over a short duration — like before the next election. Even if one counter-argues that we should and could do something, there are the inevitable questions of capacity, money and time. From a broader perspective, we should put it on the ‘To Do’ list within a given, but realistic, time frame.

If one takes this further, there are other aspects of the Constitution which are not being complied with or also need to be reviewed. Taken a step further, there is the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). Unfortunately, BBI has become unnecessarily politicised. But whether that is the case or not, there are some proposals in it that need to be listened to and, indeed, do make sense. Again, do we have the time, capacity and money to do much about them in the coming two years?

Sign of maturity

All this is very healthy from an evolutionary and developmental perspective and must be taken on board. Indeed, it is a sign of maturity. But we must also realise that we are facing some critical and urgent challenges over the coming months and the foreseeable future which are going to test the very core of this country to its arguable limits.

We have had the medical side of the pandemic, which, touch wood, is not as bad as feared. The falling-out has been like several atom bombs hitting the country. It has so drained and diverted our thinly spread medical resources that we are seeing a resurgence in other, oft-preventable infectious diseases such as measles and tuberculosis (TB). There is a justifiable fear that that will result in more affliction and deaths than Covid-19.

Creaking under the strain

Whichever way one looks at it, the country’s frail medical health and disease prevention infrastructure is creaking under the strain and failing in even very basic delivery.

The other atom bombs in terms of economic, commercial, social and even political fallout are all causing havoc, consternation and confusion. Which areas of the country, both physically and commercially, do we open up? And how, when and where?

Look at the vexed and complex issue of reopening schools. It’s going to be a very complicated and delicate task that is fraught with many practical issues that go well beyond the health factor. It is clearly evident that any congregation or concentration of people can facilitate the spread of Covid-19 but, at the same time, commercial and social activity gets stalled when the former is restricted.

Limping economy

In the coming few weeks, we are going to be challenged with how we open up the various activities in the safest format possible. We are shackled by a shrunken and limping economy that has a problem in even movement. We have more dependents by the day. To make it worse, we are cranking up for a political contest that is arguably in full swing.

In short, we have enough on our immediate plate to just get the country through the next few months without much ado and try to resume some basic activities, education included. Yes, we can debate gender shortfalls vis-a-vis the Constitution and, indeed, our basic rights as well as the “Big Four Agenda” and BBI. But let us be realistic: We can only do so much, especially bearing in mind our resource and capacity limitations.

We have the immediate challenge of how to pick our way through the rest of this year and the next and the bigger picture challenge of dealing with some of the anomalies such as the one CJ Maraga raised. We do not need to fight over it but agree on the way to do this.

Mr Shaw is a public policy and economic analyst. [email protected].